The Government of Montenegro is delaying the adoption and harmonization of laws related to the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community, while the civil sector warns of political obstruction.

The Government of Montenegro continues to postpone the adoption and harmonization of laws related to the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community, despite criticism in European Commission (EC) reports, BIRN analysis showed.

The Government’s decision postponed the adoption of the Bill on legal recognition of gender identity based on self-determination, while the legislation has not yet been harmonized with the Law on Life Partnership of Persons of the Same Sex, five years after its adoption.

On June 4, the European Commission (EC) warned in an informal document (non-paper) related to Montenegro’s progress in Chapters 23 and 24 that there is no progress in harmonizing by-laws with the Law on same-sex life partnerships.

The EC also reminded that the Government did not include the Draft Law on legal recognition of gender identity based on self-determination on the agenda, even though it passed all the necessary steps in the legislative process. Because of this, as stated, on the ILGA Rainbow scale, Montenegro fell from 12th to the current 19th place.

ILGA Rainbow skala je rang-lista koju svake godine objavljuje međunarodna LGBTIQ+ organizacija ILGA-Europe a prikazuje stepen poštovanja i zaštite prava LGBTIQ+ osoba u evropskim zemljama.

The executive director of the Association for the Equal Rights of LGBTIQ Persons for the Western Balkans and Turkey, Danijel Kalezić, claims that the adoption of the law is being delayed due to political calculations.

“We live in a time where every ruling majority calculates how much support for LGBTIQ issues will cost them with more conservative partners, so the laws are kept in the drawer as a pocket change,” he added.

When the same-sex partnership law was in parliament in 2020, part of the parties that make up the current ruling coalition – the Democratic Front at the time, the Bosniak party and the Albanian parties – refused to support it, stating that it would undermine “traditional values”.

That law, as well as the draft law on legal recognition of gender identity based on self-determination, were criticized by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) and the Islamic Community in Montenegro.

The civil sector initiative remained in the drawer

In July 2020, the Parliament of Montenegro adopted the Law on Same-Sex Life Partnerships, making it the first country in the region (outside the EU) to recognize same-sex partnerships. Five years later, not all by-laws have yet been adopted that would enable full implementation of the law.

In the Strategy for Improving the Quality of Life of LGBTIQ+ Persons for the Period 2024-2028. among other things, it is stated that numerous laws and by-laws are not harmonized, which is why LGBTIQ+ people cannot fully enjoy the rights that belong to them.

Danijel Kalezić claims that only a small part of related laws have been adapted, stressing that for full implementation of the law, 27 laws and 14 by-laws had to be amended.

“The initiative with that list came to the government in 2021, but it remained in the drawer of that and all future governments. It was only timidly pulled out and used a couple of times, and that was for harmonizing those laws that will not challenge the government officials who would prefer to abolish the entire law and if they could, I’m sure, adopt laws that directly persecute LGBTIQ people, which their political role models in different countries do,” Kalezić told BIRN.

For the full implementation of the law, it is necessary to amend the laws related to the regulation of mutual financial support, the division of common property in case of divorce, as well as social insurance and health care.

Ulićević: The minister blocked the adoption of the law

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that the Law on legal recognition of gender identity based on self-determination should be harmonized with the Montenegrin legislation, stating that the biggest burden in the process of harmonization will be on the Ministry of Internal Affairs due to the procedure for issuing personal documents.

Ulićević claims that the Minister of the Interior, Danilo Saranović, was not cooperative when it came to that law.

“In contrast to the MUP officers, who were really great in the working group, and whose expertise was completely overshadowed by the political decision of the Minister of the Interior to block the adoption of this law for months before he gave his consent,” Ulićević claims.

The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights (MLJMP) told BIRN that part of the law was amended in order to harmonize it with the Law on Same-Sex Partnerships, explaining that the laws in the field of labor, criminal legislation, health and pension and disability insurance were amended.

“The laws are currently under review by the European Commission and the final adoption of the changes themselves will depend on a positive report and further parliamentary procedures,” said the Ministry.

In the 2024 progress report, the European Commission warned last October that the Law on Same-Sex Partnerships was partially harmonized with Montenegrin legislation, stating that further efforts were needed to harmonize the rest of the legislation and fully implement the law.

The State Department’s Human Rights Report 2023 last April stated that the Government and Parliament have not taken the necessary steps to change state policies related to the provision of services to LGBTQI+ couples.

“This includes social benefits and the issuance of personal documents that would enable citizens to exercise the rights provided for in the Law on Life Partnership of Persons of the Same Sex,” the report states.

We are waiting for a strategic moment to support the law

The government did not adopt the Bill on legal recognition of gender identity based on self-determination, even though it was supposed to be adopted by the end of 2024.

With the adoption of the law, it would be possible to change the registered gender identity without undergoing gender reassignment surgery and sterilization. According to the current legislation, proof of forced sterilization is one of the conditions for changing the gender marker.

Self-determination is the right of every person to independently decide on their gender identity, which is a personal experience and does not have to match the gender assigned at birth.

The executive director of the Spektra Association, Jovan Dzoli Ulićević, reminds that the work on the law has been going on for more than eight years, warning that political pressures are the cause of blocking its adoption.

“We worked in the working group for two years so that we could finally, in 2024, together with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, which is the proposer of the law, present the draft law to the public and prepare it for adoption. In the end, that did not happen due to the decision of the prime minister, who together with his political party supported this law until that moment,” Ulićević told BIRN.

“Although the ministries gave their consent to the law, the ministers who represent them do not provide political support in order to ensure a consensus for the approval of the proposed law,” he added.

The MLJMP confirmed that the Draft Law on legal recognition of gender identity based on self-determination contains all the documentation and necessary consents. They claim that the bill was approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Welfare, Family Care and Demography, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and Demography and the Secretariat for Legislation.

“Taking into account the unquestionable support of the relevant institutions at the national level and the support of the EC, we believe that there are no obstacles to the adoption of this law, and that the final determination of the date is a strategic moment to ensure the necessary support,” said the ministry.

In October 2024, the ministry announced that the law was being delayed due to additional consultations, and they did not explain to BIRN what kind of consultations it was about or what was additionally requested.

Ulićević points out that there is not a single concession that can be made without making the law completely meaningless.

“The compromises that the community made in order to make this law acceptable to the political elites, and which they demanded, enter the realm of human rights violations. This law, although perceived as extremely progressive, is certainly not the most progressive in Europe, precisely because of these compromises,” Ulićević claims.

Last November, BIRN announced that changes to the original draft of the law on legal recognition of gender identity based on self-determination recognize that right only to adult Montenegrin citizens who are not married. The working version of the law envisages raising the age limit for changing gender, so this right is only available to adults.

With the action plan for meeting the final benchmarks in the negotiation chapter 23, which refers to the judiciary and fundamental rights, the Government announced that it will determine the draft law by the end of the third quarter of this year.

“The closure of chapters 23 and 24 is a condition for the closure of entire clusters, therefore also for any realistic date of entry into the EU. If the government continues to delay, we will end up in the absurd situation that technically we have advanced the farthest in the negotiations, while our own fear of populism keeps us stuck at the first obstacle,” Kalezić claims.

The MLJMP did not respond to BIRN’s question about how they comment on the civil sector’s accusations of political obstruction of the adoption of the Law on Legal Recognition of Gender Identity on the Basis of Self-Determination.

Source: Birn.me