Strasbourg, 12 September 2012 ACFC/SR/II(2012)003 SECOND REPORT SUBMITTED BY MONTENEGRO PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 25, PARAGRAPH 2 OF THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES Received on 12 September 2012 The Second Report of Montenegro on Implementation of the Framework Convention Montenegro THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO Ministry of Minority Rights THE SECOND REPORT OF MONTENEGRO ON IMPLEMENTATION OF FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES Submitted on the basis of Article 25 paragraph 2 of the CoE Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities Podgorica, August 2012. 2 The Second Report of Montenegro on Implementation of the Framework Convention THE SECOND REPORT OF MONTENEGRO ON IMPLEMENTATION OF FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES CONTENT: p. I INTRODUCTION-------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 II GENERAL INFORMATION---------------------------------------------------------------- 4 III IMPROVING THE POSITION OF ROMA AND EGYPTIANS-------------------- 7 IV DISPLACED AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS---------------------- 26 V IMPLEMENTATION OF FRAMEWORK CONVENTION------------------------ 32 Article 1------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 32 Article 2------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 33 Article 3------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 33 Article 4------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 34 Article 5------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 43 Article 6------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 50 Article 7------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 63 Article 8------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 68 Article 9------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 69 Article 10---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 78 Article 11---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 80 Article 12---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 82 Article 13---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 86 Article 14---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 87 Article 15---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 88 Article 16---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 91 Article 17---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 92 Article 18---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 93 Article 19---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 94 3 The Second Report of Montenegro on Implementation of the Framework Convention I INTRODUCTION Following restoration of independence, Montenegro stated, in the letter sent by Minister of Foreign Affairs dated June 5 2006, that accepted all the obligations arising from the conventions and treaties of the Council of Europe, which were signed or ratified by the former state union of Serbia and Montenegro. By granting observer status to Montenegro, the CoE Committee of Ministers, already during the pre-accession period, recognized membership of Montenegro in conventions and protocols open for access to non-member states, and the succession status in a number of so-called closed conventions including the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (hereinafter referred to as the Framework Convention). On May 11 2007, Montenegro became a full member of the Council of Europe, while the membership of the Framework Convention was recognized on June 06 2006 (date of the declaration on succession status in the CoE conventions and protocols, whose party or signatory was the former state union of Serbia and Montenegro). Pursuant to the provisions of Article 25, paragraph 1 of the Framework Convention, Montenegro submitted its first report in June 2007, after which the Advisory Committee began to review the report during its 30th Meeting held in the period 05 - 09 November 2007. In the period 04 - 08 December 2007, the delegation of the Advisory Committee visited Montenegro, where they received additional information from representatives of the Government, local authorities (Tuzi, Bijelo Polje, Rožaje and Berane), NGOs and other independent sources. The Advisory Committee adopted its opinion on Montenegro at its 31st meeting, held on 28.02.2008. Montenegro, during preparation of forthcoming session of the Committee of Ministers, received the List of points addressed in relation to supplementary information in relation to the Initial report, which was submitted in October 2008. Montenegro has submitted comments on the Opinion of the Advisory Committee, and the Committee of Ministers Resolution was adopted on 14 January 2009. After the publication of the Advisory Committee’s Opinion and the relevant Resolution of the Committee of Ministers, Montenegro continued dialogue with the Advisory Committee. In that sense, on 29 March 2010, the Roundtable was organized and held in Podgorica, where the actions undertaken to implement the Framework Convention were analyzed, as well as the steps that have been taken and/or planned to implement the recommendations contained in the First Opinion of the Advisory Committee and in the Resolution of the Committee of Ministers. Representatives of the Government, NGOs, minority councils, experts, and representatives of the Advisory Committee, headed by the first vice-president of the Advisory Committee - Ilze Brandz- Kehris, attended the roundtable. Ministry of Minority Rights has published on its official website first report, the Opinion of the Advisory Committee, and the Resolution of the Committee of Ministers (www.minmanj.gov.me). The second report of Montenegro aims to highlight the legislative, institutional, and other measures that Montenegro has undertaken to meet the obligations set forth by the Framework Convention. Following the recommendations contained in the First Opinion of the Advisory Committee and Resolution of the Committee of Ministers, 4 The Second Report of Montenegro on Implementation of the Framework Convention report, as much as possible, adheres to the form of replies to certain questions. However, in order to give as much information as possible and to keep the coherent text, the repetition could not be avoided, and reference to some of the information given during the processing of other articles of the Framework Convention was made. The second report was prepared under the coordination of the Ministry of Minority Rights, with the participation of the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and the Employment Agency of Montenegro. The Draft second report was published on 27 July 2012 on the official website of the Ministry. In addition, the Draft second report was delivered to all councils, it was also delivered, through mailing lists of the Centre for Development of NGOs (CRNVO), to non-governmental organizations, to review its content and submit their comments. The Capital of Podgorica and Bosnian Council in Montenegro delivered their suggestions. II GENERAL INFORMATION The last Census was conducted in the period 01 - 15 April 2011. According to the results of the Census, Montenegro has a population of 620,029, whereof 313,793 or 50.61% are women and 49.39%, or 306,236 are men. The largest population is in Podgorica (185,937), representing 30% of the total population of Montenegro, followed with Niksic and Bijelo Polje. About 50% of the total population of Montenegro is concentrated in these three municipalities. The municipalities with the lowest number of inhabitants are Šavnik (2070), Plužine (3,246) and Zabljak (3,569). Total 392,020 inhabitants live in urban type settlements, which represent 63% of the total population, while in other areas live total 228,009 inhabitants. The average age of the population of Montenegro is 37 years old. Women in average are 38 years old, and men are 36 years old. Adult population makes 76.5% of the total population In accordance with the Methodology for the preparation, organization and implementation of the census, enumerators were required to notify all persons enumerated on the right to express their ethnicity, religion and mother tongue freely and of their own faith, and that they do not need to answer the question offered if they do not want to do so. If the person did not want to comment and answer on questions mentioned above, the answer which was inscribed is "Does not want to declare." On the question of nationality, i.e. ethnicity total 4.87% of people gave this answer, on the question on mother tongue total 3.99% persons stated as mentioned above, and on the question regarding religion total 2.61% persons responded the same way. Based on the proposed content of other questions offered, enumerated persons gave answers about the housing situation, educational attainment, employment and other issues of importance to their status and social life in Montenegro. The category "Other" classified