Appreciating the respect of obligations and commitments by Montenegro in key areas that are at the center of interest of PACE monitoring procedure important for the dynamics of European integration, considering the above points, the Committee has implemented the third activity of the established Plan of activities of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms in 2013.

The aim of today’s meeting of the Committee, was to gather information on activities of the competent institutions conducted in the aim of unifying achieved in the section of honoring obligations and commitments by Montenegro in key areas in the center of interest of PACE monitoring procedures from participants invited to attend the meeting, in accordance with the Article 68 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament. Data and information will be very useful in the work of the members of the Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro to the PACE and its complementary working bodies, which transfer would cause cessation of monitoring of Montenegro.

The Committee invited representatives of following competent institutions to attend the meeting: Ombudsman of Montenegro, members of the Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro to PACE, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Culture, representatives of international organizations in Montenegro: the Delegation of the EU in Montenegro, OSCE, UNDP, UNICEF, and UNHCR and NGO “Civic Alliance” representatives, which deals with issues of human rights and freedoms and monitors the work of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms.

The members of the Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro to PACE, as well as most representatives of the competent institutions welcomed this manner of the work of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms, which considered such an important international document in the aim of honoring obligations and commitments by Montenegro, within its competences, since gathered information and data, their unification through joint activity, shall contribute to cessation of monitoring phase of Montenegro.

Representatives of the relevant state authorities presented to the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms and the members of the Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro to PACE activities conducted in key areas that are at the center of interest of its monitoring procedure, and these are: the completion of the reform of the judiciary and the amendments to the Constitution, the capacity of political parties to achieve the necessary compromise and ensure that respect and implement the rights of all minorities, including LGBT rights, the situation of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptians, the fight against corruption and organized crime and strengthening the supervisory authorities; situation in the media and secured working environment of the reporters, legal status of internally displaced persons and refugees, as well as finding a lasting solution for the same, based on voluntary return or local integration.

The Head of the Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro in PACE, Mr. Zoran Vukčević, PhD said that the realization of numerous tasks arising from Recommendations is not obligation of the Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro in PACE only, but for all state authorities, Government, Parliament, local self-government and NGOs which by joint, coordinated activities, at horizontal and vertical level, shall contribute to Montenegro’s transition from monitoring to post monitoring process. He pointed out that two visits co raporteurs of PACE in Montenegro during the 2013 are planned, in May and October, and in this regard, it is time to gather all the information on what has been accomplished and to be prepared for their visit. Also, he said it in his capacity as Head of the Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro to PACE, form the Secretary General of PACE received Proposal for the initiative on changes in the work of the Council of Europe which proposes implementation of monitoring for all Council of Europe Member States or to implement monitoring in certain areas, which will be discussed in following period.

Secretary to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Mr. announced that much has been done to implement the recommendations that fall under the competences of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and, in this regard, he presented a number of facts. Cooperation with the Council of Europe has been achieved, the European Charter on Local Self-Government, Madrid Convention and the two Protocols and Additional Protocol to the European Charter on Local Self-Government ratified. The final activities on the development of the law on municipal police is in procedure, and preparation of the proposal for the law on amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government and the proposal for the law on general administrative procedure are planned. Significant are the activities in the implementation of public administration reform strategy. Numerous activities have been undertaken in order to combat corruption and organized crime. The Ministry cooperates with members of the LGBT population, and continuously take actions to resolve the status of refugees and internally displaced persons, for which participation in the so-called Sarajevo Process is particularly important, as well as amendments to the Law on Foreigners, with the extension of the deadline for obtaining the documents for resolving the status of displaced and internally displaced persons by the end of December, 2013. Additionally, the Ministry of Internal Affairs provides support to displaced and internally displaced persons in order to obtain the necessary documents by organizing departures for these persons in the country of origin. According to all reports of attacks on journalists, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Police Department have acted, and one journalist was given police protection.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Justice Ms. Natasa Pesic and the Assistant to Minister of Justice for the Department on enforcement of criminal sanctions Ms. Slavica Rabrenovic introduced the participants of the meeting with the activities the Ministry undertook to meet PACE Recommendations. They  announced that the reform of the judiciary in order to achieve an independent judiciary is the priority and in this respect a significant number of both normative activities, and appropriate training for judges and prosecutors were implemented..

the Assistant to Minister of Justice  Ms. Slavica Rabrenović introduced the Committee members  with the results of the visit of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment (CPT) to Montenegro in the beginning of 2013 and expressed pleasure that CPT, unlike the Report for 2008, addressed only three Recommendations relating to the improvement of conditions in the Institute for Execution of Criminal Sanctions , providing better health care by increasing the number of doctors who provide health care to the prisoners, the obligation to immediately upon receipt convicted and arrested persons, within 24 hours, perform medical review and that one convict who was sentenced to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment, who is in prison, ensure implementation of measures in another state, for which the Ministry of Justice has already taken the necessary action. Improving the norms of the Law on Execution of Criminal Sanctions resulted in development of two new laws: the Law on the Execution of Prison Sentence and the Law on Alternative Sanctions, prepared in cooperation with international experts in this area.

Deputy Minister for Human and Minority Rights Ms. Blanka Radošević-Marović and Deputy Minister Mr.Sabahudin Delić stated that the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights initiated significant activities and that a progress had been made regarding the field of human rights protection. Working Group for amendments to the Anti-discrimination Law and Law on the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro was established and it started working on improving of the text of those laws. In the previous period activities were initiated with the aim of media promotion of the Anti-discrimination Law as well as for the purpose of education of police, prosecutors, judges, employees of the state authorities and non-governmental sector on discrimination prohibition. In addition, the conducted researches with the aim of collecting data on the level of discrimination towards certain minority groups were assessed as important. In the field of minority policy, inter alia, new rules for the election of the Council were adopted in February of this year, and in the following period measures for increasing the participation of minorities in state administration bodies, local self-government and public sector should be taken. In addition, the Strategy for Improvement of Position of RAE population in Montenegro was adopted as well as corresponding Action plan, with the aim of improving RAE population position in Montenegrin society.  

Deputy Minister Mr. Željko Rurović stated that normative acts regulating the media work, primarily the Law on Electronic Media and Law on Public Broadcasting Services, were harmonized with European legislation in this field, and that the state provided significant help for commercial broadcasters.

Mr. Damir Grbović, Acting Director of the Directorate General for Multilateral Affairs and Regional Cooperation and Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and Montenegrin Mission in Strasburg provided a significant help for the Delegation of Parliament of Montenegro to the PACE, and that it would be continued in such a manner in the following period. They emphasized that the engagement of Montenegro in the campaign “One out of Five” was highly praised. The quality cooperation with the Venice Commission was established. In the following period, the realization of trainings for 20 judges from Montenegro was planned in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Regarding the position improvement of LGBT people, he stated that Montenegro was included in Council of Europe projects, but that significant activities aimed at improving position of those people were realized, including organization of the Conference on LGBT Rights in Montenegro, in March 2012, as well as participation of the Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Duško Marković at the Conference in Strasbourg.

Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro Mr. Šućko Baković stated that Montenegro did a lot regarding the improvement of human rights of vulnerable populations, but that discrimination of RAE population, persons with disabilities and LGBT population was still present. Even though state authorities and certain units of local-government conducted activities, problems regarding the integration of Roma, combating poverty and solution of social, economic and cultural rights are still present. They are facing numerous problems in the fields of education, accommodation, employment, regulation of personal documentation, health protection and social protection. There is a small number of permanently employed Roma, what additionally hampers their position. The Ombudsman thinks that discrimination against the persons with disabilities in Montenegro exists, which is particularly reflected in the limitation of access to public facilities and space. The Ombudsman thinks that discrimination against persons of different sexual orientation is evident in Montenegro, and that the small number of reported cases of this form of discrimination is a consequence of the lack of awareness about the need to respect the rights of others, their differences and the need for prevention and sanctioning of all forms of discrimination. The Ombudsman assessed that prevention of all forms of discrimination was extremely important for the democratization of society, whereby the role of institutions was the most important regarding the education of young people, media effects and good personal examples of tolerance of the people belonging to the authorities, both at the state and local level.

Representative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare Ms. Budimirka Đukanović presented the activities conducted by the Ministry with the aim of addressing problems of displaced and internally displaced persons in Montenegro. She stated that 9066 people applied for resolving the status, out of which 5400 was solved. With the aim of solving their housing problems and integration to Montenegrin society, two projects are currently conducted: IPA 2011, which is to realize 97 housing units and Regional Housing Programme, which is to realize 42 housing units.

Mr. Boris Raonić, President of the NGO “Civic Alliance” (Građanska alijansa) congratulated to the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms on accession and consideration of the Recommendations of the PACE Resolution 1890(2012), stating that all social subjects in Montenegro should make additional efforts so Montenegro to become an international law subject and not to be monitored object of the certain bodies, for the purpose of which it should realize Recommendations send to it with the aim achieving democratic standards.

MP Snežana Jonica stated that she expected from the representatives of the competent institutions more concrete and more precise data and also that the consideration of issues like that one should be approached from the more advanced level, with the expectation that the Parliament of Montenegro and Government would approach this issue more seriously in the following period. As a member of the previous Delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro to PACE, she stated that she had participated in the work of plenum and working bodies of the PACE, thus she was familiar with that topic in details, and emphasized that Recommendations related to Judiciary, amendments to the Constitution and media freedom were especially important.

MP Dritan Abazović MA thinks that actual data in the field of fighting against corruption should be stated, including the number of processed high corruption cases, and pointed out that implementation of the European Charter on Local Self-government was not satisfactory. He assessed media situation and attack to journalist as bad, and he thinks that state should provide more support to commercial media which realise programme in minority languages.

Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms Dr Halil Duković stated that the problem of displaced and internally displaced persons in Montenegro should be addressed not only by Montenegrin but international institutions as well as institution of the countries that those people came from in Montenegro. In addition, he stated that Montenegro did a lot for all refugees with the very fact that it provided a refuge for them in times of war in the neighbouring countries, and that in spite of the fact that wars were ended those people stayed to live in Montenegro since they consider it to be a safe country.

MP Predrag Sekulić, deputy member to the Delegation of the Parliament to the PACE, and member of the Constitutional Committee stated that Constitutional Committee was close to solution in line with Venice Commission Recommendation and that he hoped that it would be adopted not only by 2/3 but with consensus.

It was assessed that Montenegro conducted significant activities with the aim of realization of the Recommendations from Resolution 1890 (2012) PACE, but that it should be continued in that direction in the following period, in order to meet all criteria and standards characteristic for democratic countries.

All participants of today’s meeting assessed monitoring of the implemented activities in the following period, undertaken on the fulfilling of the PACE Recommendations, as well as coordinated acting of all social subjects with the goal of meeting the Recommendations, in order to terminate two yearlong monitoring of Montenegro by the PACE as very important.