Judicial Reform: Upgrading CSO's Capacities to Contribute to the Integrity of Judiciary

Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), in cooperation with the partner Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CeDEM), implemented a project “Judicial Reform: Upgrading COS’s capacities to contribute to the integrity of judiciary’’, supported by the European Commission (IPA).

The overall objective of the project was to contribute to the achievement of a higher level of rule of law in Montenegro which were reflected in the assessment and increase of the professionalism level, accountability, efficiency and integrity of the judiciary through the establishment of closer cooperation and more effective mechanisms between CSO’s and judicial institutions. The objective of this project was to improve capacity of local organizations and greater involvement of civil society in the reform of judicial system of Montenegro, as well as in negotiations on Chapter 23 (judiciary and basic human rights). Within this project CeMI was working on establishing a joint project management committee between CSOs and judicial institutions, signing a memorandum of cooperation, establishing regular communications and organizing meetings between CSOs and representatives of the judiciary in these committees.

The project also envisages monitoring of the most important court cases in Montenegro including the application of new institutes such as plea agreement and delayed prosecution. These activities were followed by publishing regular, annual reports (total of 2) on the key findings and recommendations we came through trial monitoring. During the project were organized two national conferences (one annually) for presenting annual reports on trial monitoring to key stakeholders from national justice, international partners and civil society organizations.

As one of the most important activities, we emphasize the regular monitoring of the media in Montenegro and the preparation of annual reports on media behavior regarding court proceedings in Montenegro. The mentioned reports, observations and key results were presented to media representatives and other relevant participants.