The actors of the initiative for constitutional change in Bosnia and Herzegovina will certainly be domestic decision-makers, but since there is no consensus on this, it is necessary to involve international actors, primarily the United States and the European Union, academics from the Krug 99 (Circle 99) Association of Independent Intellectuals said on Sunday.

The academics discussed “Initiatives and ideas for constitutional changes”, and the keynote speakers were Muhamed Mujakic from the Law Institute in BiH, Husnija Sejdinovic from the Association of Citizens “For You BiH” and Dr. Aleksandar Knezevic.

Adil Kulenovic, the president of Circle 99, said that at this moment we have clear indications that constitutional changes should take place, but also a realistic assessment of the political situation in which blockades of any changes are always expected.

“We believe that the state of BiH should be built up as a community of free citizens, which means as a sovereign nation, respecting everything that is our cultural and any other kind of characteristic,” said Kulenovic.

“BiH currently has a valid Constitution which is part of the general framework agreement for peace in BiH and has existed as such since 1995. In these 25 years, there has been a lot of adequate implementation of that Constitution. BiH is an extremely complex state. In these 25 years, we have experienced something that in the theory of constitutional law is called revisionism, that is, the revision of the existing Constitution,” Mujakic said, adding that those who put together this constitution foresaw a possibility to change and amend it.

“But since there is no consensus on that, it is necessary to include international actors, primarily the United States, but also the EU. The existing constitutional arrangement in BiH represents kind of an unfinished state,” he said.

According to Dr. Knezevic, Bosnia’s Constitution is not being understood properly in the country.

He said that “it is not always well translated, and what is translated is not used properly.”

A new constitution in Bosnia would have to include reducing at least one government level and setting up a government that “can govern with full competencies,” he said.