23 November 2018 - The judgments of the European Court of Human Rights about Montenegro represent a real treasury of legal knowledge that guides us and illuminates the directions in which the Montenegrin legal system should be developed, Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Pažin noted.
"All the European Court of Human Rights' judgments that found violations of some of human rights and freedoms are for the benefit of Montenegro because they help us recognise our weaknesses within our legal system and remove these weaknesses and develop our legal system for the benefit of our citizens," DPM Pažin emphasised.
In his keynote address at the conference sponsored by the Supreme Court of Montenegro and the London-based AIRE Centre on the enforcement of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to Montenegro, which took place in Podgorica on November 23rd, Deputy Prime Minister Pažin said that a broad social consensus on the need to accept and respect human rights and freedoms is a necessary condition for the European perspective of Montenegro.
He pointed out that the values of the Council of Europe, the oldest pan-European international organisation, such as genuine democracy, human rights and freedom and the rule of law, are an expression of the collective European identity of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe.
DPM Pažin said that the right of an individual to apply before the European Court for the protection of their human rights and freedoms, established by Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights, has introduced a revolutionary novelty into international relations and international law, since the citizen, the individual, for the first time became a subject of international law. "Not only is a citizen, an individual, a subject of international law, but they have become equal to the richest of the states, to the strongest of the governments."
He noted that, in this context, the Analysis of the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights about Montenegro, developed by the Supreme Court of Montenegro and the Office of the Representatives of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights, is a precious document.
"I take the opportunity to thank and congratulate the authors on their devoted work in which they demonstrated not only a good knowledge of the practice of the European Court but also of the national law. We must not forget that only good knowledge of national law enables good grasping of international legal standards, not vice versa," the Deputy Prime Minister concluded.
