Croatia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled that a proposed referendum on amending the country’s Law on National Minority Rights is unconstitutional.
The call for a referendum centres on the question of whether language rights should apply only where minorities make up at least half the local population - as supporters of the referendum suggest – or one-third, which is what the current law demands.
Opponents of the proposed change said it was targeting the country’s Serbian minority, the principal beneficiaries of the law.
Parliament sent the referendum question to Croatia’s Constitutional Court for a ruling on July 15.
The Court found that although enough signatures were duly collected to call a referendum, the question itself is unconstitutional, as the proposed change would undermine minority rights.
The Court said that no ban existed in principle on raising the necessary percentage of a minority in a given administrative unit for the provisions of the minority law to apply.
It also said the people have the right to change their own legal framework
However, it added that changes “must be reasonably justified for reasons that spring from a democratic society based on the rule of law and protection of human rights”. /Balkan Insight/- Oculus News