Montenegrin
Better cooperation between civil society organizations and justice authorities in Montenegro will be established during the project implemented by the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), said the coordinator of the Legal Department of that organization, Bojan Bozovic.
Today, at the Consultative Meeting with Civil Society Organizations, he presented the project “Judicial Reform: Upgrading the capacity of civil society organizations to contribute to the integrity of the judiciary”, which was supported by the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro within the CSF 2016 Call for Proposals.
Božović said that CeMI’s primary goal was to upgrade the capacities of civil society organizations in the process of contributing to the integrity of the judiciary.
“The desire to deal with this project was created after we saw the European Commission Report for 2016, which, among other things, shows some weaknesses in our judiciary at a given moment. On this basis, we wanted to emphasize that the main goal of this project should be to contribute to the achievement of a higher level of rights in Montenegro, “Božović explained.
According to him, in order to achieve this goal, one of the great challenges is working on the best possible cooperation between civil society organizations and the judiciary in Montenegro.
“Consequently, as specific goals we can see the assessment and increase of the level of professionalism, responsibility, efficiency and integrity of the institutions, through the establishment of mechanisms of cooperation between civil society organizations and judicial institutions.
On the other hand, our goal is to improve the monitoring capacities within local organizations in order to increase the level of civil society involvement in the judicial system reforms in Montenegro, as well as all the activities that await us during the closure of Chapter 23 on the judiciary and other human rights, “said Bozovic.
He said that one of the activities that CeMI will implement is the establishment of a joint project management committee between civil society organizations and judicial institutions.
“We will carry out these activities through the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between project promoters and large judicial institutions in Montenegro, as well as through regular communication and meetings that would be conducted between civil society organizations and the judiciary in joint committees,” Bozovic said.
“One of the important activities will be the implementation of research on the judicial system and integrity of Montenegro,” said Bozovic.
The deputy head of the DEU Cooperation Sector, Audrone Urbonaviciute, said seven projects received grants under the CSF Call for Proposals for 2016.
“In this public call, we have opted 1.8 million euros and at the end of seven non-governmental organizations will receive financial assistance together. These seven organizations are leading partners, and there are still 13 of their partners in these projects, “said Urbonaviciute.
She believes that the activities of these organizations will also have indirect effects.
“In this way, they help strengthen the capacity of smaller organizations to help them in their local communities to get involved more effectively in making benefits for citizens,” Urbonaviciute said.
Head of Cooperation for the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, Hermann Spitz, said that in countries that are in the process of integration, there are many challenges in many sectors where, as he pointed out, participation of civil society should be key and not only in the sense of integration, “already for the benefit of all citizens”.
“Active and professional civil society organizations can do a lot to create a more open and more transparent context for people to channel their feelings, to advocate for certain things and to control the work of state authorities,” Spitz said.
He believes that in this way civil society organizations are involved in creating a dynamic society, assessing that such democracies cannot be without active and dynamic civil society organizations of civil society.
