Acting President of the Republic of Kosovo, Albulena Haxhiu, said that on September 7, 1990, amid severe repression and political persecution, the delegates of the Assembly of Kosovo gathered in Kaçanik and adopted the Kaçanik Constitution, providing a constitutional basis for the will expressed on July 2 for Kosovo to become a republic.
“As Serbia was dismantling Kosovo’s autonomy, abolishing its institutions and attempting to forcibly subjugate the political will of its citizens, the Kaçanik Constitution was the response of a people who refused to give up their right to define their own destiny. It is for this reason that its significance goes beyond the legal text adopted that day. It demonstrates that even under conditions of occupation and repression, Kosovo had the people, the knowledge and the will to give legal form to its political determination,” Acting President Haxhiu said.
She further added that behind its drafting was the work of jurists who, under extraordinary circumstances, built a constitutional order based on the will of the people of Kosovo, while the vote of the delegates embodied the courage of a generation that assumed the responsibility of giving the demand for a republic the form of a constitutional act.
“The path that began with the July 2 Declaration and took constitutional form on September 7 continued through the resistance of the people of Kosovo, the liberation war and the sacrifice of many generations, leading to the liberation of the country and the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008,” Acting President Haxhiu emphasized.
Acting President Haxhiu further said that today, on the anniversary of the Kaçanik Constitution, we honour its drafters, the delegates who adopted it, and all those who, during the most difficult years, kept the demand for a republic alive.
“What took constitutional form on September 7, 1990, was a political determination that the history of Kosovo would carry forward toward independence and statehood,” Acting President Haxhiu highlighted.
