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Monitoring Right to Free Assembly – Montenegro Country Report

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This report aims to present the state of play concerning the right to free assembly in Montenegro, within the period from July 2016 until September 2017, except where it is stated otherwise.

The assessment aims to show developments in the aforementioned period, mostly focusing on policing of the assemblies as well as the accountability of authorities.

At the end of the assessment, the authors have provided the set of recommendations for the improvement of the conditions for exercising the right to free assembly in Montenegro.

This study was conducted as part of the ‘Monitoring Right to Free Assembly’ regional project, managed by the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL). The project is made possible by the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) through the Civic Space Initiative.

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Responding to the “argumentation” of the Ministry of Public Administration on legally banning public discussion

Institute Alternative strongly criticized the Government’s proposal to amend the Law on Public Administration, which stipulates that the public discussion will not be conducted “when the law i.e. the strategy, regulates issues in the field of defence, security and the annual budget; in cases of emergency, urgent or unforeseeable circumstances; when the issue is not significantly regulated by law.” After our condemnation of such initiative, the Ministry of Public Administration explained that such ban had already existed.

It is worrisome that Ministry’s only explanation to ban public discussion states that the same restriction is taken from the by-law, as we have heard from the statement given to Daily Vijesti, published on December 2nd this year. It is even more worrying that the ministry “does not remember” its promise that the disputed provisions will be deleted from the Regulation, and not reinforced by law.

Namely, we remind the public that Institute Alternative and other participants in the public debate proposed that these problematic provisions should be deleted from this bylaw, i.e. Draft regulation on the procedure and manner of conducting a public discussion in the preparation of the law, proposed during 2016. Moreover, the proposer of the Regulation, the Ministry of Interior, or then Directorate for Public Administration and Local Self-Government, accepted our proposal. There is a written proof on this, an official report on the public debate on the Draft Regulation, published on July 29, last year. (below is an excerpt from the report)

The Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, who has accepted this proposal, is the same Directorate who has sent to the Government the exact opposite solution and is composed of the same officials whose ministry has been renamed. We expected from the Ministry of Public Administration to at least attempt to explain why they have changed their position, which is that “it is necessary to provide a minimum participation of the stakeholders in the preparation of the law”.

The new ministry and the new government obviously made a step backward compared to the promise of the previous government. The draft law that is prohibiting public discussions is a very rigid move that leads to further closure of state administration and the expansion of the space for the arbitrariness of decision-makers who no longer have to make an effort to argue in defense of the proposed solutions.

The whole report on the conducted public debate on the Regulation a is available on the Ministry of Interior’s website (in Montenegrin): http://www.mup.gov.me/vijesti/163808/Izvjestaj-o-sprovedenoj-javnoj-raspravi-o-Nacrtu-uredbe-o-nacinu-i-postupku-ostvarivanja-saradnje-organa-drzavne-uprave-i-nevlad.html

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Institute Alternative at the regional training on monitoring freedom of assembly

Ivana Bogojević and Aleksandra Vavić, public policy researchers at Institute Alternative, participated in a regional training on monitoring freedom of assembly, from November 27 to 29, in Budapest. The training was organized by the European Center for Non-for-Profit Law and gathered 11 experts worlwide from the field of freedom of assembly.

IA representatives presented the latest follow-up research on the legislative framework regulating this area in Montenegro, as well as the practice in the period from August 2016 till September 2017. Research covers a brief overview of this area after the publication of the first study on freedom of assembly in Montenegro, in July 2016. The findings will be finalized and published by the end of this year.

Besides the presentation of IA’s research, experiences on some of the most important issues related to freedom of assembly were shared. Therefore, participants debated on respecting international and regional standards in this area, with particular emphasis on issues of accountability in the context of policy-making, the exercise of the right to access information, administrative barriers, the use of force, etc. In addition, special attention has been focused on issues of location of public gatherings, with a focus on the privatization of public space. These and similar issues were presented through judicial practice of the European Court of Human Rights.

Institute Alternative

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Call for media representatives for participation in the workshop “Open Data for Good Governance”

Institute Alternative in cooperation with NGOs Natura, Bonum, New Horizon and Center for Investigative Journalism invites media representatives to apply for participation in the workshop “Open Data for Good Governance”.

A two-day workshop is an intensive and practical training program for representatives of NGOs and media on specific available online tools to improve reporting on public administration reform challenges. Online tools will serve for more innovative visualization of data that will be available to citizens.

The workshop will be held on December 15 and 16, 2017 in the Hotel Adria in Budva.

All the costs of the workshop, including transportation and accommodation, are covered by Institute Alternative.

To sign up, you need to send:

1. CV
2. Motivational letter
3. Earlier authorial articles (links to an online article or a scanned article from a print media) on issues of transparency, accountability, open data, public finance management, service delivery, or, in the broadest sense, good governance topics and public administration reform.

Participants must have basic knowledge of computer work, including working basics in Excel.

The motivation letter should clearly answer the questions regarding which topics from good governance area would you like to explore, as well as what information would you like to present and in what way. The motivation letter may also contain a brief description of the problems you encountered when displaying information, whether this problem concerns the amount of information, the inaccessibility of information, the inability to present them in a visually attractive manner, etc.

Applications can be sent to Aleksandra Vavić, to e-mail address aleksandra@institut-alternativa.org until December 7, 2017. You can also contact Aleksandra via same e-mail if you have any additional questions.

Applications that do not contain a CV and a motivational letter will not be considered.

The workshop is organized within the framework of the project “Civil Society for Good Governance: To Act and Account!”, supported by the European Union within the Civil Society Facility and the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD), the project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) .

 

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IA at the SELDI event: Civil Society in the new EU Enlargement Strategy

Milena Milošević, our public policy researcher spoke at the round table “The New Enlargement Strategy for the Western Balkans – How to Enhance Civil Society Role in Anti-Corruption and Good Governance”, organised by the SELDI Network on 28 November, in Podgorica.

The Bulgarian and Austrian EU Council presidencies, as well as other initiatives, particularly Berlin Process and the upcoming new Enlargement Strategy, will put focus on the Western Balkans during next year. National governments will have to take ownership of their own integration process though demonstrating tangible results and concrete progress in both economic governance and anti-corruption.

Civil society has a key role to play in this process. Anti-corruption has to be addressed both comprehensively and horizontally with the increasing prioritisation of economic governance. This needs to be channelled through clear commitment on part of the Western Balkan countries and establishment of sustainable wide cooperation platform, involving decision-makers, CSOs, the business sector, as well as local, national and regional initiatives.

Public administration reform, as one of the three key pillars of the EU enlargement process, is particularly important area within which civil society, national and EU stakeholders should jointly work.

Milena presented Institute Alternative’s activities in monitoring of public administration reform in Montenegro and in the region, particularly within projects “WeBER” and “Civil Society for Good Governance: To Act and Account!”.

She emphasised the importance of networking of civil society and the media dealing with this reform from different perspectives, as well as importance of transparency of the EU negotiation process, so that NGOs can on an equal footing conduct an independent monitoring of public policies and progress in meeting certain criteria.

It was concluded at the event that it is necessary to prioritise the implementation of the independent evaluation, effective monitoring and assessment by CSOs. Western Balkan countries need to commit to establishing and promoting proper functioning of core institutions necessary for securing the rule of law. Prosecuting high-level corruption, fighting organized crime and corruption are hereby considered fundamental to countering the criminal infiltration of the political, legal and economic systems. The role of the public administration also needs to be highlighted, especially understood as impact-orientated, going beyond the current image of a formal technocratic process, alienated from the citizens.

IA Team