There are 13 social work centers operating in Montenegro, whose primary role is to protect the most important thing in family disputes – the interests of the child. However, more and more parents, as well as experts, claim that the work of the centers often raises doubts about objectivity and equal treatment of both parents, which is why reports against social workers are frequent.
"As a lawyer who participates in all these proceedings, I believe that the work of the CZSR is amateurish, unobjective, biased, and based on stereotypes and not on facts and circumstances," said the lawyer. Bojan Vujovic.
Similar experiences are shared by parents who have gone through proceedings before social welfare centers. They claim that some cases are processed formally, without a deeper analysis of the family circumstances and the child's real needs. Some parents have been fighting for custody for decades, and they say there is no help from the authorities.
"I have a very bad experience, and many mothers who contacted me and whose stories I know, do not have a positive opinion, and I myself called the relevant institutions and pointed out the problem, and I mostly did not receive a response or it was only formalistic," says the parent. Ivona Pavkovic.
Family law stipulates that decisions – such as changing a child's school or place of residence – require the consent of both parents. If there is none, the social work center is involved in the procedure, and the final decision is made by the competent court. This was not the case in Aleksandar Bakić's case.
"The child was transferred from Sutomore to Podgorica without my consent, without any notification, verbally or in writing. I only found out about it after 10 days and now I don't even know where he lives, sometimes I pick up the child in Zeta, sometimes in Podgorica, Sutomore...", says Bakić.
Television Podgorica sent questions to the Center for Social Work Podgorica, among other things, and how many fathers have so far reported that they were victims of discrimination in custody decision-making procedures. However, we did not receive any answers - And this is not the first time that this institution has not responded to our editorial team's inquiries. Experts warn about the frequency of reports.
"Reports against social workers are frequent, but the outcomes are not the best, because they have the option of reporting to the inspectorate, the Ministry of Labor, or the Inspection Directorate, but they are all covered with paperwork, so these reports rarely get results," says lawyer Vujović.
Due to the increasing number of complaints from parents, the non-governmental organization Center for the Protection of Men's Rights launched an initiative and issued a public call for fathers to contact social work centers and report cases in which they believe they have been discriminated against in custody proceedings and the exercise of parental rights. They say that the goal is to collect specific examples in order to, as they state, point out possible systemic problems and initiate changes in the practice of institutions. Whether and to what extent this will affect the centers' better productivity remains to be seen.
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