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The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights calls on
the members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to
reject the Draft Law on the Use of the Serbian Language in Public
Life and the Protection and Preservation of the Cyrillic Alphabet.
Serbia does not need a law that discriminates and divides its
citizens by expelling the Latin alphabet from public life and
offering tax relief to those who use the Cyrillic alphabet. The
adoption of the Draft Law on the Cyrillic Alphabet would also
require significant funds for its implementation.
Government bodies, companies, public enterprises,
professional associations and all others listed in the Draft Law can
function successfully using both alphabets. There is no reason to
protect the Cyrillic alphabet from Serbs who opted to use the Latin
alphabet, just as there is no reason to protect national identity
from the Latin alphabet.
Declared as the autochthonous and only Serbian
alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet has become the factor of strong
nationalist mobilization and means of coercing and intimidating
citizens with anything that transcends narrow ethnic borders and
connect people. The Government of Serbia treats the issue of the
Cyrillic alphabet as a political issue and not as a cultural one.
The political elite that cares about the civic
well-being and progress of Serbia recognizes in the bi-alphabetism
of the Serbian language the cultural good that needs to be preserved
and enhanced. There are no laws and sanctions that can bind citizens
more strongly to an alphabet than voluntary and free choice. The
guaranteed use of both alphabets expands the pace of freedom,
enables greater choice and contributes to the equality and
preservation of cultural wealth.
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