Montenegro

Regional Human Rights and Justice Community of Practice Meeting

Podgorica, 13-14 September 2010

Regional Human Rights and Justice Community of Practice Meeting

In the context of a growing interest and programme interventions in the area of legal aid, legal empowerment and alternative dispute resolution, UNDP Bratislava Regional Center together with UNDP Montenegro and its Rule of Law and Human Rights Programme organized a two-day Regional Community of Practice Meeting for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The meeting was held in Podgorica, Montenegro and it gathered members of the Community of Practice and their national counterparts. It aimed to discuss the specific challenges, issues and lessons learnt; showcase national experiences; learn from the practices in the region, with specific focus on disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, including minorities; and learn from Montenegrin experience.

At the opening of the Community of Practice (CoP) Meeting, Mr. Alexander Avanessov, UNDP Resident Representative/UN Resident Coordinator to Montenegro said: “The goal of this gathering is to share extensive knowledge and experiences among UNDP Country Offices and their national partners in the field, and we will work together to create not only common understanding of what was achieved in each country/region in the domain of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Legal Aid and Legal Empowerment of the Poor, but to know better what are the obstacles ahead of us and how we can solve them through further cooperation and development”.

Mr. Avanessov shared the experiences that UNDP Montenegro gained through the Rule of Law and Human Rights Programme, emphasizing the progress made in the following two domains: 1) Legal Aid - the two-year long work of UNDP Montenegro in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, holders of judicial positions, other relevant national stakeholders, international partners and non-governmental organizations resulted in creation of the draft Law on Legal Aid. The forthcoming implementation of this Law will create a state-funded and sustainable system of legal aid provision for the Montenegrin inhabitants, thus fulfilling one of the fundamental human rights and one of the basic EU accession requirements; and 2) Alternative Dispute Resolution - that for UNDP Montenegro means further development/enlargement of the existing mediation structure in the country. Mediation was introduced in Montenegro in 2005 as a way to disburden the courts of their heavy workload and UNDP in Montenegro contributes to this important work by promotion of mediation in the Montenegrin courts, strengthening the capacities of the national Center for Mediation, education of mediators, which will all lead to a broader usage of mediation as an alternative dispute resolution tool.

 

“Through these projects we seek and succeed in the Legal Empowerment of the Poor. Legal Aid Project gives a legal voice to those that before could not afford to hire a lawyer to represent them, while mediation offers a broad scope of possibilities for the resolution of disputes and protection of rights outside of the court,” Mr. Avanessov concluded.

Ms. Branka Lakočević, Deputy Minister of Justice said that UNDP Montenegro has been a long term partner to this Ministry in the judiciary reform through various projects that are focused on strengthening independence of the judiciary, access to justice, alternative dispute resolution, and fight against corruption and organized crime. “I would like to use this opportunity to emphasize the role of UNDP in Montenegro in the judiciary reform, starting from the support to the development of Strategy and Action Plan for the reform of Judiciary for the period from 2007 – 2012, as well as through a number of projects. Currently, the Ministry of Justice coordinates and participates in the implementation of four projects supported by UNDP, and these are – a) Strengthening Capacities of the Ministry of Justice; b) Reform of the Legal Aid System in Montenegro: creating an effective and sustainable system of providing legal aid; c) Strengthening Capacities of Judiciary to Fight Corruption and Organized Crime; and d) Strengthening Capacities of the Mediation Center and Promotion of Alternative Sanctions.”

“In the previous period we paid special attention to introducing mediation and creating conditions for solving disputes in alternative ways to the largest extent possible, which aims at increasing efficiency of the judiciary system and faster access to justice. Our plans for the future are to conduct an analysis of mediation system in Montenegro and, as a result of that analysis, get recommendations on how to proceed in the development of mediation,” said Ms. Lakočević.

 

Mr. Miroslav Knežević, Director of the Mediation Center of Montenegro said: “Implementation of the mediation practice has so far shown obvious progress and that especially due to the synchronized work of the Ministry of Justice, Mediation Center and international donors. Montenegrin Mediation Center is the youngest one in the region, but has already received the most positive evaluation by the international stakeholders and experts”. Mr. Knežević also added that: “The Mediation Center established two field offices - in Kotor and Bijelo Polje, with an aim to increase efficiency of work. These two offices will serve not only for the mediation proceedings, but also for the implementation of programmatic activities”.   

He also explained that by mediation proceedings in commercial and property disputes (in total 33 cases in 2009) resources in the amount of EUR 12 417 785.17 were released, which was of special importance for increasing financial capacity of the economic sector and removing barriers to business development.

At the closing of the two-day regional conference, Ms. Kristine Blokhus, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative to Montenegro said: “It is of fundamental importance that we have established, and that we continue to nurture, the networks between UNDP and national counterparts, between UNDP offices in different countries, as well as direct bilateral links between practitioners in our different countries. What I have seen over the past two days is that you have all taken advantage of the opportunity to debate, ask questions, and learn from the experience of other countries. This, we know, saves time and resources in future programming. I would suggest that the most valuable thing about this meeting has been the establishment of more personal connections; it is people who create change and I am sure these personal contacts will be precious in your future work. ”.

 

 

 

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In the Europe and CIS region, reform to create independent justice system and ensure access to justice for all is underway in many countries. Lack of affordable legal services affects anyone who is poor and has serious effects on retirees, persons with disabilities, the persistently unemployed, refugees, minorities and women. The lack of low cost legal advice and representation for members of vulnerable groups is coupled with a widespread lack of awareness of human rights and government obligations and responsibilities.

Access to justice is a vital part of the UNDP mandate to reduce poverty and to strengthen democratic governance. Within the broad context of justice reform, UNDP’s niche lies in supporting justice and related systems so that they work for those who are poor and disadvantaged. According to the Access to Justice (A2J) survey from 2008 (by Bratislava Regional Center), most countries of the region, 85.7% , have a planned or ongoing judicial reform process; all countries have either a formal or informal system of legal aid provision; Legal aid is provided predominantly in both criminal and civil matters; others areas, for example, are administrative, family, human rights and commercial matters. The legal providers constitute mostly representatives of Bar Associations (50 %) and legal clinics (42.9 %). Please see graph below for details.
 

In 78.6 percent of the respondent countries, there is provision for alternative dispute resolution (ADR); out of those countries with provision for ADR, the mechanisms are active in 81.8 percent of them.

Last few years, at the Bratislava Regional Center level all efforts in access to justice area were mostly directed at consolidation of the available information and defining strategic entry points for regional programming.

For 2010, based on demands from Country Offices (more than 60 % of the COs are interested in getting more information about public legal aid and learning experiences of other countries, and 57 % of the respondents are looking for a knowledge on ADR) BRC will support sharing of experiences, development of knowledge products and services, and peer-to-peer support in the areas of legal aid, ADR, and legal empowerment.