The Centre for Peace is part of the Initiative The Constitution is Valid for All!

The Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights - Osijek joins and signs the Initiative The Constitution is valid for everyone! which demands that the Government of the Republic of Croatia prevent any threat to artistic and journalistic freedoms.

Freedom of creation and freedom of thought and speech, until yesterday the assumptions of Croatian society, are today giving way to violence of various kinds. These freedoms were recently denied in Benkovac, and then taken away from those for whom these freedoms mean existence. From people who live from culture, as creators, promoters and interpreters. And even more and more importantly, these freedoms were taken away from the dispersed audience.

The winner of the Pula Festival, the film "Mirotvorac" and the decade-long theatrical success of the &TD Theater, the play "I Hate the Truth" were declared unsuitable works during the street riots, and then their performance was prevented. First in Benkovac and then, partly in Zadar.

Not only were their local promoters rejected along with the works and their authors, but all those State institutions that recognized and supported these works in their development and creation were trampled upon, as was all the public effort of the community to enable the creation of the most valuable thing in the scarce circumstances for culture – cultural treasures and future legacies, which include the above-mentioned, disputed works.

The awarded works cannot be available only to those privileged because of their place of residence, because the Original Foundations of the Constitution include concern for the cultural progress of all, not just residents of large cities.

On this occasion, we stand up for what is by far the most vulnerable: for the freedom and rights of the population living in a neglected area – immediately before, during and after the war devastated by hatred – and then in peace by the negligence of public authorities and oblivion. The freedom to speak the language of culture, even when spoken by someone who is not liked by the current public administration, is the fundamental freedom of the order we understand by the Republic.

We condemn the physical violence against journalist Melita Vrsaljko in Benkovac, the president of the Multimedia Institute Petar Milat in Korčula, and the threats against the president of the Antifascist League of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Pusić on July 11, the president of the Serbian National Council Boris Milošević on July 21, the director of the KIC Hrvoje Hribar, and the threatening graffiti written near the apartment of the award-winning writer Miljenko Jergović and all others who are under attack for their public work and public expression of their own opinions.

The case that initiated us is not an academic or professional problem, nor are we addressing it in an academic manner. It is about the survival of fundamental standards, and the stagnation of the so-called state apparatus, which is unable or no longer able to protect the fundamental assumptions of society: peace and order, constitutional order. Thus begins the end of a State. Perhaps not the end of every and every state, but certainly the end of the Republic. The only form of state in which we believe.

We want to live in a country where we fight for the Croatia of all of us. Therefore, we expect the reaction and solidarity of the profession and the prompt reaction of the Government to the occurrence of any threat to artistic, journalistic and scientific freedoms.

We call on the Government to stop belittling the threat to democracy, the framework on which it itself depends.

Some veteran groups who believe that they speak with the voice of all participants in the long-ago armed defense believe that the works of art created by Croatian artists are not in accordance with the Declaration of the Homeland War. Their statements are noisy, sometimes aggressive, and demonstrate factual ignorance of the works of art they attack, demanding rights that do not belong to them and that are not based on the Constitution or laws, but rather some - special.

The aforementioned Declaration establishes the legal definition of the armed struggle for freedom, and defines this freedom as the freedom of democratic life, pluralism and the right to civil and cultural freedoms, with peace as the ultimate goal of the struggle.

We respond with this statement to events, to actions and inactions that are in no way aimed at Peace. We are reacting to the destruction of the basic social framework in which we, as cultural figures, scientists, activists, journalists and public figures, have tried to contribute.

We appeal to the Government and the political class as a whole (thanks to the exceptions) to understand the risk they are taking by inaction: the system stalling, the silence of institutions, the fear of political leaders and the passivity of state media.

Join us.

We are convinced of the strength of the Republic.

You can sign the statement at the link: https://forms.gle/eybc7nxAeJRZQuA57 

To date, the initiative has been supported by 113 organizations/unions/unions/institutions and 580 individuals.

You can see the lists in the attachment.

PDF Constitution valid for all_organizational signatures
PDF Constitution valid for all_individual signatures