From July 29 to 31, a three-day seminar entitled "Between law and practice: key obstacles and challenges in the field of protection and promotion of the rights of minority peoples and other minority national communities in Montenegro" was held in the Hotel "Slovenska plaza" - for equality in the public and private sector".
The seminar was held as part of the project "Contribution to the development and improvement of the rights of minority peoples and other minority national communities in Montenegro", which is financed by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights.
Introductory presentation and lectures on "Management of ethnocultural pluralism in Montenegro" and "Multiculturalism and social cohesion" were held by Professor Danijela Vukovic Calasan, full professor of minority policy courses at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Montenegro. She emphasized the importance of achieving non-territorial minority self-government in Montenegro through further improvement of the work of minority councils and their position in the existing institutional framework, in accordance with the given competences. She also emphasized that the successful management of ethno-cultural pluralism does not only imply the use of measures and mechanisms of multiculturalism policy, but also the affirmation of plural identities at the level of individuals, as well as an increase in the level of interaction, understanding and acceptance between the communities themselves. In this sense, there were talks about what are the basic ideas of interculturalism as a corrective, supplementary model in minimizing certain, potentially disintegrating effects of multiculturalism.
The speaker during the first day of the seminar was Mr. Sinisa Bjekovic, Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro. During his presentation, he explained to the participants the functioning of the Ombudsman institution and pointed out that citizens' trust in the institution is growing. Also, a discussion was started on the topic of protection and violation of minority rights in the field of employment, and recommendations were given for improvements in that area.
During the second day of the seminar on the protection of the rights of minority peoples and other minority national communities in the Montenegrin legal order and the Strategy of Minority Policy 2019-2023, Mr. Bojan Bozovic, teaching assistant at the Faculty of Law of the University of Donja Gorica on subjects in the field of human rights and member of the Working Group, spoke for writing the Minority Policy Strategy 2019-2023. During the lecture, the participants had the opportunity to gain knowledge from the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in the field of minority protection.
Mr. Leon Gjokaj, Director General of the Directorate for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Minorities in the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, in the second part of the day compared the Montenegrin legislation and the international legal and institutional framework regarding the protection and promotion of the rights of minorities. During the lecture, a discussion was held on the topic of minorities in the field of education, minorities in the media and languages, and minorities. He pointed out that Montenegrin society has a strong foundation when it comes to respecting minority rights, but that it is an unstoppable process that requires continuous work.
The third day of the seminar was focused on practical work. Workshops were held led by Mr. Zlatko Vujovic, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences and president of the CeMI Board of Directors. Participants gained knowledge about the system of positive discrimination in the electoral system and the distribution of mandates for minority parties. Mr. Vujovic pointed out that the political representation of minorities in the Parliament is an important segment in a multicultural society such as Montenegrin, and that additional work is needed on it.
