Podgorica, PR press service - The Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) has, within the framework of the project "Access to justice and human rights in Montenegro - trial monitoring project 2021-2023" implemented in partnership with the Human Rights Action HRA, signed contracts with civil society organizations that have been allocated funds within the sub-granting program.

The project was financed by the European Union, and co-financed by the Ministry of Public Administration.

The project coordinator, Maja Bjelic, announced that the Institute for Legal Studies IPLS, the Montenegrin LGBT Association Queer Montenegro and the Media Union of Montenegro received financial support for the projects.

She pointed out that the general goal of the project includes contributing to further democratization and raising the level of application of the rule of law and respect for human rights in Montenegro, through an advocacy campaign aimed at key decision makers for legislative and institutional changes in the application of the criminal justice system in Montenegro.

"One of the goals of the project is to strengthen public awareness of the most important aspects of equal access to justice, including new legal mechanisms and human rights," said Bjelic.

According to her, the goal of the project is to strengthen the role of civil society in promoting human rights and good governance, especially in the area of access to justice and the rule of law.

The representative of IPLS, Tijana Zivkovic-Petrakovic, said that the general goal of the project "Improving the protection system in the judicial system of Montenegro" is a contribution to the protection of human rights of vulnerable social groups in the judicial system of Montenegro, and the specific goal is to improve the effectiveness of legal and institutional mechanisms for victim support.

She said that they expect successful cooperation and full implementation of the project in the coming period.

On behalf of Queer Montenegro, they said that the goal of the project "Equal access to justice for LGBTIQ+ persons in Montenegro" is to contribute to improving the level of professionalism and integrity of the judiciary in ensuring equal access to justice for LGBTIQ+ persons through increasing the degree of participation of CSOs in the process of monitoring and/or creation of practical public policies related to the LGBTIQ+ community.

"Through our previous work, we have seen that the LGBTIQ+ community has different experiences with access to justice, i.e. every experience of an LGBTIQ+ person in the process of access to justice is different, from the initial conversation that includes reporting the violation of a certain right to the Police Directorate to the court process itself," said Milos Knezevic.

The representative of the Media Union of Montenegro, Bojana Konatar, pointed out that their project "Safety of journalists through court practice" refers to the safety of journalists and the practice of the courts on the above issue.

She thanked for the support received and expressed satisfaction for further cooperation.