Centre for Civic Education (CCE) and Institute Alternative (IA) assess as be hasty and unfounded the reaction of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, which underlines that it shall “consider further cooperation” with Human Rights Action (HRA), as well as that the “trust in the professionalism and objectivity of work” of this non-governmental organisation has deteriorated.
In addition to undisputed contribution to democratisation of society by Human Rights Action (HRA), we find that the correspondence between the executive director of this NGO and representative of European Commission was precisely for the purpose of creating an independent, professional and efficient judiciary, within which the appraisal and the appointment of judges and prosecutors would be based solely on precise and objective criteria.
Continuous obstructions that state bodies impose on civil society, reports from public debates with “favourable” comments and suggestions only, as well as the lack of access to the EC opinion on key legislation, are putting civil sector into situation to search for new ways to represent their recommendations. Thus, the communication with European Commission is actually the only safe manner which guarantees that recommendations of civil sector will be reviewed.
Supreme court of Montenegro and other state institutions have to respect the regulations which regulate the cooperation with civil sector, that enable free access to information, along with an additional obligation of reviewing all proposals and suggestions that could contribute in the improvement of institutional and legislative framework, instead of rejecting them in advance solely because they come from critically oriented organisations.
Daliborka ULJAREVIĆ, executive director of Centre for Civic Education (CCE)
Stevo MUK, president of Management board of Institute Alternative (IA)