Deputy Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of B&H Dževad Mahmutović assessed the punishment of returnee children in Republic of Srpska as discriminatory and unfounded, whose grade for conduct has been lowered by the decision of the principal of the elementary school "Petar Kočić" due to absence from classes on November 25th, 2020, on the Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
-It is a matter of conscious ignoring and disrespecting the valid laws of B&H that are in force, specifically the Law on declaring November 25 the Statehood Day of B&H, which stipulates that "state institutions, companies and other legal entities do not work on Statehood Day,” stated Mahmutović in a letter sent to the director of the elementary school "Petar Kočić" Mevlida Dervišefendić and members of the School Board.
Mahmutović reminds that the Constitutional Court of B&H, resolving the request of 30 deputies of the National Assembly of RS, passed a decision stating that the Law on Proclamation of November 25th as the Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina was passed on March 6th, 1995, when the Republic of B&H was an internationally recognized state and a member of the United Nations.
He emphasizes that the Constitutional Court has ruled that November 25th, a date whose marking of it as the national holiday continued in B&H after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, has a symbol of collective common memory that can contribute to strengthening collective identity as values of particular importance in a multiethnic society which is based on respect for diversity as a fundamental value of modern democratic society.
-The Decision of the Constitutional Court of B&H especially emphasizes that "the principle of collective equality of constituent peoples imposes an obligation on entities not to discriminate, first of all, those constituent peoples who are, in reality, in the position of a minority in the respective entity.-
-Instead of respecting the current Law on the proclamation of November 25th as the Statehood Day of B&H, the most rigid measures are used to punish those who respect the Law and who celebrate the said national holiday, which must not be silenced, nor will it remain without reaction. You who break the laws and do not respect the state in which you live will be forced to do so by repressive methods. Protection of the rights of all citizens, and especially returnees as the most endangered category, and respect for the laws of the state is the obligation of everyone in every part of B&H, including the RS entity,- concluded Dževad Mahmutović.