Vučinić: Citizens should decide for themselves whether they will declare their nationality, religion and language in the census

Professor and former judge of the European Court of Human Rights, Nebojša Vučinić, believes that citizens should decide whether or not they will declare themselves on issues of national and religious affiliation and language in the census, which is planned for next year.

Vučinić is a member of the Advisory Committee that oversees the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the Rights of Minorities.

"That principle is also accepted by the supervisory body of the European Framework Convention on Minorities, of which I am a member. It means that the issue of ethnic, national and linguistic affiliation is left to the freedom of the citizens, whether they want to declare or not," said Vučinić to "Vijesta".

This, he added, is more or less represented in most European countries, only in them nationality is equated with citizenship.

The Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) has asked the highest state officials and mandate holders for the composition of the new government not to collect this type of data during the upcoming census.

They state that this is in accordance with the future EU obligations of Montenegro, which, as written in the document, imply that censuses are carried out by registration

From the European Statistical Office, Eurostat confirmed that ethnicity, religion and language can be sensitive issues in many countries and some member states of the European Union (EU) do not collect such data, but explained that it is up to the countries to make a decision about it.

Nebojša Vučinić points out that it is important that the applicability of minority rights depends on the census, because if there are no minorities, then there is no need to apply the Convention on the Rights of Minorities, which provides comprehensive protection, and the latest report on Montenegro is very positive.

"For example, the Serbs had great reservations about the 2011 census in Croatia, regarding the results, because the threshold for applicability of minority rights depends on the census, so the Serbian community in Croatia had a lot of objections. Also, it is very important who will be the enumerators and they must maintain the national and ethnic composition of the state. And the publication of the results is particularly significant," said Vučinić.

According to him, the recommendation of the Advisory Committee is to leave the possibility of multiple ethnic and national affiliations.

"All this should be specified in detail by law, and who conducts the census, how the enumerators are trained, whether the number of enumerators reflects the ethnic-national structure of the country, how the results are published, so that there is trust. The second is the circumstances specifically in Montenegro, that political issue that I would not like to get into, it is a specific situation," said Vučinić.

He adds that the problem in countries that have not yet completed the process of building a civil society, "such as ours", is that ethnic and cultural identity is still transformed into political legitimacy through the political process, "so there are always possibilities of different interpretations, even manipulation with by census".

"This is not a problem in European countries, old democracies where nations and states and civil societies are constituted," said Vučinić.

He states that the importance of the census should not be overestimated, because it does not determine the content of the state, but rather the Constitution.

"Whatever the results of the census are, they are statistics, numbers, they may have psychological significance, but not political until the results are translated into political legitimacy or a change in the Constitution," he states.

The initiative is important for the majority peoples, the minorities need a census in order to exercise their rights

After the Bosniak party, which believes that the results of the census are important for the realization of minority rights, the Albanian parties also share this position.

Forca, as told to "Vijesta", understands but does not support the initiative that citizens do not declare their religion, nation and language on the census, which was initiated by the CDT.

"I think it relates more to the peoples who make up the majority in Montenegro and reconciliation among them, but for the minority peoples these issues are important, because this is how we realize our rights guaranteed by the Constitution. If these issues are left out, the rights of minorities will not be realized as before, we will have an absence of authentic representatives of minority peoples in the legislative and executive power, and it is precisely these representatives who will best represent their people, and together with others, will be the bearers of the implementation of social and economic policies where minority peoples live, something that is the basic problem of citizens at the moment", said Ardijan Mavriq (Forca).

The president of the Democratic Party, Fatmir Đeka, says that they also understand the position of the CDT, "the special situation in society in which this important work will take place".

"But it still has to be done. It is up to all of us, especially the authorities, to ensure that this entire work is done in a democratic procedure," said Đeka to "Vijesta".