Draft laws on the judiciary, considered at the plenum of the Parliament of Montenegro, allow conflict of interest for members of the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council and enable politicization of these bodies. These draft laws do not contain a provision on conflict of interest, unlike the Law on Electronic Communications or the Law on Public Broadcasting Service RTCG. As a consequence of this, the legal system of Montenegro better secures the independence and impartiality of the members of the Council of RTCG and Electronic Communications Agency than of members of the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, which have a duty to independently and impartially elect, assess and punish judges and prosecutors.

Although the Parliamentary Committee on Political System, Justice and Administration established a special working group consisting of MPs Draginja Vuksanović (SDP), Snežana Jonica (SNP) and Marta Šćepanović (DPS), in order to agree with the proposer on amendments that will become an integral part of the Draft Law, only MP Dritan Abazović showed an interest in proposing an amendment submitted by HRA, with the aim of preventing conflicts of interest at least among members of the Judicial Council. Due to the fact that such provision has been continuously excluded from the current text of the laws on the Judicial Council and the State Prosecutor’s Office, the wife of the President and vice-president of the state’s strongest political party in Montenegro, Filip Vujanović (judge Svetlana Vujanović) was enabled to be a member of the Judicial Council and the President of the Disciplinary Committee of that body. Also, the absence of such provision allowed a member of the Prosecutorial Council as a distinguished lawyer to be at the same time a member of the State Election Commission before the ruling party (SDP, Hakija Lješnjanin).

HRA has been suggesting since 2008 that de-politicization of the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council should be provided by preventing that persons who were officials of political parties ten years prior to assuming that office or persons who are related to officials of the executive or the legislative power, or the President via family, in-law or marital bounds, can be elected as their members.
HRA proposed amendments to draft laws on the Judicial Council, State Prosecutor’s Office and the Constitutional Court are available here.

Even though HRA submitted more than 50 amendments to draft laws on the Judicial Council and the State Prosecutor’s Office, only few were accepted in the meantime by the working group of the Parliamentary Committee and the Minister of justice.

Tea Gorjanc Prelević
Executive Director