The Constitutional Court of the Bosnian Serb sub-state of Republika Srpska (RS) ruled on Wednesday against the request made by Bosniaks living there to have the term ‘Bosnian language’ included into the newly adopted Law on Secondary Education.

Bosniaks living in the RS have been fighting for years for the entity to officially recognize the term and start using it instead of ‘the language of the Bosniak people,’ which was how the RS Ministry of Education calls the language.

Serb lawmakers in the RS National Assembly had rejected an amendment to add the term to the new law, so Bosniak lawmakers submitted on March 5 a request for the Bosniak vital national interest on the matter to be protected.

Today, the Council for the Protection of Vital National Interest within the Republika Srpska Constitutional Court ruled the new law does not violate the vital national interest of Bosniaks living in the entity.

Both sides see the term ‘Bosnian language’ as another effort to strengthen the country’s statehood, which Bosnian Serbs are rejecting and obstructing.