The number of prosecuted cases represent four bills of indictment for the criminal offence under Article 370 (causing national, racial, and religious hatred), which falls outside the OSCE's hate crime definition.
The number of sentenced cases might include cases of hate speech, which fall outside the OSCE's definition of hate crime.
The breakdown below excludes two cases of hate speech that fall outside the OSCE's hate crime definition.
In 2023, a training-of-trainers was held for prosecutors in line with a Memorandum of Co-operation between the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office of Montenegro, the Centre for Training of the Judiciary and State Prosecutor's Office, and ODIHR. Signed in 2022, the Memorandum related to the implementation of ODIHR's Prosecutors and Hate Crimes Training Program (PAHCT).
In 2023, in co-operation with the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM), the Centre for Training in the Judiciary and the State Prosecution organized a training activity on prosecuting hate crimes and combating hate speech, with a special focus on the LGBTIQ community. As part of the in-service training programme for judges and state prosecutors, the Centre also organized a seminar on "Hate Crime and Hate Speech". In total, 20 representatives of Montenegro's judiciary participated in the seminar (11 judges, three court advisers, four state prosecutors and two advisors from state prosecution offices).
In 2023, the HELP programme organized an online course on "Fight against racism, homophobia and transphobia" with the support of the Centre for Training in Judiciary and State Prosecution.
UNDP, in co-operation with the Center for Training in the Judiciary and the State Prosecution, organized a training activity on "Gender-based hate speech". A total of 11 representatives of Montenegro's judiciary attended this training.
Montenegro's Criminal Code was further amended in 2023 to criminalize public incitement to racial or religious hatred, as follows: "(1) Whoever publicly incites to violence or hatred towards a group, or a member of a group defined by virtue of race, skin colour, religion, language origin, nationality or ethnic affiliation shall be punished by a prison sentence from six months to five years". New provisions on sentencing for hate crimes were also introduced: "(1) When the criminal offence was committed out of hatred of another person due to national or ethnic affiliation, affiliation with race or religion or due to absence of such affiliation, disability, nationality or due to differences in political or other beliefs, sex, language, the colour of skin, education, social status, social background, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability".
ODIHR recognizes Montenegro's efforts to build the capacity of prosecutors and judiciary on hate crime, as well as to amend the existing legal framework in order to ensure that bias motivation can be effectively acknowledged. However, based on the available information, ODIHR observes that Montenegro's hate crime recording and statistics do not sufficiently distinguish hate crimes from other crimes. In addition, ODIHR observes that Montenegro would benefit from developing its victim support system to ensure effective access to justice, assistance, and protection services for hate crime victims.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to collecting reliable data and statistics in sufficient detail on hate crimes, including the bias motivation of hate crimes, and to reporting such data periodically to ODIHR. Participating States also committed to providing hate crime victims with access to counselling, legal assistance, and effective access to justice, as well as to increase a positive interaction between police and victims of hate crimes by training front-line officers, including on referrals to victim assistance and protection.
ODIHR stands ready to support Montenegro in meeting the relevant commitments through its comprehensive resources and tailored assistance in the area of hate crime recording and data collection, as well as through its further resources and assistance on hate crime victim support.
🛈 Please note that the total number of incidents may be lower than the sum of incidents presented in the breakdown chart above, as some incidents involve multiple bias motivations.
🛈 ODIHR no longer presents descriptions of property attacks in the incident tables below. Data on property attacks are presented in the breakdown charts above. One property attack may target multiple properties or involve multiple types of attack.