ECHR President praises Montenegro's judiciary reform

Strasbourg, France (6 November 2011) -- The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) has been impressed by Montenegro's track record as regards strengthening judiciary and promoting human rights and freedoms, President of the Court Nikolas Bratza remarked at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Duško Marković earlier today in Strasbourg.

Noting that the ECHR’s verdicts are not seen as acts against the state, but in its interest, DPM Marković said that the Montenegro’s reform activities indirectly contribute to the Court’s efficiency by creating preconditions for reducing the number of applications from Montenegro. “It is the best way of meeting Interlaken Declaration’s recommendations regarding the respect for the principle of subsidiarity in human rights protection,” he added.

He recalled of the fact that European Court for Human Rights has issued six judgements against Montenegro, three of which are legally binding. “Out of these three judgements, one has been fully executed, as noted by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. For the execution of other two judgements we have made action plans and submitted them to the Committee, and in all three cases we have paid just compensation,” the Deputy Prime Minister underlined.

The meeting paid special attention to strengthening independence, efficiency and accountability of the judiciary as a prerequisite for high quality protection of human rights guaranteed by the ECHR. Justice Minister Marković informed the ECHR President about the Government's initiative to amend the Constitution with the emphasis on proposed solutions related to the Constitutional Court in terms of increasing the number of judges by two and the establishment of three-member councils for considering consitutional appeals. 

The two officials agreed that ECHR has no issues with Montenegro, and that the cases from Montenegro are mainly related to the protection of the right to trail within a reasonable time and to judgements’ execution, underlining that there are no repeated cases.