The round table ”Improvement of Respect for Human Rights of Residents of the Public Institution ‘Komanski most’ – persons with mental disability” was held on Monday, 14 November 2011, in the Hotel Crna Gora from 10 AM to 2 PM. At the round table the NGO monitoring team presented their Report on respect of human rights of the ”Komanski most” residents, with conclusions and recommendations. The Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Mr. Suad Numanović, Ph.D., Mrs. Dawn Adie-Baird, Task Manager at the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, Director of “Komanski most” Mr. Vaselj Dušaj, with their assistants, took part in the discussion, as well as the assistant to the minister of health, Mr. Mensur Grbovic, who has been a doctor (general practice) with the institution for numerous years. The representative of UNICEF, Ms. Nela Krnic also contributed to the discussion.

The NGO monitoring report considered level of implementation of recommendations uttered by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment  (CPT) in the report on the visit to Montenegro in 2008, when the living conditions in the institution had been assessed as ”appalling” and the treatment of residents as ”inhuman and degrading”. The NGO report also had taken into account previous recommendations of the Montenegrin Ombudsman and added further recommendations of the monitoring team. The report and recommendations have generally been approved by the management of ”Komanski most” and the minister Numanović.

General assessment was that there had been significant improvement in the residents’ living conditions due to the change of management (director), which had taken place in summer 2010, as well as additional investment in refurbishment. Nevertheless, the institution remains considerably under-staffed and the health services for the residents need to be improved. Furthermore, all residents need to be reassessed and adequate individual programs for full development of their potentials prepared in accordance with the law. The main recommendations of the team addressed those issues, and suggested foundation of the independent council made of parents, NGO activists or other concerned citizens that would continue monitoring the institution and also provide for more avenues for inclusion of its residents into society.

The round table is part of the project “Monitoring Respect for Human Rights in Closed Institutions in Montenegro” implemented by Human Rights Action (HRA) as project leader, and partner organisations: Centre for Anti-Discrimination “EQUISTA”, Centre for Civic Education (CCE), Women’s Safe House, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, and Latvian Centre for Human Rights. The project has been financially supported by the European Union through Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro and by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The report is available to date only in Montenegrin language, but the table with recommendations, highlighting which recommendations have been fulfilled to date and which yet remain to be implemented is available here.