Contributed by Irena Milatovic and Vanja Mikulic, Montenegro National VAW Monitors

The SOS Hotline for women and children victims of violence – Podgorica, has organized a seminar on the “Institutional approach in combating violence”, in Herceg Novi, which was held during August 3-6, 2006. The Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos) and PSO supported the seminar.

The overall aim of the seminar was to evaluate the Draft Law on protection from violence in the family, to collect possible solutions/suggestions for its amendment, and to define the amendment in June 2006 of Article 220 of the Criminal Code.

The seminar was attended by 25 representatives from the Basic Court, the Prosecutor's office, the Police, and Centers for social work and lawyers, and it lasted for 3 days.

The results achieved by the seminar are: a defined essential objection on the draft law on DV and objections to each article of it; an emphasis on the positive aspects of the Draft Law; and a defined suggestion for the establishment of a Coordination Body of institutions for better and more effective application of the law on protection from violence in the family after its enforcement.

Participants recognized many problems in this field, and they gave their recommendations.

Problems:

• The Draft Law is systematically not in accordance with other regulations which regulate DV. 
• The Draft Law brings insecurity to the judicial system of Montenegro. 
• The Draft Law is not applicable by the misdemeanor magistrates. 
• Protective measures are characterized by the high degree of qualitative contents, but these measures are not applicable in a way predicted by the  Draft Law- the only possibility to apply them is in the final verdicts, together with the main sanction.
• Opinions regarding the amendment of Article 220 of Criminal Code are different. 
• Some participants consider this amendment a disadvantage because of the removal of the term “arrogant and heedless behavior“, while other participants consider it an advantage, because of possibility for over-standardization. 
• Some participants think that  Article 220 contains the lower degree of social danger, so the change is undesirable.
• The Ministry of the Interior underestimates the importance of domestic violence.
• There is no strategy for acting in domestic violence cases, and that causes distrust in the Ministry of Interior as an institution.
• There are no persons in charge just of DV in the Ministry of Interior, even if there are educated and ready staff structured. 
• The unpopularity of the DV issue causes a lack of interest in treating this problem seriously.
• The inspector is the last instance in contacting the victim of DV, and the whole process before - which is very important, is often superficial and full of omissions. 
• There is a lack of feedback from the court about the result of the DV case.
• There is a lack of previous practice: one police officer is responsible for one area, so he/she becomes very familiar with the potential perpetrators of DV, and now, in a short time, there is a frequent change of the police officers who are responsible for a specific area, so every new person has to get familiar with the families where DV has been recorded.
• There are a large number of illegitimate partnerships, made by refugees, which are not regulated by adequate laws.
• There is a lack of high educational degrees held by the officials who contact the DV victim first.
• Very often, the victims have a sense of futility. 
• There is a lack of accompanying helpful services. 
• There is a lack of services and institutions for the mental health of  DV perpetrators.
• There is a great need to create services and institutions for the mental illnesses of DV perpetrators on a voluntary basis. 
• There are no technical conditions for work in the field of any kind of violence treatment in general. 
• The victim of DV becomes the victim of the state administration and aninappropriate procedure for DV case solving - the procedures are too long and exhausting for the victims. 
• The solving of DV cases occurs through informal contacts among the officials. 
• In the police system, the Domestic Violence sector is not organized. 
• In DV cases (physical violence), injury lists are full of omissions - very often they are insufficient because the lists do not contain a description of the specific injury.
• The practice usually recognizes just the “severe DV cases” which need to be treated urgently – every postponed case is dangerous!

Recommendations:

• The establishment of the Coordination Body of institutions for a better and more effective application of the Law on protection from violence in the family after its enforcement.
• Not to pass the Law on protection from violence in family or blank norm in Criminal Code of Montenegro. 
• To be able to pronounce protective measures as well as the security measures which are effective during the court process, but not after process ends. 
• Flexible regulations concerning the DV problem and Article 220 of the Criminal Code are desirable.
• To hire a larger number of beginning employees - law clerks who will work on the DV problem (there is only one person who works in the Police Center in Herceg Novi, as an assistant).
• The police officers should be “the promoters of DV prevention in the field”.
• If a child is an eyewitness of DV, we should apply line 3 of Article 220 of the Criminal Code, which threatens the perpetrator of DV with severe punishment.
• To recognize continuity in committing domestic violence criminal acts by a specific perpetrator.
• At the scene of the crime – where the DV happened, the injuries should be photographed with the presence of the doctor.
• To point out the negative consequences in the everyday life of  partners which had/have a history of domestic violence.
• To strengthen the cooperation of the Ministries of Interior and Prosecution.
• To establish teams for work on the DV issue within the Ministry of Interior.
• To pay special attention to the relation of the perpetrator toward the children.
• To pronounce a temporary arrest of the DV perpetrator in the court procedure.
• To insist on punishing the offense of court disrespect.
• To introduce the institute “officer for the supervision” as in the Anglo-Saxon law.
• To unify the officer’s behavior (code of conduct) at each  level concerning the DV treatment.
• To create a special Law which would make possible the mechanism for urgent interventions while the DV case is happening,  and provide adequate measures of supervision.
• To educate staff which are in the first line, direct contact with a victim of domestic violence (on-duty departments in the police and officers).

Source: SOS hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence Podgorica