First Meeting of the Horizontal Facility Steering Committee

Podgorica, 10 May 2017

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to present you the state of play as regards the action "Fighting ill-treatment and impunity and Enhancing the application of the ECtHR case law at the national level (FILL) ".

At the outset, I would like to note the excellent cooperation with all the partner institutions which have taken full ownership of the project. Allow me to name them: Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, appellate courts, high courts, basic courts, administrative courts, judicial training center, PGO, judicial council, Ministry of Justice and Bar Association.

Let me also thank the EU Delegation for its valuable support. And of course a huge thank you to the project team here in Podgorica, Ivana Dragutinovic and Ana Jovanovic.

The project aims at enhancing the institutional capacities of the Constitutional Court and the entire judiciary towards a more coherent application of the Strasbourg case law. It also seeks to strengthen the capacity of the Judicial Training Center to provide high quality training on Human Rights for legal professionals on the basis of the methodology and the tools of the HELP programme.

One of the main obstacles in the effective implementation of the Convention requirements at the national level is the absence of a harmonised interpretation of the Strasbourg case law by national courts. In order to get a clear picture of the situation in Montenegro, two expert assessments are bieng conducted that will provide a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the application of the Convention by the Constitutional Court and the judiciary courts in the last three years. Recommendations on how to improve the situation will be provided as well and implemented under the Action.

In parallel, the institutional capacity of the Judicial Training Center is being strengthened through the development of courses that will be included in its in-service training programme. The topics concern the prohibition of ill-treatment and the right to a fair trial. Both courses are being developed under the HELP methodology and will therefore be adapted to the Montenegrin national legal system.

You all recall the successful support provided by the Council of Europe to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro through the EU/CoE joint project SOCCER, which led the European Court of Human Rights in finding that the individual complaint before the Constitutional Court was an effective remedy in terms of Article 13 of the Convention. This was done in the judgment Sinistaj & others v. Montenegro of November 2015. However, this is not the end of the story. The Constitutional Court’s efficiency still needs to be strengthened. Indeed, the backlog and inflow of appeals has significantly increased since 2015, whilst at the same time a growing number of appeals are rejected on procedural grounds (90% in 2016). In parallel, the number of applications to the Strasbourg Court has also increased with a huge number of inadmissibility ones. Thus in 2016, out of 224 applications, 220 were declared inadmissible. Therefore, the action will address 2 sets of challenges:

It will reinforce the capacity of judges and legal advisors of the Constitutional Court to deal efficiently with appeals brought to the Constitutional Court, and in a Human Rights friendly manner.

In this respect, I am delighted that the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Montenegro joined the network of superior courts set by the Strasbourg Court. Their participation will certainly contribute to a coherent approach and to enhancing a Human Rights friendly judiciary. The project will support the participation of the SCN Focal Points at the first meeting organised on 16 June when all the members of the SCN will meet for the first time.

The Action will also train lawyers in close cooperation with the Bar Associations on procedural requirements before the Constitutional Court and the Strasbourg Court. Again, this will be done under the HELP umbrella and will seek to lower the number of appeals/applications that are rejected on procedural grounds.

Another very important partner in this project is of course the Supreme Court, which plays a significant role in providing guidance to the lower courts. The project will support the Supreme Court in fully aligning its judicial practice with the case law of the ECtHR. This will be done notably through enhancing the work of its case law department. Indeed, the case law department plays a critical role in providing updated information in national case law and also on those taking place in Strasbourg.

Other important actions are planned under FILL:

  • The case management system of the Constitutional will be enhanced; its judgments will be fully available, thus reinforcing the transparency of the individual appeal system.
  • An e-learning plateform for judges and prosecutors will be introduced in the Judicial Training Center. HELP resources will be fully exploited.
  • Public awareness will be raised on the prohibition of torture in places of deprivation of liberty.

In order to reinforce the importance of all these actions, the Government Agent of Montenegro, will be added as a beneficiary institution under the Action and the staff of the office will be included in the project’s capacity development initiatives.

Coherence is also being achieved through coordination with the other projects implemented in Montenegro and in close synergies with the relevant entities in Strasbourg, such as the Department for the Execution of judgments.

Finally, I would like to close these remarks by recollecting that all our partners should not hesitate to seek the CoE’s support as regards legislative expertise in case new legislation is adopted, or legislation is revised in the areas of criminal justice and Human Rights. This could be the case for the amendments to the law on the right to a trial in a reasonable time. The Expertise Coordination Mechanism is precisely there for that purpose.

Thank you very much for your attention.

*     *

*