At the initiative of Human Rights Action and Juventas, a group of 16 NGOs submitted a proposal of amendments of the Criminal Code to the Minister of Justice and Vice President of the Government of Montenegro Mr. Dusko Markovic. The proposal was sent regarding the Draft Law on Amendments to the Criminal Code (CC), and aims to achieve its complete and long-term compliance with international standards and recommendations, as well as constitutional guarantees in the field of non-discrimination and fight against hatred and intolerance.
Out of changes proposed we highlight the following:
1) Amending the proposed stringent hate crime punishment in two ways:
a) by expanding the list of personal characteristics which in practice prove to be the most common motives for discrimination and hatred (beside race, religion, nationality or ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity that have already been suggested) with: health condition, disability, skin color, political or other belief, language, education, property, birth, social status;
b) by introducing qualified forms of criminal offences executed with a biased motivation.
2) Amending the Article 443, Racial and other discrimination in a way it prohibits the propagation of other forms of hatred and discrimination (based on sex, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics) in addition to the only one explicitly mentioned in this Article (racial).
3) Introducing a new criminal offence: Violation of freedom of expression of sexual orientation and genderidentity according to the model of a criminal offence named Violation of freedom of expression of national or ethnic origin (Art. 160) and Violation of freedom of religion and the performance of religious rites (Art. 161)
The initiative has been supported by 14 other NGOs:
