The Parliamentary Assembly of Republika Srpska approved a draft of a new constitution late Thursday, aiming to declare the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state.
The new constitution, among other things, seeks to define this entity as a state for the Serbian people, grant it the right to self-determination, create its own army, and abolish the Council of Peoples and the vice presidents from the other two constituent peoples.
This constitution is in conflict with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and consequently with the Dayton Agreement.
Since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, which ended the war in Bosnia, the country has been made up of the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, under a weak central government.
While Republika Srpska can adopt laws on domestic issues, laws and institutions at the state level remain supreme according to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The draft, which was approved with 50 votes in favor and eight against on Thursday in Banja Luka, will now undergo a 30-day public debate, after which the Parliamentary Commission for Constitutional Affairs will draft a proposal that will be debated again in the National Assembly.
This is another move towards the separation of Republika Srpska from Bosnia by the leaders of this entity, as last week the Assembly passed laws that ban the operation of Bosnia’s state-level judicial institutions within the territory of this entity.
Although the Constitutional Court of Bosnia suspended the implementation of the laws, Republika Srpska insists that the laws will be enforced.
