In its Motion for a Eruropean Parliament Resolution on the 2025 Commission Report on Montenegro, the European Parliament called on the Montenegrin authorities to fully implement all recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). At the same time, it expressed serious concern over the increase in the number of complaints of torture and coerced confessions, the backlog in resolving such cases, and the limited application of key safeguards, such as audio-visual recording of interrogations. It also pointed to the inconsistent application of suspensions of state officials in cases involving substantiated reports of ill-treatment, the insufficient conduct of disciplinary proceedings, and the imposition of mild sanctions in cases of ill-treatment by police officers. The European Parliament called for urgent, effective and impartial investigations into all allegations of ill-treatment.

The implementation of CPT recommendations is one of the key benchmarks for Montenegro’s progress in the area of the rule of law. It is also a closing benchmark for Chapter 23 in the negotiations with the European Union, which is why progress must be demonstrated through real changes, not only through plans and promises.

However, the CPT’s preliminary findings following its visit to Montenegro in November 2025 show that a large number of recommendations previously addressed by the Committee remain unimplemented. Even more seriously, in certain areas the situation has not improved, but has further deteriorated.

Human Rights Action (HRA) has, since the publication of those findings, pointed out that partial responses and limited measures by the Government cannot compensate for the absence of a systemic response to the problems that the CPT has been identifying for years. A public and accountable discussion is needed on the implementation of all CPT recommendations, with clearly defined institutional obligations, deadlines and measures that will finally ensure their implementation in practice.

Ten days ago, HRA sent a letter to the Minister of Justice, Bojan Božović, requesting that the public be informed whether the measures presented by the state in its response to the CPT as “ongoing” or “planned” have meanwhile been implemented. CPT recommendations cannot be considered fulfilled solely on the basis of responses and announcements, but only once they lead to real and verifiable improvements in the conditions in which persons de facto deprived of liberty are held in all closed institutions visited by the CPT: prisons, police stations, the Special Psychiatric Hospital “Dobrota” in Kotor, the “Komanski Most” Institution, the Ljubović Centre, and the Mladost Children’s Home in Bijela.

We once again call on the Government to introduce the automatic, immediate publication of CPT reports and the state’s responses. At this crucial historic moment for EU accession, transparency is a basic prerequisite for a credible assessment of reforms, especially when it comes to obligations that directly affect protection from torture and the human dignity of persons deprived of liberty.

Without the full implementation of CPT recommendations and a visible improvement of the situation in practice, Montenegro will not be able to convincingly demonstrate that it has met the closing benchmark under Chapter 23 regarding CPT recommendations, nor that it is genuinely committed to European standards for the protection of human rights.