Action for Human Rights (HRA), Center for Civic Education (CGO), Institut Alternativa (IA) and MANS submitted a petition to the Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms of the Parliament of Montenegro requesting the convening of an emergency session of that working body to consider the proposed amendments to the Law on ANB.
The joint statement states that this law drastically threatens the human rights guaranteed to Montenegrin citizens by the Constitution, laws, ratified international conventions, positions of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, but also by a series of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.
"The proposed law envisages that an authorized official of the ANB can, with only an official identification card, perform immediate inspection of all registers and data collections in the possession of all legal entities, without any prior approval of the court and without any mechanism of appeal or judicial protection. In this way, officials ANB could access all health and banking data of Montenegrin citizens without any control, as well as various records that are in the possession of NGOs that provide services to citizens, such as the identity of persons who report cases of corruption, the identity of victims of domestic violence, etc. in the announcement.
They add that the draft law provides that ANB can supervise electronic communications, in the part of access to data on locations in electronic communications, without a prior court decision, only based on the decision of the director of ANB.
"In practice, this would mean that the ANB can, without restrictions, monitor the movements of all Montenegrin citizens through their mobile phones. Moreover, the proposed law also puts other forms of monitoring in the hands of the ANB without a prior court decision. Thus, if the proposed law adopted in its current form, ANB can monitor and observe all Montenegrin citizens without prior approval by the court and without any restrictions".
From the NGO sector, they believe that placing such mechanisms in the hands of the ANB is not only "absolutely contrary to the Constitution of Montenegro, all domestic and international regulations, but also leaves a huge space for abuse by the institution whose failures in work have been pointed out by the entire domestic and international community." ".
"Connections with organized crime structures, eavesdropping and monitoring of foreign diplomats and participation in various election abuses are just some of the reasons why the ANB must in no case obtain mechanisms for monitoring citizens and access to their data, especially without a prior court decision. In order to prevent the ANB from getting into a situation where without control it can violate the guaranteed human rights of Montenegrin citizens, four non-governmental organizations called on the Committee for Human Rights to meet urgently, to consider amendments to the Law on the ANB and to act on the law by amendment in order to its text is in line with the Constitution, domestic and international positive regulations and court opinions".
From the NGO sector, they hope that the members of the Board will understand the importance of organizing a special session dedicated to that act, and that the session will be convened as soon as possible, in order to amend the Law on ANB and, as they state, bring it into line with the Constitution, the law and international conventions that Montenegro is obliged to respect.
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