Importance of aligning quality of forensic evidence with international best practices highlighted at OSCE-supported regional workshop in Montenegro

A regional workshop organized from 9 to 11 November 2015 by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro in co-operation with the Police Administration in Danilovgrad saw 23 forensic experts from Podgorica, Tirana, Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Skopje exchange opinions, experiences and best practices on enhancing the quality of forensics by aligning them with international quality standards.

Uniform forensic evidence is crucial so that criminal justice systems of different countries can effectively exchange data to investigate crimes, particularly terrorism and organized crime.

This workshop brought together forensics experts from non-accredited laboratories to learn more about the work and practices of the Montenegrin Forensic Centre (MFC), which is accredited in forensic quality standard ISO 17025 and is therefore able to provide mentorship to interested non-accredited forensic laboratories on international best practices.

“Montenegro is aware of the importance of the regional co-operation in this regard and the MFC is ready to work with all partners in the region and beyond,” said Zoran Tomcic, MFC Director. “The Interior Ministry and the Police Directorate have recognized this need and provide all support from the strategic and operational level.”

Vladimir Ragozin, Programme Manager of the Security Co-operation Programme at the OSCE Mission, said: “The quality of forensic investigation is particularly significant because crime knows no borders. International co-operation will be effective if forensic information meets the highest quality requirements and can be shared competently.”

The workshop was concluded with a recommendation to continue and expand this regional initiative to include more areas of the forensic work of common interest for the region, such as ballistics expertise, explosions, polygraph testing and the classification of fingerprints.  

This was final sub-activity of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro launched in March this year with the aim of sharing Montenegrin know-how in this area.