Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture visited Montenegro

A delegation of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) recently carried out an eight-day visit to Montenegro. The visit, which began on September 15, 2008, was the CPT’s first periodic visit to Montenegro as an independent State. The CPT had already visited Montenegro in the past as part of its visit to the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2004. The recent visit was therefore an occasion to assess progress made in the last four years and the extent to which the CPT’s recommendations had been implemented.

In the course of the visit, the CPT’s delegation held consultations with Mr. Miraš Radović, Minister of Justice, Mr. Jusuf Kalamperović, Minister of Internal Affairs and State Administration, Dr. Miodrag Radunović, Minister of Health, Labour and Social Welfare, Mrs. Ranka Čarapić, Supreme State Prosecutor, Mr. Božidar Vuksanović, Director of the Penitentiary Service, as well as with senior officials from relevant Ministries. It also met Mr. Šefko Crnovršanin, Ombudsman, and held discussions with members of non-governmental and international organisations active in areas of concern to the CPT.

At the end of the visit, the delegation presented its preliminary observations to the Montenegrin authorities.

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:
• Mrs. Renate Kicker, Austria, Head of Delegation and First Vice-President of the CPT;
• Mr. Celso José Das Neves Manata, Portugal;
• Mr. Petros Michaelides, Cyprus;
• Mr. Vladimir Ortakov, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; and
• Mrs. Zoreslava Shkiryak-Nyzhnyk, Ukraine.

They were supported by Mrs. Petya Nestorova, Head of Division, and Mrs. Isabelle Servoz-Gallucci of the CPT’s Secretariat, and assisted by two experts: Dr. Clive Meux, consultant forensic psychiatrist, Oxford (United Kingdom) and Mr. Eric Svanidze, former Head of the Internal Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office (Georgia).

The delegation visited the following places:
1.— Establishments under the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Administration:
• Bar Police Department,
• Berane Police Department,
• Bjielo Polje Police Department,
• Budva Police Station,
• Danilovgrad Police Station,
• Kotor Police Station,
• Podgorica Police Department, and
• Ulcinj Police Station;
2.— Establishments under the authority of the Ministry of Justice:
• Establishment for sentenced prisoners, Podgorica,
• Remand Prison, Podgorica,
• Special Prison Hospital, Podgorica, and
• Bijelo Polje Prison;
3.— Establishments under the authority of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Welfare:
• Special Psychiatric Hospital of Dobrota, Kotor,
• “Komanski Most” Institution for people with special needs, and
• Centre for children and juveniles “Ljubović”, Podgorica.