Gender equality and anti-discrimination

Summary:

Despite the progress in EU accession process, Montenegrin society remains highly patriarchal. Even though the Constitution, national legislation and internal obligations guarantee women in full social, economic and political rights, progress towards gender equality has been slow. This is due to traditional gender stereotypes, leading to poor implementation of policies and lack of financial support to responsible institutions.

Our key partner is the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights – Department for Gender Equality, but we also cherish strong cross-institutional partnerships and cooperation with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), as well as the Parliament and its Committee for Gender Equality. Awareness raising, strengthening cooperation and communication between the public authorities and women's organizations – is at the core of what we do. This includes advocating for women’s and girls’ equal rights, combating discriminatory practices and challenging the roles and stereotypes that affect inequalities and exclusion.

Objectives:

Through this programme, we lead strategic process in order to advance gender equality agenda in line with international frameworks (EU & UN) and development priorities of the country. We assist the country to fulfil some of the key requirements from the accession negotiation chapter 23 (Rule of law and fundamental rights), and at the same time contribute to realization of the SDG Goal 5. We are closely monitoring the implementation of the international standards that Montenegro ratified, primarily CEDAW and Istanbul Convention.

The specific objectives are strengthened capacities, improved mechanisms and advanced policies in the following three areas:

Violence against women and domestic violence
Political empowerment of women
Economic agenda for women

Activities:

Our approach is three-fold, and consists of:

Changing attitudes and perceptions through awareness raising;
Strengthening governance and accountability for human rights and gender equality through improved strategic and policy frameworks;
Developing human capital for gender equality through tailored training programmes.

In parallel to that, we are also focusing on two broader cross-cutting issues:

Raising awareness of the general population on human rights of marginalized groups, as well as raising the level of information among the discriminated about their rights in order to achieve decreased level of discrimination in Montenegro.
Contributing to capacity building of the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights to increase knowledge and skills, improve coordination related to anti-discrimination and gender equality with other relevant national and local institutions

Results:

Legal and institutional frameworks developed to enable better legal protection and introduction of system of support for victims of violence in family, including the revised Protocol on action in cases of violence in family.
Strengthened multi-sectorial approach in addressing violence against women and violence in family.
Women's organizations empowered through education and advocacy process, creating stronger linkages between civil servants working in this area and women's NGOs.
Awareness raising based on perception survey contributed to increased media reporting about the issue.
Increased reporting of violence from average 500 cases to 1450 cases annually.
Introduced affirmative action 30% quota for women in electoral law which resulted with increased political participation of women. We are now advocating for 40% quota.
Introduced party quotas in two parliamentarian political parties, while in 8 established women’s groups and gender equality addressing in party programs.
The programme inaugurated 34 certified gender equality trainers in politics within two Training of Trainers cycles.
4 + 2 piloted municipalities created affirmative and supportive local environment for women’s entrepreneurship through introduction of supportive mechanisms (from the previous and current programme cycle).
Introduced credit line with favourable conditions for women in state owned Investment Development Fund.
Established Women`s Political Network as the only forum for dialogue gathering members of both position and opposition. In only a few months` engagement, the Network achieved some ground-breaking results:
Adoption of the amendment of the Criminal Code regarding compliance of the definition of rape with the Istanbul Convention, meaning that: what is considered to be rape is extended to any sexual intercourse without consent, thus including marital rape.
Obtained support from most of the political parties, i.e. the needed two thirds of qualified majority to introduce 40% quota for women in the Electoral law, and allocate separate budget lines for women`s party wings;
Eleven (11) municipalities allocated special funds for women entrepreneurship in the budgets for 2019, at the initiative of the WPN, with the total amount of 144,000 EUR. Two more municipalities are currently pending.
Initiation of amendments of a set of laws dealing with violence against women.