Newly appointed High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt welcomed the decision passed by the authorities in Bosnia's Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC), which recognised the Serb ethnic group as the canton's constituent people.

“I stand for equality of all regardless of their ethnic, religious, or any other background. Our common goal must be to keep the young, committed, and hardworking people of Bosnia and Herzegovina in this country. This goal can be achieved by raising trust in public institutions, combined with a transparent economic, legal, and political system which is inclusive for all and which fully respects the Rule of Law,” said the Office of the High Representative, the international envoy who oversees the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement in BiH and is assigned with special powers to impose laws and dismiss officials.

“Therefore, the Constitution of HNC is amended to recognize that the Serb people in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton enjoy equal status to the other two constituent peoples. In this regard, the HNC authorities should continue with these positive steps and address the remaining aspects of the Constitutional Court judgement which have not yet been incorporated,” a press release quoted Schmidt as saying.

The Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, one of ten administrative units in Bosnia's Bosniak-Croat shared Federation (FBiH) entity passed constitutional amendments on Monday, declaring the Serb people a constituent ethnic group in this canton.

The amendments treat the rights of this ethnic group in terms of language and alphabet, so as of now the Serbian language and Cyrillic alphabet will be official in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Bosnia's south.

The HNC Assembly also passed the amendment renaming the “Bosniak language” into the “Bosnian language,” which is how the Bosniaks call their mother tongue.