and Rights of Other Minority Communities in 2012, Information on the Implementation of Measures from the Action Plan for Improving the Prison System with a reference to Information on Treatment of the Police Administration according the Recommendation of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms provided in the Special Report on the State of Police Administration Premises for Detaining Persons Deprived of Liberty from 2011, submitted to the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms by the Police Administration in line with the Conclusion  adopted by the Committee on its Forth meeting, held on 6 February 2013 and Information on Implementation on the Anti-discrimination Law.  Assistant to the Minister of Human and Minority Rights Mr Sabahudin Delić recalled that the Report on the Protection and Development of Minority Rights and Rights of Other Minority Communities in 2012 was submitted in line with Article 38 of the Law on Minority Rights and Freedoms, stipulating the obligation of the Government of Montenegro to submit, at least once annually, the Report on the Protection and Development of Minority Rights and Rights of Other Minority Communities to the Parliament of Montenegro.

Report on the Protection and Development of Minority Rights and Rights of Other Minority Communities in 2012 covers the current situation and overview of activities of the Government of Montenegro in the field of protection and improvement of minority rights. The Report contains: introduction, legal framework of protection of minorities and other minority communities in Montenegro, institutional framework of protection of minorities and other minority communities in Montenegro (Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, Minority Councils, Fund for Protection and Exercising of Minority Rights, Centre for Development and Preservation of Culture of Minorities of Montenegro), fields of rights protection, promotion and protection of discrimination, education (culture, informing, use of language and script, participation in the public life and political participation, developmental and economic policy, drafting of planning documents, priority infrastructure objects, regional development, improvement of Roma population position, legal status, education, employment and rights from labour relations, health, social and child care, violence against women and domestic violence, cultural and language identity, informing, housing, participation in public and political life).

Assistant to the Minister of Human and Minority Rights Mr Sabahudin Delić recalled that the Government of Montenegro, on its meeting of 5 April 2012, adopted the Strategy for improvement of position of Roma and Egyptians in Montenegro 2012-2016 and Action Plan for Implementation of the Strategy for 2012, with the aim of improving the position of Roma and Egyptians in Montenegrin society, which should lead to decreasing of current differences between their position and position of the rest of population. He pointed out that on 1 July 2013 Montenegro had overtaken one-year presidency of the Roma Decade, and it would undertake a number of activities aimed at improving the position of Roma. He emphasised that the Strategy envisaged the most significant areas of its application: resolving the issue of legal status, education, employment and rights from labour relations, health, social and child care, violence against women and domestic violence, cultural and language identity, informing, housing, participation in public and political life. The level of education of this population remains low as well as the level of employment, which is certainly contributed by their manner of living, thus the activities of Government are slower that it truly wants.

Speaking of education, Assistant to the Minister of Human and Minority Rights Mr Sabahudin Delić stated that the percentage of children included in pre-school education amounts 13.81% which is twice less compared with the percentage at the state level, amounting 26.65. He positively assessed the fact that the number of Roma and Egyptians children attending the elementary school had been increasing for years, thus in school year 2012/2013 the total number of Roma and Egyptians students was 1853 i.e. 350 more than in 250, when the total was 530.  He stated that inclusion of RE population had been continuously conducted at all levels of education, and the most significant activities in 2012 were: Continued desegregation activities: children from Camp Konik were included in town’s school and transportation was provided for them. Ministry for Human and Minority Rights supported financially the Ministry of Education in this project; the implementation of the project “Support to the full process of social inclusion” through IPA 2010 Programme is currently ongoing; Sub-objectives of the project include: improving of mechanisms for data collection and usage of those; developing of temporary kindergarten model; defining a manner for engaging RE teaching assistants and identification of funds for them and prevention of school dropout  in eight pilot schools; The activity of preparatory kindergartens for RE population children was also implemented  during the second half of June 2012. Instead of initially two planned groups, each consisting of 15 children (total 30), one in Nikšić and other in Podgorica, 161 children have been included in the pilot kindergarten, thus the Ministry of Education is satisfied with the response of parents and number of children. The reason for expanding the number is the great interest of parents and children, due to what the Bureau for Education Services requested all children to be included thus proving all with equal opportunities. Children will be divided into seven groups on two locations: two in Nikšić, five in Podgorica. This project has been implemented in five Montenegrin municipalities. Committee members posed following questions: Which activities Ministry for Human and Minority Rights have conducted in the field of improving minority members rights; What should be improved regarding minority members rights; whether the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights in cooperation with the Human Resources Administration conducted a survey on the representation of minorities and other minority communities in institutions of education, health and social care and whether the Information of that is drafted.
Assistant to the Minister of Human and Minority Rights Mr Sabahudin Delić answered the posed questions. Following the discussion, the Committee on Human Rights, with four votes “for” and two “abstained”, accepted the Report on the Protection and Development of Minority Rights and Rights of Other Minority Communities in 2012 and decided to compose the Report which will be submitted to the Collegium of the President of the Parliament of Montenegro and Ministry for Human and Minority Rights. Committee members got acquainted with the Information on the Implementation of Measures from the Action Plan for Improving the Prison System with a reference to Information on Treatment of the Police Administration according the Recommendation of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms provided in the Special Report on the State of Police Administration Premises for Detaining Persons Deprived of Liberty from 2011, submitted to the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms by the Police Administration in line with the Conclusion  adopted by the Committee on its Forth meeting, held on 6 February 2013. Director of the Institution for the Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions in the Sector for Execution of Criminal Sanctions Ms Slavica Rabrenović stated that the Ministry of Justice and Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions had been conducting activities for improving the system of enforcement of criminal sanctions in line with reform policy of the Government of Montenegro and measures defined by strategic documents, aimed at decrease of imprisoned persons and general conditions in prisons.

She pointed out that the Action Plan for Improving the Prison System envisages adoption of two laws in the enforcement of criminal sanctions field, namely: Law on execution of probation sentence and sentence of community service and Law on the execution of the prison sanctions. Speaking on improvement of legislative framework in the enforcement of criminal sanctions field interim Assistant to the Minister of Justice pointed out that the following was prepared during the reporting period:

-Draft Law on execution of probation sentence and sentence of community service

-Draft Rulebook on uniform, ranks, tags of officials in the Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions

- Law on the execution of the prison sanctions

-Instruction on medical examination in the Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions was passed while the Action Plan – Prison System for the period 2013-2018 was passed within the Negotiation Chapter 23 – Judiciary and Fundamental Rights.

With the aim of strengthening alternative sanctions system, the Ministry of Justice extended Sector for Execution of Criminal Sanctions – Department of Probation with three working positions of the professions – independent advisor II and III. Through IPA Twinning project "Support to the penitentiary sector in Montenegro", the set of the activities has been continues, starting from 21 January 2013 in partnership with Germany and Kingdom of Netherlands; three cycles of trainings for probation officers have been conducted (in the period: 4-8 March, 8-¸12 April 2013 and 13-17 May  2013). Total of 12 state employees of the Ministry of Justice and Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions attended trainings, which inter alia covered: risk assessment, alternative punishments, rehabilitation plans and methodology for oversight activities, probation as a programme outside of prison as well as program in prison. One of the topics of the training was a penalty in public interest with the aim of developing practical skills because state employees also attend the training on contact with sentenced person, assessment of his/her personality, detection of criminal factors determining his/her socio-cultural identity, etc. In this cycle, it is planned five more trainings to be held out of total eight, conducted by experts from the Kingdom of Netherlands.

In addition, in this period, five trainings within the Project were realised: two in the component relating the improvement of normative framework, two in the component implemented with the aim of introducing the best practices and procedures for prison management as well as one training in the part of preparation of the guide for work of the Probation service. In the period 3-7 June 2013 and 22-26 July 2013, a training for the management – Deputy and heads of organisational units of the Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions was conducted as well as training from standards of human rights in line with European prison rules and special Recommendation of the Council of Europe, trainings from the field of managing skills, human rights, planning of human resources, security, classification and schedule, prison regime, treatment methods and education and control of prisoners.

Fifteen managers attended the training within the prison system; the training lasted for 30 days, and at the end of the each training attendees took the test, while at the end of the whole course, they took the final exam. At the end of the training, attendees received a certificate or confirmation on attending the training. The trainings were conducted by trained trainers, chosen from the expert list from Germany.

She stated that the Delegation of judges and probation officers from Germany, during the II quarter, visited the prison in Bijelo Polje, where they together with the representatives of the Ministry of Justice and judges and prosecutors from the Higher and Basic Court and Prosecutor’s Office from Bijelo Polje held a meeting in premises of the Prison-Bijelo Polje; in this prison, sentences of 3-6 months are served, and the aim of the visit was finding a way for to reduce overcrowding in prisons in Montenegro, and it is important to mention that judges and prosecutors from Bijelo Polje, 5 of them, visited the prison for the first time.
Within the project “Support to the penitentiary sector in Montenegro” funded by the European Union, it was emphasised that the level of alternative sanctions must be increased, which would relieve the prisons. The aim of the twinning project, the value of which amounts to € 700,000.00 is strengthening capacities of the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro and Department for Execution of Criminal Sanctions in order to achieve more efficient management of the execution of criminal sanctions system and enforcement of the alternative sanction system in line with standards and best practices of the European Union as well as improvement of conditions in prisons and decrease of prison population. She assessed as important the participation of Ministry of Justice representatives at the Multilateral meeting, held on 25 April 2013 in Strasburg on “Managing prisons and reducing overcrowding”.  Multilateral meeting is organised within cooperation activities of the Council of Europe with member states which are currently in the process of improving the policy of managing prisons. The aim of the meeting is representatives of member states to exchange experiences and good practices and in the same time to identify manners of introducing new approaches in their systems. 
At the Multilateral meeting, it was emphasised that the overcrowding of prisons and growth of prison population represented the great challenge for prison managements and system of criminal judiciary in whole, both regarding human rights and efficient managing of prison premises. In addition, with the aim of improving prison conditions, Ministry of Justice representatives had meetings, reaching certain agreements with representatives of international organisation “UNICEF” to Montenegro. Director of the Institution for the Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions in the Sector for Execution of Criminal Sanctions Ms Slavica Rabrenović stated that UNICEF representatives in Montenegro were interested for providing help in the process of educating and training ZIKS officers in working with juveniles who were serving a sentence of juvenile detention.

Head of the Operations and Communication Centre Mr Vojislav Dragović emphasised that Police Administration representatives had succeed to realise a number of Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro recommendations given in the Special Report on the State of Police Administration Premises for Detaining Persons Deprived of Liberty from 2011, and that the realisation of remaining recommendations depended on the financial means. Following the discussion, the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms unanimously supported the Information on the Implementation of Measures from the Action Plan for Improving the Prison System with a reference to Information on Treatment of the Police Administration according the Recommendation of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms provided in the Special Report on the State of Police Administration Premises for Detaining Persons Deprived of Liberty from 2011, submitted to the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms by the Police Administration in line with the Conclusion  adopted by the Committee on its Forth meeting, held on 6 February 2013 and Information on Implementation on the Anti-discrimination Law; thus the Committee decided to draft a Conclusion which will be submitted to the Collegium of the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior and Police Administration. In addition, the Committee unanimously supported the Information on implementation of the Anti-discrimination Law and decided to draft the Report with Proposals for laws which will be submitted to the Collegium of the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro, Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro.