Five-Year Review: State Party Montenegro was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. It views existing legislation is adequate to enforce the convention’s provisions. Montenegro has participated in all of the convention’s meetings and has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention.

Montenegro submitted its initial transparency report for the convention in 2011, confirming it has not used or produced cluster munitions. It completed the destruction of a stockpile of 353 cluster munitions and 51,891 submunitions in October 2010 and has not retained any for training or research.

Policy

The Republic of Montenegro signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 25 January 2010. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

Montenegro has reported that its existing law is adequate to enforce the convention’s provisions.[1] According to Article 9 of the country’s constitution, international treaties ratified by Montenegro are an “integral part of the domestic legislation, and have supremacy over domestic legislation and are directly implemented when dealing with issues differently than domestic legislation.”[2]

Montenegro submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 January 2011 and provided annual updated reports since, most recently in April 2015.[3]

Montenegro participated actively in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4]

Montenegro engages in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San José, Costa Rica in September 2014. It has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, most recently in June 2015. Montenegro attended a mine action symposium in Biograd, Croatia on 27–29 April 2015, which included discussion on cluster munitions.

At the Fifth Meeting of States Parties, Montenegro urged greater financial and technical assistance for clearance efforts and noted the ongoing work to clear cluster munition remnants dating from the 1999 conflict that contaminate its territory with the help of Norwegian People’s Aid and in cooperation with the Regional Centre for Underwater Demining.[5]

Montenegro voted in favor of four Human Rights Council resolutions in 2014 and 2015 that condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently on 2 July 2015.[6] It has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently Resolution 69/189 on 18 December 2014, which expressed “outrage” at the continued use.[7]

Interpretive issues

Montenegro has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. On the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations with states not party, Montenegro has elaborated its understanding that “the participation in the planning or conducting of operations, exercises or any other military activities by the armed forces of Montenegro, or by any of its nationals, if carried out in conjunction with armed forces of the non-State Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which engage in activities prohibited under the Convention, does not in any way imply an assistance, encouragement or inducement as referred to in subparagraph 1(c) of the Convention.”[8] Montenegro has also stated that it “does not intend to invest in the production of cluster munitions.”[9] Montenegro has not yet expressed its views on the matters of foreign stockpiling or transit of cluster munitions.

Montenegro is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Montenegro is not known to have used cluster munitions, but cluster munitions were used by NATO forces in air strikes on Serbian and Montenegrin military positions during the Kosovo conflict in 1999. In 2012, a court case confirmed evidence of at least one instance of Yugoslav army use of cluster munitions on Montenegrin territory in 1999.[10]

Montenegro has declared that there are no cluster munition production facilities in the country.[11]

Stockpile destruction

Montenegro inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions upon the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro.[12] It completed the destruction of the entire stockpile of 353 BL755 cluster bombs containing a total of 51,891 Mk1 submunitions on 5 October 2010, concluding a two-year destruction process conducted near the town of Nikšićas as part of a technical agreement with the United States for the disposal of surplus weapons and ammunition.[13]

Montenegro has not retained any cluster munitions for training and research purposes.[14]

Contaminated by: cluster munition remnants (light contamination) and other explosive remnants of war (ERW).

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 deadline: 1 August 2020
(Unclear whether on track to meet deadline) 

The Republic of Montenegro has estimated that 1.7km² of land contains cluster munition remnants. No clearance or survey took place in 2016.

Recommendations for action

• Montenegro should identify and apply as soon as possible the resources necessary to fulfil its Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 clearance obligations.

Contamination

Montenegro has estimated that 1.72km² of land contains cluster munition remnants.[1] The suspected and confirmed areas are located in two municipalities (Rožaje and Plav) and one urban municipality (Golubovic).[2] Contamination affects five communities.[3]

Two suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) in Plav municipality, namely Bogajice and Murino, have yet to be surveyed as snowy weather conditions prevented access to the area during the survey in 2012–2013.[4]

Montenegro became contaminated with ERW, mainly unexploded ordnance (UXO), as a result of conflicts during the break-up of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.[5] NATO air strikes in Montenegro between March and June 1999 included the dropping of 22 cluster bombs of four different types: AGM-154A JSOW guided missiles, BL755s, CBU-87/Bs, and Mk-20 Rockeyes. These scattered a total of some 4,000 submunitions of four different types: BLU-97A/B, BL755, MK-1, and Mk118.[6] In addition, there is cluster munition contamination in Rožaje, which is the result of the dumping of cluster munitions by the Yugoslav army.[7]

Some unexploded submunitions were collected by units of the Yugoslav army immediately after the NATO air strikes. This initial clearance was carried out in haste, without applying international standards for ERW clearance, and for the most part only visible submunitions were destroyed.[8] Following Montenegro’s independence, cluster munition removal was conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in response to notifications from the public.[9]

Other explosive remnants of war

Montenegro is also heavily contaminated by other ERW, with items of UXO discovered daily throughout the country, on land as well as in rivers and the sea.[10] The NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) project, which was launched in Montenegro in 2014 to provide the UXO clearance team of the Directorate for Emergency Situations with assistance in the detection and destruction of UXO,[11] is reportedly coming to an end.[12]

Program Management

The Directorate for Emergency Situations, established in 2006 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is responsible for mine action in Montenegro, performing the role of a national mine action center.[13] Prior to 2017, due to lack of human resources and equipment, the role of the national mine action center had previously been undertaken by the Regional Center for Divers’ Training and Underwater Demining (RCUD), which was set up in 2002.[14]

RCUD and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in December 2012 under which NPA agreed to fund and implement a two-phase project—the “Cluster Munition Convention Completion Initiative for Montenegro”—involving first, non-technical survey, and then technical survey and clearance of areas where the presence of cluster munition remnants was confirmed. NPA agreed to set up a database and to develop capacity for non-technical survey and quality management.[15] The non-technical survey was completed in 2013 but funding for the second phase of the project involving technical survey and clearance, originally expected to start in 2013 and continue throughout 2014,[16] was not secured and as of May 2017 this phase had yet to start.[17]

The Department for UXO within the Directorate for Emergency Situations has only five staff, who are primarily dedicated to clearance of UXO other than submunitions, which comprises the heaviest contamination in Montenegro.[18] Owing to the shortage of funds, responsibility for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) has remained with the police.[19]

Montenegro has requested international assistance to comply with the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS), for capacity building (training, equipment, vehicles), and for ERW clearance.[20]

Land Release

No planned land release operations took place in 2016.[21]

Survey in 2016

No survey took place in 2016.[22]

A small amount of previously unreported non-technical survey was conducted in 2015 on an area of approximately 10,000m² around the airport, during which one submunition and one item of UXO were destroyed.[23] Prior to this, no survey had taken place since NPA’s non-technical survey was completed in April 2013.[24]

Clearance in 2016

No planned cluster munition clearance took place in either 2016,[25] or in 2015 or 2014, although in 2014, 6,500m2 of land was cleared after two unspecified items of UXO were found in Golubovci during construction work;[26] and as noted above, in 2015, 10,000m² of land was released after one submunition and one other item of UXO were found during survey at Golubovci airport.[27]

Article 4 Compliance

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Montenegro is required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2020. Montenegro should be able complete the remaining clearance well before this deadline if it identifies funding for the remaining survey and clearance.

As of May 2017, however, neither national nor international funding had been secured for cluster munition clearance in Montenegro.[28] Once funding is secured, completion of cluster munition survey and clearance in Montenegro is predicted to take approximately two years. Montenegro continues to seek international cooperation and assistance.[29]

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the mine action research in 2017, including on survey and clearance, and shared all its resulting landmine and cluster munition reports with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Montenegro is responsible for landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW). Montenegro has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Montenegro ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 2 November 2009.

Casualties

There were no mine/ERW casualties identified in Montenegro in 2015. The last mine/ERW casualties were reported in July 2012, when six casualties were identified in one incident with an antivehicle mine; four adults and two children were injured while traveling in a car near the city of Gusinje, close to the border with Albania. One of the adults, a woman, was Albanian.[1]

Prior to 2012, the last casualties reported in Montenegro were in 2008, when a border police officer was injured when he drove over a landmine and, in a separate incident, a child was injured by a hand grenade he found in a wall in Podgorica.[2]

The Monitor identified 18 mine/ERW casualties (four killed and 14 injured) between 1999 and December 2013. This included seven children. Adult casualties included a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Albanian citizen (in 2012).[3]

Cluster munition casualties

At least nine cluster munition casualties have been reported for Montenegro.[4] Unexploded submunitions have caused four civilian casualties since their use in 1999. Another five casualties occurred during cluster munition strikes, of which at least four were civilians.[5] In 2013, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), in cooperation with the Montenegrin Regional Centre for Underwater Demining, identified seven survivors of cluster munitions in Montenegro.[6]

In November 2012, the Montenegrin court system awarded €85,000 in compensation for pain and suffering to the family members of a boy who was killed by a cluster submunition in 1999.[7] The court ruled that the state of Montenegro failed in its obligation to “protect and guarantee the safety of the citizens” when it failed to “warn the citizens about the immediate danger to life and safety and to properly control the area in the given circumstances;” those circumstances included the presence of cluster munition remnants following bombing.[8]

Victim Assistance

The total number of survivors living in Montenegro is not known; in 2004, 260 mine/ERW survivors were recorded as living in Montenegro.[9] The Monitor recorded another 10 mine/ERW survivors from incidents since 2004.[10]

Victim assistance coordination and participation

Montenegro designated contacts within the ministries of health, and labor and social welfare as victim assistance focal points for the implementation of Article 5 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions; there is no specific victim assistance coordination mechanism.[11] In 2013, the government re-established the council on the rights of persons with disabilities within the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. The then short-lived council had been abolished in 2011.[12] National NGOs criticized the placement of the council within the ministry, asserting that its lack of independence would limit its role and importance.[13]

The ministries of health, labor and social welfare, education and sports, science, culture, and human and minority rights all have responsibilities for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. Montenegro has a Strategy for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities in Montenegro (2008–2016), adopted in compliance with the CRPD.[14] An action plan for implementing the strategy in 2014–2015 was adopted in March 2014, including specific targets to improve availability and access to services and programs such as healthcare, social protection, and professional rehabilitation, as well as to align policies and laws with the provisions of the CRPD.[15] An intergovernmental working group, which includes representatives of persons with disabilities, monitors the implementation of the strategy and its action plans.[16]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Montenegro has reported that mine/ERW survivors, including survivors of cluster submunitions, along with all victims of war, are entitled to free medical care and physical rehabilitation, including prosthetic limbs, through the national health insurance system. The law regulating the national health insurance system recognizes the category of victims of cluster munitions. Rehabilitation services are possible only for certain types of disability and mostly only provided as one-time assistance, immediately after the injury or treatment. A small number of persons with disabilities are able to access appropriate rehabilitation services for a longer period of time. A survey of persons with disabilities shows that more than half (as many as 57%) do not use physical rehabilitation services due to limited availability or because they are not entitled to it by law.[17]

According to the Association of Youth with Disabilities the right to medical and technical assistive devices is limited for persons with disabilities in Montenegro. The Association reported that procedures are problematic and take too long as do the times between devices being granted. The list of state approved devices is very restricted and persons with disabilities are not able to choose between different suppliers. A variety of devices and high standard of quality guaranteed by the CPRD are not available. The law defines the possibility, but not the obligation for the national fund to conclude agreements with providers of rehabilitation services and assistive devices. Citizens do not have a choice in where they get prosthetic devices. The medical fund solely maintains a contract with the company Ruda Montegero, but without public tender procedures.[18]

Survivors may be entitled to a monthly pension and other benefits, based on the degree of their disability, on equal terms as other persons with disabilities.[19] A law passed in May 2013 severely cut benefits for persons with disabilities, eliminating the subsidies received by some persons with disabilities.[20]

Montenegro reported that the law does not discriminate against or among cluster munition victims, or between cluster munition victims and those who have suffered injuries or disabilities from other causes; differences in treatment are based only on medical, rehabilitative, psychological, or socio-economic needs of victims.[21] However, only persons with a category of disability higher than 70% are recognized by national legislation, raising concerns about discrimination between persons with disabilities. Discrimination is also present in the medical sector where healthcare is guaranteed, to a large extent, to children, but not adults, and to veterans with disabilities and civilian war victims, but not persons with other causes of disabilities.[22]

In 2015, unemployment remained a serious problem for persons with disabilities.[23] Significant prejudice among employers when it comes to employing persons with disabilities continued to impact economic integration of mine/ERW survivors.[24]

National laws and policies

Legislation required that public facilities be made accessible to persons with disabilities by September 2013, but a number of institutions remained inaccessible after the deadline.[25] Construction to make the parliament building accessible began in August 2015.[26] Access to buildings for persons with disabilities remained limited, including for education and medical facilities.[27]

It was reported that only 2% of persons with disabilities were employed in 2015.[28] Employers with between 20 and 50 employees must employ at least one person with disabilities, while persons with disabilities must make up at least 5% of employees at companies with more than 50 employees.[29] Many employers opted instead to make payment into the government fund for employment and professional rehabilitation of persons with disabilities. There were allegations that the use of those resources was not transparent, subsequently the majority of the funds were returned to the general government budget at the end of 2015.[30] Monitoring and penalties of provisions to increase employment of persons with disabilities remained weak and financial support paid to employers for employing persons with disabilities was insufficiently protected against misuse, according to the European Commission.[31]

A new law prohibiting discrimination against persons with disabilities was adopted in July 2015.[32] The text of the law as approved by the government differed significantly and contained weaker provisions that those in the text for public discussion during the drafting process. Civil society and disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs) made a public appeal to prevent the law from being rushed through with the so called expedient procedure, and without the involvement of persons with disabilities in further consultations.[33]