"An independent and impartial judiciary is an absolute prerequisite for the establishment of the rule of law and the basic guarantee of a fair trial and equality before the law" as stated at the presentation of a draft policy paper "Independent and impartial judiciary in Montenegro - challenges and obstacles" that was organized by the Centre for Democracy and Human rights - CEDEM.
This policy paper represents one of the key results of the project "European Integration of Montenegro - Strengthening the independence and impartiality of the judiciary". It was produced with financial assistance of the Slovak Aid and support of Pontis Foundation and the Balkan Network for the Development of Civil Society.
The publication was created in order to examine the independence and impartiality of the judiciary in the context of international human rights standards, as well as to identify some of the key challenges in the implementation of judicial reform and define recommendations for its improvement. Besides the analysis of the legal framework, the text is based on the research among judges, lawyers, media representatives and civil society organizations, on the results achieved in the reform of the judiciary.
Marija Vuksanovic, project coordinator and co-author, presented key findings and recommendations of the policy paper, while Mr. Siniša Bjeković from the Centre for Human Rights of the Faculty of Law, co-author of the publication, presented a part relating to impartiality as a guarantee of a fair trial in the national legislation and jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Right. Mr. Pažin, Montenegro's State Agent before the European Court of Human Rights spoke about the importance of judicial reform in the context of European Integration.
In addition to organizers, the presentation was attended by Mr.Ervin Spahić, president of the Parliamentary Committee for the political system, judiciary and administration, representatives of the courts, the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro, Montenegro Legal Bar Association and NGOs involved in democratization and human rights, as well as significant number of media representatives. At the end of the conference, it was concluded that we should continue working to improve conditions for the independence and impartiality of the courts, but also to strengthen integrity and accountability of the judicial officials.