Same-sex couples in Montenegro are one step away from enjoying the same rights as men and women who get married or live in a common-law union, after the Government at the last session on the eve of the New Year adopted the Draft Law on Life Partnership of Persons of the Same Sex.
Now everything is in the hands of the representatives of the Montenegrin parliament. The proposal for a law on same-sex unions began as a project of the organizations Juventas, Kvir Montenegro and the Institute for Legal Studies. Two years ago, those NGOs created the first text of the law as part of the project "Contribution to improving the quality of life of LGBT people in Montenegro". In the NGO sector, which represents the rights of LGBT people, they expect the law to be accepted.
"Members of parliament now need to show whether they really defend the interests of all citizens of Montenegro, regardless of their differences... The LGBT community has placed its trust in all parliamentarians and now expects them to justify that trust by voting for this law," she said. is after the adoption of the Proposal Jelena Colaković, program director of NGO Juventas.
Kvir also says that the adoption of the Bill is a big step for the community, but they add that the real step will follow - only after the adoption of the Law in the Assembly.
"We are happy that we have reached the moment when the law can finally go to the parliament and we expect that the members of the parliament will vote for this law at the next session of the Parliament, and that we will have the opportunity to finally use the basic human rights that are still we don't have and thus stop living as second-class citizens," he said Danijel Kalezic from that NGO.
During the public debate, the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral proposed "deprivation of the right to parentage or guardianship of a parent due to joining a homosexual union."
The right to take care of the partner's child, if he has no other relative, seems to have attracted the most attention among those who participated in the discussion.
The position of the MPC was not accepted because it represents, as stated by the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, "a direct violation of the rights and duties of parents and children established by the Constitution and the Family Law". The Diocese of Budimljansko-Nikšić claims that the Draft Law does not clearly define the "role of the natural parent", who is outside of a life-long same-sex partnership in raising a child.
From the department Mehmed Zenka they said that the Family Law precisely defines the obligations of parents in terms of maintenance and that a parent cannot be released from that obligation even when he does not exercise parental rights, even when he is deprived of that right.
"Accordingly, there is no doubt that the partner who is not the child's parent will support the other partner's child only when he has no living parent, but neither do other relatives who are obliged to support him according to the Law", is the answer to the Diocese's comment.
According to the Draft Law, the partnership of persons of the same sex is concluded in front of the registrar and witnesses - just like a marriage union.
Partners cannot be persons under the age of 18.
When they come before the registrar, the partners will be asked if they agree to enter into a mutual partnership and can agree on a future surname - whether they keep their own, take the surname of one of them or take both surnames... In a registered union, partners are obliged to take care of each other about each other, and a same-sex union can be annulled just as much as one between the persons of a man and a woman.
It is easier for partners from abroad to stay in Montenegro
If LGBT people from Montenegro have partners from other countries and want to form a life partnership with them, these people will be able to exercise the right to temporary residence for the purpose of family reunification in Montenegro.
This is the answer of Zenka's department to the question of a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose partner is from Montenegro.
In the explanation, they state that the legal norms of the Law on Life Partnerships of Persons of the Same Sex will regulate the personal relations of partners and that it will be possible for these persons, through the application of the provisions of the Law on Foreigners, to exercise the right to temporary residence.
"As it is planned to pass by-laws for the implementation of the Law on Aliens, the Ministry will also prescribe more detailed conditions and methods of issuing permits for temporary residence, including temporary residence permits for family reunification, including these persons," the Ministry states. for human and minority rights.
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