HRA and CeMI: The Montenegrin judiciary currently lacks a fifth of judges

The Montenegrin judiciary currently lacks a fifth of judges, and a serious problem is the deficit of political will to pass key laws and the absence of key appointments in the judiciary.

This was announced during the introductory presentations at the final conference "Access to justice and human rights in Montenegro", which was organized by the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), PR Center reports.

The President of the Management Board of CeMI, Zlatko Vujović, said that Montenegro aspires to become a full member of the EU, stating that this requires the investment of significant efforts when it comes to judicial reform.

He said that delays in court proceedings, lack of resources, uneven application of the law are some of the EC's conclusions that point to the inefficient functioning of the Montenegrin judicial apparatus.

"What is also noticeable is the lack of uniformity with European standards and legal acquis. "In the last few years, a serious problem in the judiciary is a deficit of political will to vote on key laws in the field of justice, but also key appointments in the judiciary - the election of the Supreme State Prosecutor and members of the Judicial Council," said Vujović.

Speaking about the "Access to justice and human rights in Montenegro" project, Vujović explained that its main goal is to encourage democratic values ​​in Montenegro, through strengthening the foundations of the rule of law and expanding the culture of respect for human rights, as well as strengthening the role of civil society as catalyst in the promotion of human rights with a special emphasis on access to justice and the rule of law.

"One of the key activities of the project was the monitoring of court proceedings. Only criminal proceedings were observed. The importance of this type of monitoring is reflected in its contribution to increasing transparency and improving judicial processes. Through the careful and systematic collection of data, the monitoring of court proceedings enables in-depth analysis and identification of key problems in the work and functioning of the courts, on the basis of which it is possible to achieve improvement", said Vujović.

He added that numerous activities were carried out during the implementation of the project, stating that seven analyzes and reports were prepared with the HRA.

The representative of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, judge Seka Piletić, said that the same recommendations have been repeated for years when it comes to the work of the judiciary, stating that this causes concern, but does not discourage.

"Excessive duration of court proceedings, poor condition of information and communication infrastructure, inadequate security measures in courts, inaccessibility of a large number of courts to persons with disabilities, are some of the problems noted in CeMI's report," stated Piletić.

She said that it was also observed that one of the causes of such a situation is the untimely filling of vacant judicial posts.

"This situation directly undermines the efficiency of the judicial system and represents a serious challenge in maintaining the rule of law. We will also agree that the conditions for the work of judges are not at an optimal level and that the lack of spatial capacity affects the fact that trials are often postponed and held in inadequate offices, which also limits the public's access to the hearings," Piletić said.

She said that the Supreme Court pays special attention to the protection of the right to a trial within a reasonable time, which continues to be a challenge and one of the most frequently violated human rights in Montenegro.

The president of the Judicial Council, Vesna Simović-Zvicer, said that the Judicial Council made suggestions and comments on CeMI's analysis when preparing the analysis.

"We need to emphasize what the goals of the project are, which is monitoring procedures from the aspect of what is the ultimate goal, which is access to justice. I especially liked that the focus was on vulnerable social groups and their access to justice," said Simović-Zvicer.

She said that she believes that the conclusions recognized by CeMI as key will help the representatives of the Judicial Council in the working group for changes to the Law on the Judicial Council and other regulations in order to improve the legislative framework.

The State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro, Sreten Jakić, speaking about the activities regarding Chapters 23 and 24, reminded that the formation of working groups has been completed.

"In the Ministry of Justice, we have updated the part of the working groups concerning the Law in the Judicial Council in the judges, and next week the working group will start in that context. It is very important to mention inclusiveness as a novelty. "In an earlier period, we concluded that judges of lower courts and prosecutors of lower prosecutor's offices were not included in the working groups, we changed that and now they are all included in the process," said Jakić.

The executive director of Action for Human Rights (HRA), Tea Gorjanc-Prelević, said that the Montenegrin judiciary is currently in a situation where it lacks a fifth of its judges.

"The situation in the Basic Court in Berane this year is such that the judge is in charge of 911 cases per judge. This means that the average workload of those judges is higher by 117 cases. There are no judges in the court in Žabljak, and there are only two judges in the Basic Court in Herceg Novi," said Gorjanc-Prelević.

According to her, the Judicial Council took five months without justifiable reason to assign the selected candidates for judges.

"We believe that the testing committee of the Judicial Council has no justification for waiting two and three months after the end of the competition to schedule the testing of judges. I think that everyone has to do much more so that the promptness in the courts begins to improve," Gorjanc-Prelević pointed out.

She pointed out that because of this, many citizens are forced to "put vital life issues on hold, both in litigation, in terms of exercising rights to property, and in guilt".

"In cases of organized crime, especially high corruption, the entire country is damaged and we are all waiting. That is why I think that the Ministry of Justice has a great responsibility, which should provide quality and quick changes to the law, to shorten excessively long training, but also to make it more effective, to make certain changes to the Law on Administrative Disputes, because the Administrative Court is grumbling in cases." , Gorjanc-Prelević pointed out.

The project "Access to justice and human rights in Montenegro - trial monitoring project 2021-2023" is implemented by the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), in cooperation with the Action for Human Rights (HRA), and is financed by the European Union and co-financed by Ministry of Public Administration of Montenegro.