The Consumer Counseling Centre of the Centre for Civic Education (CCE), formed at the beginning of November this year, has successfully finished its work. During the previous two months, three law students from Montenegro participated in the activities of the Consumer Counseling Centre, which in this manner with the mentor support, had the opportunity to further widen their knowledge, but also gain precious practical skills by giving out advice and legal aid to interested consumers.
The establishment and activities of the Consumer Counseling Centre were preceded by the Academy on Consumer Rights. Fifteen law students completed this intensive three-day training, led by renowned lecturers from Montenegro, and three of the participants got the opportunity to continue their further training through a paid internship at the Consumer Counseling Centre – Jovana Vučeraković, Kristina Janković and Mina Čogurić.
In addition to working directly with consumers, the interns also participated in the preparation of a video campaign, as well as a digital brochure, which will be published during the next month, with the aim of contributing to further raising awareness of the importance and mechanisms of consumer rights protection.
„Work in the Consumer Counseling Centre gave me the opportunity to take part in activities associated with one very important issue in contemporary society. Advising and helping citizens required good preparation that included research of legislative framework and practice, which will be useful in my further law carrier“, states Mina Čogurić, one of the interns.
Kristina Janković assesses that “it was challenging to try out the role of an advisor in matters concerning consumer rights”, but also emphasizes that it was “exceptionally productive, bearing in mind that a small number of lawyers, during their studies, get the opportunity to conduct independent research, study and draws conclusions and advice based on real situations from everyday life. In addition, the activities at the Consumer Counseling Centre reminded me of the importance of innovation in finding creative solutions, and even when it comes to the law, given that, for the sake of informing and educating citizens about the importance of knowing the rights they have as consumers, I tried to present information in an interesting, but at the same time clear and receptive manner.”
Mentors in the Consumer Counseling Centre were Nikolina Tomović, a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montenegro (UoM) and lawyer Edvin Zverović.
Consumer Counseling Centre and paid internship were conducted as a part of the project Informed Consumer – Safe Consumer, implemented by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism (MEDT).
Damir Suljević, Programme Associate