Victim assistance commitments

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.

Casualties

Casualties Overview

There were no mine/ERW casualties identified in Montenegro in 2013. In 2012, six casualties were identified in one incident with an antivehicle mine in Montenegro. In July 2012, 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]

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.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9] National NGOs criticized the placement of the council within the ministry, asserting that its lack of independence would limit its role and importance.[10]

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. In December 2007, Montenegro adopted the Strategy for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities in Montenegro (2008–2016) to ensure compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).[11] 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.[12] The implementation of the strategy and its action plan is monitored by an intergovernmental working group which includes representatives of persons with disabilities.[13] The implementation of the strategy and its action plans was considered “poor” and “significantly behind.”[14]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

According to the government, emergency medical care is available for all citizens of Montenegro through the national Institute for Urgent Health Care.[15] 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. This law, regulating the national health insurance, recognizes the category of victims of cluster munitions. However, it does not discriminate against or among cluster munitions victims, or between cluster munitions 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.[16]

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.[17] 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.[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. Disability allowances provided in 2013 did not cover the cost of living.[20]

In 2013, unemployment remained a serious problem for persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors. While there was a quota system that required employers to hire persons with disabilities, many employers opted instead to make payment into the government fund for employment and professional rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.[21] In 2013, there were allegations that the use of resources by the fund was not transparent.[22]

The Law on Prohibition of Discrimination of People with Disabilities (2011) was not implemented effectively in 2013. Montenegrin law required that public facilities be made accessible to persons with disabilities by September 2013, but a number of institutions remained inaccessible after the deadline.[23]

Montenegro ratified the CRPD on 2 November 2009. In March 2014, Montenegro submitted its initial report on the implementation of the CRPD, which was due in 2011. As of March 2014, Montenegro had not designated a focal point for the implementation of the CRPD or an independent mechanism to promote, protect, and monitor its implementation as called for by Article 33 (1) of the convention.[24]