Report on Human Rights Practices Country of Montenegro

Montenegro is a mixed parliamentary and presidential republic. Both the president and the unicameral parliament (the Assembly) are popularly elected. The president nominates, and the Assembly approves, the prime minister. According to international observers, Assembly elections held in 2009 met international standards but underscored the need for further democratic development. Security forces reported to civilian authorities. One of the most important human rights problems facing the country was the mistreatment of refugees and other persons displaced as a consequence of conflicts in the 1990s and the absence of a resolution of their legal status. Another was societal discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, and disability. Corruption continued to be a serious problem, despite some improvements in the government’s battle against it. It was fostered by extensive cronyism and nepotism, weak controls over conflicts of interest, and the failure of the executive and judicial branches to identify and prosecute corrupt high-ranking officials. Other human rights problems included police mistreatment of suspects under arrest; substandard prison conditions; lengthy pretrial detention and protracted and inefficient trials; inadequate independence of the judiciary; physical attacks on journalists and politicization of the media that weakened the effectiveness of the press; denial of public access to information; domestic and other violence against women; child marriage among the Roma; and trafficking in persons. Roma lacked adequate access to employment, education, and housing. Infringement of workers’ rights and child labor were also reported.