Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) and Human Rights Action (HRA) protest the Government of Montenegro establishing the Council for monitoring the implementation of the judiciary reform 2014 – 2018, without announcing a public call for non-governmental organizations involved in the judicial reform monitoring process to nominate their representatives.

Such actions demonstrate that the Government is unfortunately not ready to include broader professional and especially critical public in the formal judicial reform monitoring process and make the results of implementation of strategic objectives more transparent.

Judicial Reform Strategy 2014-2018 provides that the Council should be composed of “representatives of judicial institutions and representatives of non-governmental organizations involved in the judicial reform monitoring process.” Out of all non-governmental organizations, the Government decided to involve in the Council only the Association of Judges of Montenegro.

With regard to this issue, NGO CeMI and HRA sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Montenegro to whom they suggested that the Government of Montenegro should announce a public call and enable NGOs with professional references and experience in judicial reform monitoring to nominate two representatives to the Council for monitoring the implementation of the Judicial Reform Strategy 2014-2018. CeMI and HRA are convinced that the membership of representatives of non-governmental organizations which have demonstrated their constructive and critical attitude towards the current scope of judicial reform could significantly contribute to its transparency and accelerate this demanding process for ensuring the rule of law in Montenegro.

The negative response of the Government of Montenegro to the proposal of CeMI and HRA (in Montenegrin) is available here.

Letter CeMI and HRA sent to the Prime Minister (in Montenegrin) is available here.