The AIRE Center and Civil Rights Defenders, in partnership with the Government of Montenegro, organized the “First Regional Rule of Law Forum for Southeast Europe” in Budva on March 28-29, 2014.

The Forum was attended by judges representing the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of the countries of the region, representatives of academies and judicial training institutions, government agents at the Strasbourg court, as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations and legal experts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.

The aim of the Forum was to promote the European Convention on Human Rights in the region, to improve regional cooperation and to improve European integration. During the two-day Forum, the participants had the opportunity to discuss in plenary discussions the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights with domestic judges, identify key obstacles to a more effective implementation of the Convention, as well as establish regional cooperation by learning from each other’s’ experiences, how to work more effectively to overcome these obstacles.

The importance of the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights at national level was also discussed at the Forum, and the European Human Rights Database for Southeast Europe was presented, which will contribute to strengthening the implementation of the Convention at national level.

A representative of the Association for Democratic Initiatives participated at the Forum.