By deciding to revoke the cultural property status of the Generalštab complex, the Government of the Republic of Serbia has not only disregarded numerous public appeals from professional, academic, and legal organizations across the region, but has also violated the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Serbia. The matter will now be reviewed by the Constitutional Court, as the organization filed and submitted a constitutional initiative on December 17th, 2024.
RERI submitted an initiative to assess the constitutionality and legality of the decision to revoke the cultural property status of the buildings of the Generalštab of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro and the Ministry of Defense in Belgrade. This decision was adopted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia on November 14, 2024.
Given that the contested decision was issued violating the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and the Law on Cultural Heritage, RERI’s founder and lawyer Jovan Rajić stated that the Serbian Government completely disregarded its obligation to involve the only competent and professional institution with the capability and expertise to assess whether the “protected” status of a cultural property can and should be removed. Rajić claims that it is likely “that the Government recognized that no professional would sign such a document in this particular case”.
The Generalštab complex was placed under protection in 2005, when it was designated as a cultural monument and included in the Central Catalog of immovable cultural property. The same decision mandated the restoration and reconstruction of the entire complex to the state it had before bombing, ensuring the “preservation of the authentic appearance, dimensions, structure, and architectural elements, using original materials.” Along with the act of designating a property as a cultural heritage site and its recording in the registry, a file containing an elaboration on its valuation is kept separately for each cultural property.
The provisions of the Law on Cultural Heritage explicitly prescribe the procedure for revoking the cultural property status from the registry, containing the same mandatory elements as the process used to designate the property protection. In both cases, the law obliges adoption of an act that includes detailed explanations of the decision. To initiate such a procedure, the proposal, including the contents required by Article 41 of the Law on Cultural Heritage, must be submitted by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia to the Government of the Republic of Serbia via the Ministry of Culture.
Reacting publicly to the government’s decision, which came into effect as published in the Official Gazette on November 15th, the expert service of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments issued an official statement that this institution “did not prepare a study or a proposal for the decision to revoke the status of cultural property” for Generalštab complex. It concluded that “with these decisions, the Government of the Republic of Serbia has grossly violated the Law on Cultural Heritage”, clearly confirming that the decision was not adopted in the legal manner or through the required procedure, and therefore has to be annulled.
“It is now up to the Constitutional Court, as the competent institution, to initiate proceedings, determine that the decision in question was issued contrary to the Constitution and national laws, and annul it as such. Additionally, RERI has submitted a request for an ‘injunctive relief’ to prevent any activities at the site until a final decision on the legality of this act is brought”, concluded Rajić.