About 60 percent of citizens believe that there is discrimination based on nationality in Montenegro, and the Roma are the most discriminated national group, according to a survey of public opinion on multiculturalism in Montenegro.
The research was conducted by the Center for Civic Education (CEO), with the financial support of the Fund for the Protection and Realization of Minority Rights, within the project "Multiculturalism, Minority Peoples and Other Minority National Communities in the Montenegrin Education System".
As announced by the CGO, the survey was conducted from April 9 to 14, on a sample of 1.005 respondents, with the professional support of the DAMAR agency.
Vasilije Radulović, a program associate at the CGE, said that citizens are divided in their opinion on whether there is discrimination based on religious affiliation in Montenegro.
He said that 48,4 percent of respondents believe that this type of discrimination exists, and 51.6 percent that it does not exist.
"The dominant perception of citizens is that Montenegrin society is multicultural, which is appreciated by slightly more than 80 percent of respondents, while a little less than a fifth have the opposite opinion," said Radulović.
As he stated, the perception of the existence of discrimination based on nationality is significantly more pronounced, and about 60 percent of respondents state that it exists in Montenegro.
"Respondents who recognize the existence of discrimination on the basis of nationality, state Roma as the most discriminated national group, followed by Albanians and Muslims," said Radulović.
He said that almost two-thirds of the respondents answered that they did not feel threatened because of their ethnic or religious affiliation.
The survey showed that citizens are divided about whether members of a certain nationality are privileged compared to others, so 51,5 percent answered in the affirmative, and 48,5 percent thought otherwise.
"Serbs and Montenegrins are the national groups that are seen as the most privileged, and Roma and Croats as the least privileged," the research findings state.
According to the results of the research, about 55 percent of respondents believe that members of their national community are sufficiently or mostly represented in decision-making places at the state level, while about 36 percent have the opposite opinion.
Radulović said that the citizens believe that among the institutions and organizations that contribute the most to strengthening public awareness of the importance of multiculturalism, the Government leads the way, with 40,6 percent of respondents, followed by non-governmental organizations with 39,8 percent and the Ombudsman with 36,6 percent.
He stated that, according to the respondents, the Assembly and the academic community make the smallest contribution.
Radulović said that respondents believe that the Ombudsman contributes the most to reducing discrimination against different groups, which 40,3 percent of respondents see as key in that segment, followed by non-governmental organizations with 36,2 percent and the Government with 29,8 percent.
As he added, national councils and the Assembly are perceived as entities that contribute the least to reducing discrimination.
The survey showed that close to 60 percent of respondents believe that the Montenegrin Constitution and laws sufficiently protect the rights of minority peoples in Montenegro.
According to the results of the research, 42,2 percent of respondents believe that the Government must classify discrimination as a work priority, while 29 percent believe that discrimination is a problem, but that there are other bigger problems that need to be solved.
Radulović said that about a third of the respondents were familiar with the work of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights in the area of affirming the rights of minority peoples, and evaluated the work of Vla's department with an average score of three.
According to the research, 75 percent of respondents believe that they are familiar with the culture and customs of minority peoples in Montenegro, while every fourth respondent, mostly or at all, is not familiar with the culture and customs of minority peoples in Montenegro.
The survey showed that the largest percentage of respondents have a neutral attitude regarding information and reporting by public service about their national community.
Radulović emphasized that about two-thirds of the respondents believe that the media influence the formation of attitudes towards national minorities, while for one-third of the respondents they have no such influence.
Tamara Milaš, coordinator of the Human Rights program at the CGO, said that the surveyed citizens, regardless of nationality, as well as other socio-demographic characteristics, believe that minority peoples in Montenegro are the most discriminated in the field of employment.
She added that this applies to the state and the private sector.
Milaš said that 50,4 percent of the respondents would not marry a partner of another ethnic group, and 58 percent of the respondents stated that they would not marry a partner of a different religion.
"The largest percentage of those who would marry a partner of a different religion are those who are not religious (70,3 percent)," Milaš added.
Speaking about the openness of society towards migrants and refugees, she said that 60 percent of those polled were of the opinion that Montenegrin society is open towards them.
Milaš stated that over 75 percent of those surveyed said that they would accept them as a family member, friend, or superior.
According to the results of the survey, 24,5 percent of the respondents believe that the right of minority peoples to proportional representation in public services, state and local self-government bodies is not respected.
Milaš stated that about 60 percent of respondents believe that most of the incidents, which have been publicly witnessed in society in the last two years, are dominantly motivated by religious and ethnic intolerance.
As she said, Bosniaks in the largest percentage believe that most of these incidents are mainly motivated by religious and ethnic intolerance, followed by Albanians and Montenegrins.
"When asked about other reasons that cause public incidents in Montenegrin society, the majority of citizens cite politics (29,1 percent), divisions on a national basis (7,5 percent), religious divisions (four percent), and almost a third of respondents do not have an opinion ," stated Milas.
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