Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Montenegro is responsible for landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW). Montenegro has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Montenegro ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 2 November 2009.

Casualties

There were no mine/ERW casualties identified in Montenegro in 2015. The last mine/ERW casualties were reported in July 2012, when six casualties were identified in one incident with an antivehicle mine; four adults and two children were injured while traveling in a car near the city of Gusinje, close to the border with Albania. One of the adults, a woman, was Albanian.[1]

Prior to 2012, the last casualties reported in Montenegro were in 2008, when a border police officer was injured when he drove over a landmine and, in a separate incident, a child was injured by a hand grenade he found in a wall in Podgorica.[2]

The Monitor identified 18 mine/ERW casualties (four killed and 14 injured) between 1999 and December 2013. This included seven children. Adult casualties included a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Albanian citizen (in 2012).[3]

Cluster munition casualties

At least nine cluster munition casualties have been reported for Montenegro.[4] Unexploded submunitions have caused four civilian casualties since their use in 1999. Another five casualties occurred during cluster munition strikes, of which at least four were civilians.[5] In 2013, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), in cooperation with the Montenegrin Regional Centre for Underwater Demining, identified seven survivors of cluster munitions in Montenegro.[6]

In November 2012, the Montenegrin court system awarded €85,000 in compensation for pain and suffering to the family members of a boy who was killed by a cluster submunition in 1999.[7] The court ruled that the state of Montenegro failed in its obligation to “protect and guarantee the safety of the citizens” when it failed to “warn the citizens about the immediate danger to life and safety and to properly control the area in the given circumstances;” those circumstances included the presence of cluster munition remnants following bombing.[8]

Victim Assistance

The total number of survivors living in Montenegro is not known; in 2004, 260 mine/ERW survivors were recorded as living in Montenegro.[9] The Monitor recorded another 10 mine/ERW survivors from incidents since 2004.[10]

Victim assistance coordination and participation

Montenegro designated contacts within the ministries of health, and labor and social welfare as victim assistance focal points for the implementation of Article 5 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions; there is no specific victim assistance coordination mechanism.[11] In 2013, the government re-established the council on the rights of persons with disabilities within the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. The then short-lived council had been abolished in 2011.[12] National NGOs criticized the placement of the council within the ministry, asserting that its lack of independence would limit its role and importance.[13]

The ministries of health, labor and social welfare, education and sports, science, culture, and human and minority rights all have responsibilities for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. Montenegro has a Strategy for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities in Montenegro (2008–2016), adopted in compliance with the CRPD.[14] An action plan for implementing the strategy in 2014–2015 was adopted in March 2014, including specific targets to improve availability and access to services and programs such as healthcare, social protection, and professional rehabilitation, as well as to align policies and laws with the provisions of the CRPD.[15] An intergovernmental working group, which includes representatives of persons with disabilities, monitors the implementation of the strategy and its action plans.[16]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Montenegro has reported that mine/ERW survivors, including survivors of cluster submunitions, along with all victims of war, are entitled to free medical care and physical rehabilitation, including prosthetic limbs, through the national health insurance system. The law regulating the national health insurance system recognizes the category of victims of cluster munitions. Rehabilitation services are possible only for certain types of disability and mostly only provided as one-time assistance, immediately after the injury or treatment. A small number of persons with disabilities are able to access appropriate rehabilitation services for a longer period of time. A survey of persons with disabilities shows that more than half (as many as 57%) do not use physical rehabilitation services due to limited availability or because they are not entitled to it by law.[17]

According to the Association of Youth with Disabilities the right to medical and technical assistive devices is limited for persons with disabilities in Montenegro. The Association reported that procedures are problematic and take too long as do the times between devices being granted. The list of state approved devices is very restricted and persons with disabilities are not able to choose between different suppliers. A variety of devices and high standard of quality guaranteed by the CPRD are not available. The law defines the possibility, but not the obligation for the national fund to conclude agreements with providers of rehabilitation services and assistive devices. Citizens do not have a choice in where they get prosthetic devices. The medical fund solely maintains a contract with the company Ruda Montegero, but without public tender procedures.[18]

Survivors may be entitled to a monthly pension and other benefits, based on the degree of their disability, on equal terms as other persons with disabilities.[19] A law passed in May 2013 severely cut benefits for persons with disabilities, eliminating the subsidies received by some persons with disabilities.[20]

Montenegro reported that the law does not discriminate against or among cluster munition victims, or between cluster munition victims and those who have suffered injuries or disabilities from other causes; differences in treatment are based only on medical, rehabilitative, psychological, or socio-economic needs of victims.[21] However, only persons with a category of disability higher than 70% are recognized by national legislation, raising concerns about discrimination between persons with disabilities. Discrimination is also present in the medical sector where healthcare is guaranteed, to a large extent, to children, but not adults, and to veterans with disabilities and civilian war victims, but not persons with other causes of disabilities.[22]

In 2015, unemployment remained a serious problem for persons with disabilities.[23] Significant prejudice among employers when it comes to employing persons with disabilities continued to impact economic integration of mine/ERW survivors.[24]

National laws and policies

Legislation required that public facilities be made accessible to persons with disabilities by September 2013, but a number of institutions remained inaccessible after the deadline.[25] Construction to make the parliament building accessible began in August 2015.[26] Access to buildings for persons with disabilities remained limited, including for education and medical facilities.[27]

It was reported that only 2% of persons with disabilities were employed in 2015.[28] Employers with between 20 and 50 employees must employ at least one person with disabilities, while persons with disabilities must make up at least 5% of employees at companies with more than 50 employees.[29] Many employers opted instead to make payment into the government fund for employment and professional rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. There were allegations that the use of those resources was not transparent, subsequently the majority of the funds were returned to the general government budget at the end of 2015.[30] Monitoring and penalties of provisions to increase employment of persons with disabilities remained weak and financial support paid to employers for employing persons with disabilities was insufficiently protected against misuse, according to the European Commission.[31]

A new law prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities was adopted in July 2015.[32] The text of the law as approved by the government differed significantly and contained weaker provisions that those in the text for public discussion during the drafting process. Civil society and disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs) made a public appeal to prevent the law from being rushed through with the so called expedient procedure, and without the involvement of persons with disabilities in further consultations.[33]