Human rights in Montenegro are violated every day, old cases remain unsolved, and some new ones, such as the recent arrest of a member of parliament because of a spoken word, assess "Vijesti" interlocutors, show that law has succumbed to politics.
Such a procedure only leads to more violations of human rights, assess the interlocutors of "Vijesti", on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the International Human Rights Day - December 10.
We agree that progress is visible in the area of legislation and harmonization with international law, but that in practice 2018 did not bring progress in the area of human rights.
Petar Đukanović from the Center for Civic Education (CGO) says that it is questionable to talk about the protection of human rights in a country "ravaged by corruption, unemployment and existential threat".
"Such an environment is a fertile ground for numerous abuses and falsification of rights and justice."
Tea Gorjanc Prelević from "Action for Human Rights" (HRA) assessed that there is still resistance to establish the responsibility of civil servants for human rights violations, especially, as she said, in the area of torture - in cases of police and prison abuse.
She reminds that to date, not a single case of police torture and abuse of citizens at the protests in 2015 has been brought to light, as well as the case of Milorad Martinović's torture, for which only two police officers were prosecuted.
Police abuse practically also marked the beginning of 2018 - members of the Police Intervention Unit are suspected of beating three young men in the center of Podgorica, in front of the "Bajica" bar, in February.
The case in which three officers of the Police Administration are suspected of abusing citizens during the raid in Ulcinj cafe "Di Trevi" in June last year has not yet been resolved.
Human rights are also violated in healthcare - the Ombudsperson's office recently established that employees of the Special Hospital for Psychiatry in Kotor abused, hit and humiliated a patient on two occasions, from February to March. A similar thing happened before - in January, a medical technician was fired for abusing a patient at the Dobrot hospital.
The interlocutors of "Vijesti" remind that the murder case of the editor-in-chief of "Dan" Duško Jovanović has not been solved to this day, that there have been frequent attacks on journalists and media property, and that the majority have never received an adequate institutional response.
They see this as encouragement for the attempted murder of "Vijesti" journalist Olivera Lakić in May, which has not been resolved.
They remind that there is no progress in the investigations of war crimes and state that for the only case for which the trial is in progress, it is not Montenegrin, but the special prosecutor's offices of Serbia and Kosovo.
The CGE also assesses that people with disabilities still face numerous obstacles - from the inaccessibility of public spaces and facilities, to prejudices and non-acceptance of the environment.
"All this prevents effective integration into the education system, the labor market and leads to further marginalization".
It is similar, they say, with the Roma, and they see the position of Roma children as particularly difficult, as a significant percentage of them are still outside the education system and beg on the streets.
Due to pronounced homophobia, adds Đukanović from that NGO, members of the LGBT community are still exposed to hatred, rejection, and violence.
The growth of ethnic distances in society, "which irresponsible politicians also give impetus to", is also worrying, he adds.
According to Đukanović, cases of violence against women and children, attempts and even murder of a child have escalated.
"And the institutions do not undertake adequate preventive and repressive measures to cut that dangerous circle of human rights violations".
The last example, the arrest of MP Nebojša Medojević in the middle of the night and without the previously implemented procedure of removing immunity in the Assembly, Đukanović considers it a message to the citizens that "darkness can eat all those targeted by the government".
"In this case, the law succumbed to political pressures, and this leads us into a dangerous zone of legal uncertainty. Insecurity, fear and the lack of sufficient trust of citizens in institutions are signs of a deepening crisis. And that means even more violations of human rights, raising tensions and potential violence on a wider scale," he said.
In 2018, the institution of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms recorded an increased number of cases and, as they said, already in December they reached last year's influx of cases.
Citizens have a hard time getting rights in the field of public administration
The office of the Protector told "Vijesta" that in 2018, traditionally, human rights violations are the most common in the field of public administration, both at the local and state level.
Among the irregularities related to the violation of the rights of citizens, they state untimely and slow action, failure to act according to the decisions of the second instance body or the legal understandings of the Administrative Court, the fact that the administrative bodies do not execute legally binding and final decisions. They also add that there must be cooperation between authorities in the process of exercising or protecting the rights of citizens
Far from European standards of freedom of expression
In the area of freedom of expression, there can be no talk of progress, Gorjanc Prelevic assessed, even though in 2018 two important laws were worked on - on the media and on RTCG, which should, in that part, be improved in accordance with European standards.
He considers punishment for not standing during the performance of the national anthem to be a retrograde approach to the understanding of freedom of expression. She also recalled the dismissals of representatives of the NGO sector in the RTCG Council, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the Agency for Electronic Media.
"In all these cases, the state did not provide effective legal protection. Instead, the representatives of the NGO sector in the state bodies were replaced by politically desirable personnel in short order and left to prove themselves in court for years".
That Montenegro is not fundamentally ready to accept the European standards of freedom of expression, as it has assessed, is also shown by the case of sending a member of parliament to prison, without a prior fair procedure and removal of immunity.
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