The Constitutional Court continues to ignore the initiatives submitted long ago regarding the assessment of constitutionality and legality, which seriously undermines the trust of citizens in the legal security and transparency of institutions, announced the program director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), Milica Kovačević.
He says that the initiatives of that non-governmental organization, submitted during 2022 and 2023, are not the only ones awaiting a response.
According to the available data, at the end of 2023, there were 318 cases in the work of the Constitutional Court in procedures for assessing compliance with the Constitution and the law, of which 258 were carried over from previous years. The public has no information about who submitted these initiatives, how important they are, or how long they are waiting to be resolved, Kovačević said.
"We remind you that the CDT has been waiting for almost a year and a half for the decision of the Constitutional Court on the initiative to review the constitutionality of the Decision on the Amendment to the Statute of the Municipality of Nikšić, which introduced the 'baptism' of the city. With this decision, the Municipality of Nikšić placed the Orthodox religious community in a privileged position, which contrary to the principle of equality and the right to freedom of religion. The task of the Constitutional Court is to prevent possible discrimination, not to ignore it. Their passivity encouraged other municipalities to adopt similar discriminatory regulations," she believes.
It also indicates that the CDT's initiative for the evaluation of amendments to the Law on the Territorial Organization of Montenegro, by which the municipality of Zeta was formed during the announced election process, has been waiting for more than two years. "Although the mistakes made in the long-overdue electoral process can no longer be corrected, it is necessary for the Constitutional Court to state its position so that passivity is not understood as support for changes to electoral boundaries during the electoral process itself. This issue is particularly important in the context of the upcoming electoral reform, which should prevent future violations of standards for fair elections."
Kovačević said that the lack of transparency in the work of the Constitutional Court is a serious problem.
"This institution, which should be the guarantor of constitutionality and legality, acts as a 'black hole' in which initiatives disappear, and citizens are left without any information about the outcome or time frame of decision-making. The non-transparency and closedness of the Constitutional Court has been the subject of criticism by international organizations for years. especially in the context of handling election appeals, but these criticisms did not bring any changes."
She also said that the Constitutional Court, while other institutions of the judicial and administrative system, through decades of reforms, are slowly moving towards greater openness towards the public, remains closed, without mechanisms that would ensure accountability and transparency. Such a practice threatens legal security and makes it difficult to monitor and control the work of a key institution that should be a pillar of justice and constitutional order in Montenegro, says the program director of the CDT.
"We demand an urgent resolution of these issues, so that the Constitutional Court can begin to respond to numerous initiatives - not only ours, but also many others that have been waiting for an answer for years," the announcement reads.
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