According to announcements that MANS today received from the various party caucuses in the Parliament of Montenegro, there is an undeniable majority in Parliament that is willing to provide the adoption of the amendments that we have proposed, together with the Human Rights Action, Centre for Civic Education and the Institute Alternative, that aim to prevent unreasonably interference in human rights of Montenegrin citizens by the Agency for National Security, which is contrary to the Constitution, law, ratified international conventions, the views of the Constitutional and the European Court of Human rights in Strasbourg.
Submitted amendments attempt to correct deliberate construction mistakes of the proposal of the law on amendments on the Law of the Agency for National Security, which that institution in its hands give mechanisms which may violate the human rights of all citizens of Montenegro without any restrictions and without the right to judicial protection.
Thus, by submitted amendments is anticipated that the ANS will not be able, without the prior permission of the court and control capabilities, to access the registers and records in possession of all legal entities in Montenegro, nor will be able to without prior judicial approval performs monitoring and surveillance of Montenegrin citizens.
Moreover, with submitted amendments is elaborated the procedure of destroying data that is collected by the ANS during its work, with an obligation to report the same to the court, and that the person whose data were collected to be informed. The amendments prescribe stronger internal control of the ANS’s work with the obligation that the general inspector of the ANS about its work reports to the Government and Parliament, as well as strengthening the rights of parliamentarians in the area of access to information in the hands of the ANS.
Various members of the Parliament, representatives of various party caucuses have signed today four sets of our ten amendments that were sent to all caucuses, including Andrija Popovic, Srdjan Peric, Dzavida Sabovic, Branko Bosnjak, Dritan Abazovic and Snezana Jonica. On the other hand, a significant number of members from the majority party caucuses expressed willingness to support amendments made in the name of four different NGOs filed to different members of the Parliament, and in that way incorporate them into the Law on the ANS, so it is certain that the possibility of abuse of human rights by the ANS will be limited .
The Parliament of Montenegro is obliged to accept all of the submitted amendments, because that is the only way to ensure respect for the Constitution of Montenegro and all international conventions related to human rights that our Parliament has ratified until now.
Therefore, we invite all members of the Parliament of Montenegro to vote for the submitted amendments and not to allow to the ANS to be able to control and without the court’s decision to violate the rights of citizens, and to access various data that affect their lives, including health and the financial resources and other essential information, only for a reason to blackmail citizens later on and to exert political pressure on them.
MANS
