2/12/2015 – JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS INACCESSIBLE TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

1/12/2015 – THE STATE FAILS TO ADEQUATELY RESPOND TO TORTURE OF PRISONERS FOR OVER 10 MONTHS
01/12/2015
3/12/2015 – ROUND TABLE ON APPLICATION OF POLICE POWERS DURING THE PROTESTS IN OCTOBER
03/12/2015

2/12/2015 – JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS INACCESSIBLE TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

NOVI LOGO logo CeMIOn the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, NGOs Human Rights Action (HRA) and Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI) note with regret that judicial institutions are still not accessible to persons with disabilities. Most of them do not have even the most basic element of accessibility – the entry ramp. The busiest Basic Court in Podgorica has a ramp that does not comply with regulations.

The joint HRA and CeMI proposal from July 2015 (made within recommendations of the Report on implementation of the Judicial Reform Strategy 2007-2012) that the Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy for the Reform of Judiciary in 2014-2016 should be supplemented with concrete measures, actions and deadlines in order to urgently, at the latest by the middle of 2016 provide access to persons with disabilities to all judicial institutions has not been accepted.

The Supreme Court has drafted an Analysis of accessibility of the courts to persons with disabilities, as was reported in the second semi-annual Report on implementation of the measures from the Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy for the Reform of Judiciary for the period 1 February 2015 – 31 July 2015. However, it is about time to undertake concrete commitments in order to urgently provide access to courts to persons with disabilities. HRA and CeMI remind that adjustment of 13 priority facilities, including the Basic Court in Podgorica, has been pending since 2008. Meanwhile, persons with disabilities live in a state of permanent discrimination with no end in sight. It is ironic that the judiciary restricts access to justice in such an obvious manner to a part of the population that has the same rights as everyone else.

HRA and CeMI