Summary action points based on findings

·         Improve the implementation of the Strategy for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities in Montenegro (2008–2016); in 2012, discrimination prevented persons with disabilities from accessing medical care and from securing employment.

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

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 2012. This included seven children; adult casualties included a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina and an Albanian citizen.[3]

There have been at least eight cluster munition casualties in Montenegro. Cluster submunitions caused four civilian casualties since their use in 1999. Another four civilian casualties occurred during cluster munition strikes.[4]

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.[5]

There is no specific victim assistance coordination in Montenegro. 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.[6] 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.[7] An action plan for implementing the strategy in 2012–2013 was adopted in March 2012; the Council for Protection of People with Disabilities was established in May and began recruiting new staff.[8] However, the implementation of the strategy was considered “poor” and persons with disabilities continued to encounter discrimination and face numerous obstacles to inclusion.[9]

According to the government, emergency medical care is available for all citizens of Montenegro through the national Institute for Urgent Health Care.[10] 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.[11] While all persons with disabilities are entitled to free health care, it was reported that such care was not always satisfactory or accessible and, in at least one case, a person with a disability was refused care.[12]

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.[13] 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 munitions following from bombing.[14]

In 2012, 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, employers rarely did so, opting instead to make payment into the government fund for employment and professional rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.[15] The state disability allowance was found to be insufficient to promote inclusion in the community.[16]

Little progress was identified in the implementation of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination of People with Disabilities (2011). Discrimination persisted, and despite legislation that required all new public buildings be made accessible to persons with disabilities, access remained a concern.[17]

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