Tufts Scholar Helps Draft Kosovo Constitution

Bruce Hitchner, classics professor and chairman of the Dayton Peace Accords Project, is part of a team helping prepare a constitution should Kosovo attain independence.

Medford/Somerville, Mass. [03.03.05] This year, the Serbian province of Kosovo will begin the process of obtaining its independence. If successful, Kosovo will have a blueprint constitution for the new state already available, thanks to the work of Tufts Professor and Dayton Peace Accords Project Chairman Bruce Hitchner and other representatives from the Public International Law and Policy Group.

"We drafted it in the course of the last four months as a boilerplate constitution," Hitchner – who is also the chair of the classics department at Tufts – told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Under the control of NATO and the United Nations since a 1999 bombing campaign chased Serbian forces out of the region, Kosovo this year will hold talks about whether to become an independent state – as favored by the ethnic Albanian majority – or to remain a part of Serbia, as the minority Serbian population desires.

The Public International Law and Policy Group is a U.S.-based nonprofit that has advised more than a dozen other countries in creating political and legal groundwork. Hitchner led the group in charge of the Kosovo project, the Journal-Constitution reported.

When a delegation including Hitchner brought the working document to Kosovo in late February, "the Kosovars leapt on it," Hitchner told the paper. The document is currently being reviewed and revised by officials.

According to the Journal-Constitution, the draft calls for a parliamentary democracy, a strong prime minister, and an emphasis on individual rights. "Ethnic set-asides," as Hitchner calls group quotas, are not included.

The next step for Hitchner and his team is to continue the dialogue with Kosovar officials.

Another ongoing project for the Tufts scholar is the fledgling government and constitutional framework in Bosnia.

"The goal is to get the Bosnians in charge of shaping their future," Hitchner told the Journal-Constitution.

In November 1995, the Dayton Peace Accords brought about the end to the civil war in Yugoslavia that left 200,000 dead and countless more displaced.

The Dayton Peace Accords Project, founded the following year by Hitchner, aims to further the ideals that brought about the peace by engaging and educating people about democratization and development around the world.

Hitchner – a former professor at the University of Dayton – traveled to Bosnia in February to meet with leaders about possible changes to their constitution, which was forged in Dayton. A complex government structure is seen as an obstacle to Bosnia's entry into the European Union.

"It's more nation-building now than it is peace implementation work – that phase is over clearly," Hitchner told the Journal-Constitution. "What we're trying to do is establish some principles for political and constitutional change that everyone can agree to."