ENTITIES HAVE INTERNAL SOVEREIGNTY IN BiH

BANJA LUKA, APRIL 1 /SRNA/ - According to the Constitution, BiH has external sovereignty as a state, while almost all internal sovereignty is held by the entities as states, of which BiH was composed in Dayton, lawyer Slavko Mitrović pointed out.

"BiH is not a state in the constitutional and legal sense as it is divided, not only by the inter-entity boundary line of territorial integrity according to the Geneva principle of 49:51 percent, but also by the dual principles of the constitutional arrangement, which clearly divides its sovereignty into external and internal, as defined by the Constitution of BiH," Mitrović wrote in a column for Glas Srpske.

He emphasized that the Constitution of BiH stipulates that as of Dayton, Bosnia and Herzegovina will be official name.

"In order for something to be a state, its constitutional name must contain a definition of state organisation - the Republic of /Serbia/, the /Russian/ Federation, the Federal Republic of /Germany/, the /Swiss/ Confederation, the Kingdom of /Norway/, the Principality of /Monaco/, the United States of /America/. It turns out that `Bosnia and Herzegovina` is only a geographical area with internationally recognised borders," said Mitrović.

He reminded that the essence of the origin and survival of BiH rests exclusively on two entities and three constituent peoples.

"This confirms the principle of international law on the sovereignty of peoples, which is contained in the UN Charter, but also two international covenants that are an integral part of the Constitution of BiH - the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which state that all peoples have the right to self-determination," Mitrović added.

On the basis of this right, he says, peoples freely determine their political status and freely ensure their economic, social and cultural development.

"In order to achieve their goals, all peoples can freely dispose of their wealth and their natural resources, without prejudice to the obligations arising from international economic cooperation, based on the principle of mutual interest and international law," Mitrović said.