Montenegro

dedicated police unit was created for its enforcement. Civil society publicly expressed concerns that the law was overly broad and could be used to suppress press freedom.

RIGHT TO HOUSING AND FORCED EVICTIONS

People who were homeless or without adequate housing, as a result of redevelopment in Ulaanbaatar during recent years, faced a higher risk of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lack of access to sanitation facilities and protection from weather. Residents who lived in areas scheduled for redevelopment reported that construction companies immediately asked them to vacate their land and homes after signing development contracts with the government, but did not adequately consult and compensate them.

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

Schools and other educational facilities were closed from late January through August to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The government offered remote classes through television programmes, but access to education for children returning to remote areas from urban boarding schools was difficult because of poor internet connectivity or television network coverage. For many children who depended on school meals as a main source of nutrition, school closures affected access to adequate food and placed their health at higher risk.

MONTENEGRO

Republic of Montenegro Head of state: Milo Đukanović Head of government: Zdravko Krivokapić (replaced Duško Marković in December)

The government's response to COVID-19 violated rights to freedom of movement, peaceful assembly, non-discrimination and privacy. Impunity for war crimes, torture and other ill-treatment, and attacks on journalists persisted.

BACKGROUND

In August, the opposition coalition narrowly won parliamentary elections, ending 29 years of rule by the Democratic Party of Socialists under Milo Dukanović as Prime Minister or President. The period was characterized by corruption, human rights violations, media repression and impunity for war crimes.

Montenegro was the only European country where, as part of the COVID-19 control measures, the names of individuals required to self-isolate were published.

FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY

Members of the Serbian Orthodox Church protested against 2019 legislation they feared enabled the state to seize church property. In May, police in Nikšić arrested a bishop and seven priests for demonstrating under COVID-19-related prohibitions on gatherings; their supporters were dispersed with stun grenades and tear gas. Orthodox demonstrators in other towns were also dispersed with tear gas. In June, police beat protesters during an opposition party demonstration in Budva.

In June, NGOs lodged a constitutional appeal against the prohibition of open-air gatherings.

IMPUNITY

Crimes under international law, perpetrated in the 1990s, were neither investigated nor prosecuted.

The European Court of Human Rights considered Montenegro's failure to provide justice to seven relatives of Bosniak refugees transferred in 1992 by Montenegrin police to Bosnian Serb forces and subsequently murdered.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT

The State Prosecutor failed to effectively investigate allegations that police used torture, including electric shocks, in May/ June to extract “confessions” from two suspects and a witness in two bombing cases. In December, the Ombudsperson found that police had ill-treated the witness.