Current Minister of Human and Minority Rights, Mr Mehmet Zenka, has stated that the Initiative of the Center for Democratic Transition for omitting data on national and religious affiliations in the census is unjustifiable.
“I can understand the initiative, but I can’t justify it. I think all citizens should declare about their religion, nation and language. It’s important to collect accurate data, because Montenegro is multi-ethnic state and it should know that it has members of all religion and nation”, Mr Zenka pointed out.
According to CDT, the census should encompass key areas – economic and social policy.
“We believe that continuation of tensions and passions we have seen so far would mean the destruction of Montenegro’s social being, division to religious and national frameworks and alienation from the principle of a civil state”, Ms Milica Kovačević pointed out.
Eurostat has stated that questions of ethnic affiliation and religion are very delicate, but there are some EU members that do not collect such data, for example: Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Slovenia, Luxembourg.
The majority of European states, including Russia, do not collect data on religion or language.
CDT wants the new European practice to be implemented in Montenegro. This initiative will be taken into consideration in cooperation with the Statistics Council during public discussion on the Law on Census.
