The Seal of Republika Srpska contains the

flag of Republika Srpska The flag of Republika Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted on 12 May 1992. The flag is a rectangular tricolor with three equal horizontal bands of red, blue and white.

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

letters "РС" ("RS") with the red-blue-white tricolor in the center of the seal, twisted with golden

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

leaves, a traditional pre-Christian symbol sacred to most

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

. On the edge of the seal there is an inscription ''Republika Srpska'' (in

and

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

). The open crown of Kotromanić is shown in the bottom of the seal and the seal itself is topped with a heraldic royal crown.

Former coat of arms

The former coat of arms of Republika Srpska showed, on a red shield, over headed by the Nemanjić crown, a bicephalic silver eagle in take off, armed with gold, with golden tongue and legs, the chest covered by a red shield with the

Serbian cross The Serbian cross (), also known as the Firesteels (), is one of the National symbols of Serbia, national symbols of Serbia. It is present on the coat of arms of Serbia, coat of arms and flag of Serbia. The cross is based on a tetragrammic cross e ...

, a silver cross with four firesteels. File:Former COA Republika Srpska.svg, Former coat of arms of Republika Srpska (1992-2007) File:Proposal coat of arms of Republika Srpska.png, Unconstitutional coat of arms of Republika Srpska

Decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina

On 12 April 2004,

Sulejman Tihić Sulejman Tihić (26 November 1951 – 25 September 2014) was a Bosnian politician who served as the 4th List of Bosniak members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2 ...

, then Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, filed a request with the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the review of constitutionality of Articles 1 and 2 of the Law on the Coat of Arms and Flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (''Official Gazette of Federation of BiH No. 21/96 and 26/96''), Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Constitutional Law on the Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the Republika Srpska (''Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska No. 19/92''), Articles 2 and 3 of the Law on the Use of Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem (''Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska No. 4/93'') and Articles 1 and 2 of the Law on the Family Patron-Saint's Days and Church Holidays of the Republika Srpska (''Official Gazette of Republika Srpska No. 19/92''). On 2 December 2004 the applicant submitted a supplement to the request. Two partial decisions were made in 2006, when the court found that the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

and

flag A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...

of the Federation of B&H, and

, anthem, family patron-saint days and church holidays of Republika Srpska were unconstitutional. In its decision, among other things, the court stated: The formal name of the item is ''U-4/04'', but it is widely known as "Decision on the insignia of entities" (Bosnian: ''Odluka o obilježjima entiteta''), since its merritum was about the symbols of entities. The court has ordered the

Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Parlament Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, Парламент Федерације Босне и Херцеговине, separator=" / "), often called Federal Parliament ...

and the

National Assembly of Republika Srpska The People's Assembly of Republika Srpska ( Serbian: ''Народна скупштина Републике Српске''; Croatian: ''Narodna skupština Republike Srpske''; abbr. НСРС/NSRS) is the legislative body of Republika Srpska, on ...

to bring the contested legal documents in line with the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina within six months from the publishing date of its decision in the ''Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina''. Since the harmonisation was not done in that granted time-limit, that court has, on January 27, 2007, adopted the Ruling on failure to enforce in which it established that the contested articles of the interpreted legal documents shall cease to be in force as of the date following the publishing date of the Ruling in ''Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina''. On June 16, 2007, the Government of Republika Srpska had adopted the provisional emblem of Republika Srpska, until it adopted the new coat of arms of Republika Srpska. It had also decided to use the melody of its former anthem "

Bože pravde "" (, ; 'O God of Justice') is the national anthem of Serbia, as defined by the Article 7 of the Constitution of Serbia. "Bože pravde" was adopted in 1882 and had been the national anthem of the Kingdom of Serbia until 1919 when Serbia became a ...

" as its new intermezzo anthem, but the

Constitutional Court of Republika Srpska A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

has declared such use of melody as unconstitutional as well, so the new anthem, "

Moja Republika ''Moja Republika'' (, ) is the regional anthem of Republika Srpska, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated ...

" was adopted. Both the new anthem (in relation to words ''moja zemlja'' - "my land") and new coat of arms have been contested by Bosniak members of National Assembly of Republika Srpska in front of the Constitutional Court of Republika Srpska. The court declared the coat of arms to be unconstitutional since it did not represent Bosniaks in any way, while it rejected the claim in relation to the anthem."Novim grbom Republike Srpske povrijeđen vitalni nacionalni interes Bošnjaka"
December 22, 2008. Čelinac.eu. Retrieved on March 6, 2009.

References

External links

{{Republika Srpska Culture of Republika Srpska

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, ; also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or Serb Republic) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other bein ...

Coat of arms of Republika Srpska

Former coat of arms

Decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina

See also

References

External links