Acting President of Kosovo Albulena Haxhiu has commemorated September 7, the date in 1990 when delegates of the Kosovo Assembly adopted the Kaçanik Constitution, describing the document as a key constitutional milestone on Kosovo’s path toward independence.
Haxhiu said the Constitution was adopted under conditions of severe repression and political persecution, providing a constitutional foundation for the political declaration made on July 2 that proclaimed Kosovo a republic.
“On September 7, 1990, under difficult circumstances of repression and political persecution, delegates of the Kosovo Assembly gathered in Kaçanik and adopted the Kaçanik Constitution, giving constitutional grounding to the will expressed on July 2 for Kosovo as a republic,” Haxhiu wrote.
She described the adoption of the Constitution as a response to Serbia’s efforts to dismantle Kosovo’s autonomy, suppress its institutions and restrict the political will of its people.
“As Serbia was dismantling Kosovo’s autonomy, abolishing its institutions and attempting to subjugate the political will of its citizens by force, the Kaçanik Constitution was the response of a people who refused to give up their right to decide their own fate,” she said.
According to Haxhiu, the significance of the document extends beyond the legal text adopted on September 7, 1990.
She said it demonstrated that, even under occupation and repression, Kosovo had the people, expertise and political will to give legal form to its aspirations.
Haxhiu also praised the work of the jurists who drafted the Constitution and the courage of the delegates who approved it, saying they assumed responsibility for transforming the demand for a republic into a constitutional act.
She linked the document to Kosovo’s broader political trajectory, from the July 2 Declaration and the Kaçanik Constitution through popular resistance and the Kosovo Liberation War to liberation and the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008.
“The path that began with the July 2 Declaration and took constitutional form on September 7 continued through the resistance of the people of Kosovo, the liberation war and the sacrifice of many generations, leading to the liberation of the country and the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008,” Haxhiu said.
On the anniversary, the acting president called for recognition of the authors of the Constitution, the delegates who adopted it and all those who kept Kosovo’s demand for a republic alive during the most difficult years.
“What took constitutional form on September 7, 1990, was a political determination that Kosovo’s history would carry forward toward independence and statehood,” Haxhiu concluded.
