6ITSVX7YQQEV] 1SRXIRIKVS SR+IRHIV)UYEPMX]SJ ......Post-Legislative Scrutiny of Selected Articles of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Gender Equality of Montenegro – Report Summary

Skupština Crne Gore

Odbor za rodnu ravnopravnost

Post-Legislative Scrutiny of

Selected Articles of the Law

on Amendments to the Law

on Gender Equality of

Montenegro

Report Summary

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................. 2

Executive Summary ..................................................................... 3

Findings ........................................................................................ 8

Recommendations ..................................................................... 15

Post-Legislative Scrutiny of Selected Articles of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Gender Equality of Montenegro – Report Summary

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Introduction

This report was developed with the support and initiative of Westminster Foundation for Demoracy (WFD) and the Montenegrin Parliament's Gender Equality Committee. WFD has been implementing a regional programme aimed at strengthening the cooperation among the Western Balkans parliaments, by establishing a regional network of working parties for human rights and gender equality. The Programme's implementation period is from April 2019 until November 2021, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway.

The Human Rights and Gender Equality Network of Committees in the Western Balkans1(hereinafter: HUGEN) was officially established on 8 October 2019, during a regional parliamentary conference held in Cetinje, Montenegro. The HUGEN Network gets together the working bodies for human rights and gender equality from eight parliaments of the Western Balkan region. At the first gathering of the working bodies, the HUGEN Network Board was set up, getting together the chairs/co-chairs of the working bodies for human rights and gender equality.

One of the HUGEN Network’s first joint activities is the support to parliaments in piloting the post-legislative scrutiny process. During November 2019, a three-day certified course was conducted on post-legislative scrutiny for members of parliaments and professional parliamentary services participating in the HUGEN Network’s work, on the topic of post-legislative scrutiny. Following this, six parliaments selected the respective laws to be subject to the post-legislative scrutiny process (PLS) and the relevant methodology. This process resulted in the PLS Report implying a participatory and open process for consultations with different stakeholders contributing to the quality of the PLS Report itself.

WFD wishes to express gratitude to all the institutions, organisations, individuals, experts as well as activists contributing to the development of this PLS Report. A special acknowledgment goes to the authors of the PLS Report.

The attitudes expressed in this document belong to the author and they are not necessarily approved by WFD, Montenegrin Parliament or the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who do not accept the responsibility for such attitudes or any reliance thereon.

_____1 More information on the Network's activities available at the following link: https://www.hugenwb.net/


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Executive Summary

Gender-sensitive language is the language we use when we want to support the visibility and equality of women in the society.2

The purpose of conducting post-legislative scrutiny (hereinafter: PLS) of the selected articles of the Law on Amendments to the Law on gender Equality is to assess whether all the articles and interventions in strategic documents have achieved the planned results. It is precisely Post-Legislative Scrutiny that refers to the moment when a Parliament asks itself a particular question: does certain legislation bring expected results, impact, to what extent and, if not, why not. The Action Plans – Plan of Activities for Achieving Gender Equality (PAPRR (APAGE) 2013- 2017 and 2017 -2021) constitute a policy instrument used for addressing serious challenges of gender inequality in Montenegro. This Assessment Report was developed to analyse the results of implementation of Articles 13a and 13b of the Law, as well as a broader implementation of the Articles (13, 33a and 14) directly related to the selected ones.

Article 13 The media shall promote gender equality through their programme concept.

Article 13a

Authorities, media, business companies, other legal persons and entrepreneurs shall be obliged to use gender-sensitive language in their work and express all job titles, occupations, professions and functions, in acts on employment or work contract, acts on election, appointment or designation, as well as acts on the election in academic titles, acts on the assignment and other acts deciding on the rights and obligations of employees and other public documents and records in the natural gender (masculine or feminine) of the person to whom those acts relate.

Article 13b Authorities shall be obliged, within the program of professional training and specialization of employees or in any other manner prescribed by law or other legal act, to provide for education of employees on achieving gender equality, or the exercise of rights based on gender equality.

Article 14 Statistical data and information which are collected, recorded and processed by the authorities, business companies and other legal persons, as well as by entrepreneurs must be disaggregated by gender. Statistical data and information referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall form the integral part of the official statistic in Montenegro (hereinafter: Montenegro) and shall be accessible to the public in accordance with the law.

Article 33a A fine of EUR 500 to EUR 5,000 shall be imposed on a legal person for misdemeanour (situations described in Chapter IV, A.3.) The very report on the PLS implementation is an assessment of effectiveness and impact of the implementation of the articles from the Law and relevant interventions from the planning documents achieved by the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights Department for Gender

_____2More information are available at https://www.rodnaravnopravnost.gov.rs/sites/default/files/201907/Priruc%CC%8Cnik%20za%20upotrebu%20rodno%20osetljivog%20jezika_latinica.pdf


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Equality (hereinafter: the Department) and their key partners in implementation, which are simultaneously supposed to contribute to the improvement and/or development of new legislative proposals and measures for improvement of gender equality in Montenegro. The evaluation covered the implementation periods of two action documents, i.e. activities in five relevant fields planned in all areas in Montenegro. This review is directly related to the activities conducted through the mechanisms of direct implementation (implemented: gender mechanisms, with government’s and institutional and direct donor support) and indirect actions, contributing to the goals of the articles in the Law and the APAGE itself. The details on methodology are provided in the Report itself. However, the review process is faced with (in some areas very serious) limitations which have revealed significant shortcomings in the process and mechanisms of implementation, monitoring and evaluation within the PLS.

Relevance

• The APAGE is in keeping with the Law; the APAGE has got relevant strategic goals pertinent to direct beneficiaries and priorities of stakeholders at the national level (The Government of Montenegro; the Department, the Gender Equality Council, the independent regulatory body – Protector of Human Rights and Liberties; CSOs acting across the entire country) and municipalities – coordinators, councils, gender equality offices and CSOs dealing directly or indirectly with the issues of women’s rights as the issues of gender equality and oversight of the Law implementation, as well as conducting the activities from the APAGE which have an impact on gender equality promotion.

• The Law and its Action Plan (APAGE) are in keeping with the development agenda and the EU accession process (highlighted in the reports on the activities under negotiating chapters, in particular 19 and 23 and with the requirements from the EU’s latest Progress Report on Montenegro). Yet, the evaluation has established that the language of various documents, legislation, rulebooks, is inconsistently gender-sensitive (details provided in the Report);

• The preparation of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Gender Equality, as well as development and implementation of the Action Plan, have been greatly supported by the international partners involved with democratic development in various areas; UN agencies, especially UNDP, the OSCE and EU have been most salient in this process.

• On the other hand, technical preparations for amendments of the legal framework on the part relative to the implementation of Articles 13a and 13b have been efficiently conducted; while the technical grounds for the APAGE development were solid enough (problem identification was left out in some areas, e.g. lack of assigned responsibility, accurate deadlines and resources). Some measures were omitted, although relevant for the implementation of Articles 13a and 13b (areas: education, culture and media), while others, in endeavours to bring about change, have failed due to limited action. Men were not involved with the making and implementation of the AP, neither with the consultation process with representatives of relevant institutions, and they remained almost invisible in some target intervention groups (training of staff in public institutions and of journalists). But, their participation was significant in the presentation of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Gender Equality in the Montenegrin Parliament. The support


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to the development of amendments was constantly provided by the Gender Equality Committee of the Montenegrin Parliament, as the relevant sectoral body of the legislator.

• At the Level of the Articles themselves (13a and 13b) the relevance has been confirmed, as well as the logic of the intervention present all the time during the APAGE implementation. During the APAGE implementation, in accordance with the implementation of Articles 13a and 13b, mechanisms for adjustments and fine tuning were applied. That is one of the weak points in the APAGE implementation, because thus some important areas for substantial achievement of gender equality were left out, such as gender mainstreaming, gender and language, new media and media literacy/education (through curriculum and optional courses, gender aspects are included in the way of basically confirming the gender stereotypes about women).

• The quality of indicators and reference values in the APAGE was unclear; namely, the indicators were difficult to measure because the measurable dimension was left out, the target values are missing and the proposed verification sources are unclear and inadequate. Through the report preparation the indicators were analysed along with the verification of the achieved results by comparing to the action plan from the previous implementation period (2013-2017);

• The APAGE implementation did not have a consistent and efficient (to the extent possible to measure) mechanism of coordination/management, including the lack of clear lines of responsibility for implementation, monitoring and reporting (especially at the level of executive power/ministries or Human Resources Directorate). The lack of inter-institutional cooperation and the prolongation of some initiated processes (unclear role of the Gender Equality Council; electoral cycles);

• Although the APAGE monitoring mechanisms have mainly been defined and the leading role was assigned to the Department within the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, this system has not yet been established. Details on this are available in the annual reports of the GEC and some donors’ reports. Information on activities at the level of ministries have not been sufficiently systemized and synchronized (e.g. gender equality and education or gender and culture through implementation of measures from the current AP); on the other hand, at the local level – reporting on implemented activities is more efficient, but the quality of reporting remains a challenge;

• A heavy dependence on donor support made the complete implementation of the APAGE dependent on their priority areas (this is a general finding in accordance with the scope of the PLS evaluation);

• The general conclusion is that the APAGE has demonstrated a limited effectiveness,

because most activities were fragmented and non-harmonised, resulting in uneven priority areas (the least implemented activities: education, culture and media), and the most relevant parts for implementation of Articles 13a and 13b, including the very significant Articles 13 and 14);

• Through the implementation of gender equality legislation in case of conducting the

measures, a strong lack of alignment was evident in women’s political participation, economic position and combating violence (through legislative reform); women’s political


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participation, by implementing the 2016 Law and establishment of Women’s Political Network, is also shown by higher activity of women MPs in Montenegro’s Parliament; MoUs were signed with CSOs, media and other stakeholders, contributing to creation of a political platform for gender equality and development of Montenegro that can be integrated with public policies;

• Data for monitoring various aspects of women’s position and gender equality have been

improved (gender equality index and the Monstat publications), but it is still necessary to work through inclusion of official statistics, public records and enhanced level of research conducted by academic institutions, CSOs, agencies and international organisations;

• The awareness of the importance of women’s protection has been raised, but the

inadequate media reporting on gender issues is still present; also, there is a lack of gender equality concept in the context of Montenegro’s development;

• Some of the main reasons for limited results in the implementation of the Articles in the

areas relevant for the APAGE implementation, were primarily the insufficient links among different forms of intervention (i.e. research without adequate impact on policies or awareness raising on a larger scale, implementation of legal provisions or amendments to the laws/by-laws; lack/sporadic implementation of legal provisions in the parliamentary procedures, etc.), as well as the absence of vertical coordination through legislative and administrative level of power, etc.

Impact

• Objectively verifiable indicators at the level of results and impact of Article 13a implementation have shown that the achieved impact is moderate; the APAGE itself, in case of Articles 13 and 13b, has endorsed interventions targeting various groups, with significant deviation from the number of direct beneficiaries, thus leaving out some important target groups (e.g. there is no education for staff employed in culture, a very little training for journalists).

• The establishment of gender statistics can have further impact if improved, in accordance with Article 14 of the Law, but also with the legislative synchronization with the EU accession; Some results have been achieved through direct implementation of gender-sensitive language are going to last shortly, but the understanding of the importance for the representatives of institutions in the context of gender policy development is missing, because, further implementation depends on strengthening the human capacities engaged directly or indirectly on the Law implementation as well as certain interventions of the APAGE and permanent awareness raising in general society;

• Stable partnerships that would contribute to higher effectiveness and impact of the

Law and APAGE implementation have not been created. Political will still constitutes an extremely important factor.


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• Based on the findings of the evaluation in PLS context, the conclusion is that, unlike the implementation of Articles 13a and 13b, the APAGE impact has been very modest, limited to the enhancement of women’s participation in the legislative power (not also qualitatively, at the level of working committees/parties), raised awareness of specific issues such as violence against women, while the area of culture and the importance of cultural patterns in the gender equality context and the importance of gender-sensitive language, education and instruction with a direct bearing on sensitization of the society vis-à-vis the issues of gender-based violence were left out (gender regimes, gender roles, gender stereotypes); legislative amendments are visible, but they are limited because by-laws and implementation are not making progress. Besides, the impact at policy level can be deemed limited, because sectoral strategies did not include a gender aspect or had a limited impact on gender equality.


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Findings Although the Montenegrin legislation has transposed the provision on the use of gender-sensitive language, which is fully in compliance with the UN and Council of Europe’s recommendations, practical implementation is selective. This has been demonstrated by credible surveys, as well as in-depth interviews which preceded the writing of this report, as part of the entire process of post-legislative scrutiny. There is a habit of using nouns in masculine gender for designation of women’s professions and titles, although the Registry of Women’s Professions and Titles was endorsed in 2013, before the Law was amended in the same part. “Because language is about getting used to, but there also has to be getting unused to... The whole society, media and educational system first and foremost, must be at the forefront. Administration too, local and national, must do more in the practical part. We must get used to the fact that the caption on a door reads, e.g. “Woman Secretary”, if that position is occupied by a woman just ‘Secretary’, as still prevails in practice many a time. Let us remind ourselves of Virginia Woolf’s words: „Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size“.3 Also, based on the available analyses and monitoring of media contents, as well as by analysing the contents during this report’s development, the implementation of this article is visible, but the context where this provision is more observed is also very significant. Because, those are often mere formats of programmes with more of an entertaining nature – health or beauty topics. On the other hand, journalists often have the intention of placing women politicians or officials in a negative context by negative examples, though using gender-sensitive language (e.g. madam minister did or said...). The results of the very few surveys conducted in the period from adopting the amendments to the Law on Gender Equality to date, mainly show that different stakeholders know of the obligation to use gender-sensitive language and that they abide by it in formal communication, both in writing and speaking, but most female interlocutors, especially officials and/or those employed in the executive branch of power have failed to recognize this use in order to overcome women’s various problems. Of total 30, even 17 emphasised that gender-sensitive language cannot assist in gender equality, and a few interlocutors even challenged the gender equality concept because they believe that the Montenegrin society has got other priority problems and issues to address (7 of them stated this).

Other than habits, a strong resistance to observing Article 13a lies in the administrative and legal style and it was visible through the interviews that the officials mostly in informal speech opt for the use of masculine gender when they wish to stress their title or function.

_____3 Jovana Došljak (2019) ,,Rod i jezik u crnogorskom društvu’’ (Gender and Language in Montenegrin Society), Matica, Crna Gora


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As Dr Slavica Perović, university professor, put it: The explanation for this phenomenon should be sought in extralinguistic factors, such as the patriarchal principles’ domination and ideas, and that could safely be called language discrimination rather than language traditionalism. .... the battle of the sexes through language has become the battle of the sexes for language”. Based on the findings through interviews, the conclusion may be that most female interlocutors in institutions (primarily in the executive power) have only got generic knowledge of the importance of gender equality, of the Law on Gender Equality, recognize the APAGE activities only by their own specific obligations in their implementation, while only 6 respondents showed wider knowledge of gender mainstreaming, activities, legislation and beyond, because that is their field of interest or part of their job description. Same is with women working for media and CSOs. As there was no communication with female representatives of the Human Resources Directorate while developing this report, it remains unclear how many staff have undergone the training on gender equality, what topics were on the curriculum and how they were addressed, what the feedback through evaluation was and how the training programme itself was designed. Through the annual reports on the APAGE implementation, these data are fragmented, quantified only and very hard to collate.


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Conclusions The importance of language and of the use of gender-sensitive language was discussed at round tables, several studies and analyses were published, always emphasizing the necessity of reforms and gender mainstreaming in educational system (the interlocutors who deal with these issues ex officio within everyone’s respective competences, or as reporters, CSO representatives, especially emphasizes the pre-school age), by staff training at various levels and within various structures (members of parliament, judges, public prosecutors, heads of state authorities, directors of public agencies and institutions, and other staff) in order to make sure that all decision-makers or those participating in decision-making be gender-sensitised and contribute, with their newly acquired knowledge and full understanding of gender equality concept, fully respect the legal arrangements in practice, respect the Constitution and guarantee the public treatment and equal opportunities for both women and men to exercise their rights.

Some priority areas of relevant ministries and directorates, defined by the APAGE for them precisely to implement and monitor, have not been recognised as the staff capacity building, but more like another regulatory obligation.

All the international documents, directives (laws) and strategies, as well as the national regulatory framework and established mechanisms, instruments, adopted strategies relative to gender equality and those for gender equality, as well as the approved gender equality action plan for achieving gender equality, are not sufficient to overcome the inequalities, marginalisation and discrimination in all spheres of life. The key is in respect for and implementation of the valid decisions, laws and policies for equal opportunities, but with mandatory gender-mainstreaming into the existing policies and programmes.

Relevance With incontestable relevance of the legal provisions selected for PLS, as well as for their respective action plans, strategic areas are indubitably relevant for improving women’s position and promotion of gender equality. In both APs the same areas that are certainly still relevant are included, but they some need updating and expanding. (see chapter Recommendations).

The process of drafting the Law on Amendments to the Gender Equality Law, as well as drawing up the AP, constitutes a solid and relevant basis. The very process of developing a strategic framework for gender equality is aligned to the international standards, i.e. goals and guidelines of the key international platforms such as the Beijing Platform and CEDAW.

Besides, the participatory approach, as well as involvement of different stakeholders, consultations with various groups of women whose needs should be identified through strategic interventions (activities), involvement of women experts on certain fields, using available evidence from (modest as it is) statistics and research, have contributed to the significance of the APAGE itself (especially the current Action Plan). Multi-sectoral, multi-layered, with different stakeholders, this approach has ensured comprehensiveness and high quality of the foreseen interventions.


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However, during the evaluation as part of the entire PLS process, certain gaps at the aspect of APAGE relevance level were identified:

a. Men are excluded from the process of APAGE development as strategic paper for achieving gender equality; among the target groups during the intervention, (except in few institutions), and their inclusion in implementation has not been considerably noted. In particular, if the document is supposed to contribute to gender equality and improvement of the position of the less powerful group, the group which is supposed to change its attitudes, patterns and relations should be included in order to make way for the change. On the other hand, it is noticeable that during the presentation of the Draft Law on Gender Equality, the Draft was presented in the Parliament by men, representatives of the MHMR.

b. Some areas of relevance for achieving gender equality are too generic, such as the general introduction of gender mainstreaming as a concept, especially in the context of upbringing and education (relevant for implementation of Articles 13 and 13a), while activities for new media and media literacy are missing, especially those with gender aspect.

c. Some measures were not fully or directly relevant. In case of gender-responsive media, state institutions, CSOs and other parties, when proposing guidelines, codes of ethics or expected outputs, a special attention should be paid due to potential conflicts from the aspects of professional autonomy or media freedoms.

d. Some measures were too generic, aspiring to effect challenges not realistically attainable by limited and fragmented action, as was the case with development of gender-sensitive and anti-discriminatory measures in the context of education, there was no operationalisation plan, no clear guidance on further curriculum development, etc. In this case, the APAGE was developed more like a strategy than an action plan.

e. A certain selectiveness of measures insufficiently justified in case of education, where the focus is on training of staff for lower grades and the insufficient inclusion of higher education as well as pre-school.

f. A modest number of women involved during the interventions in most activities that are indeed relevant (training for public administration staff).

g. Lack of targeted priorities (proportional with the support and capacities of donors).

Based on practice in selected strategic areas, there is a conspicuous lack of coordination, in almost all activities. Some documents, laws and other acts were developed independently, disregarding frugality with resources. Many activities in the context of an area were undertaken in parallel without synchronisation and independently from others that might otherwise have provided support, suggestions, etc.

Effectiveness The AP’s effectiveness in this context is not simple to evaluate, especially given that only specific areas were selected due to the scope of the PLS process, but also due to the lack of systematic monitoring and developed reporting mechanisms.

Taking into account the implementation of the AP’s relevant areas for reporting, it might be said that the implementation was undertaken in a very uneven manner, and this was clearly indicated by the last report prepared by the Department for presentation to the Montenegrin Government.


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A strong focus on political participation is noticeable, as well as on the economic empowerment of women, whilst the focus on media, culture and education was weak.

1. The main achievements in all relevant strategic areas:

a. Certain major changes in legislation in the area of political participation; b. Enhanced political participation of women as MPs, established Women’s Political

Network (invisibility during the COVID-19 pandemic); higher number of women in decision-making positions in media outlets, but without substantial changes;

c. Improved political platform for gender equality through developing a guide on gender-sensitive legislation; a manual prepared by the Institute for Education; conferences getting together many stakeholders and making impact on further shaping of strategic guidelines for gender equality and empowerment of women’s policies;

d. Improved statistics by developed gender equality index and also “Women and Men in Montenegro”, several relevant surveys on media and political parties conducted by members of academic community, CSOs and international organisations.

Regarding the institutional level, more factors had a direct or indirect impact. Namely, the stakeholders responsible for the APAGE and Law implementation are the national authorities, public officials at different levels with significant participation and influence of CSOs and experts; by the same token, the Committee and the Parliament itself do not participate in policy making (strategies, action plans, etc.), so the GEC has got an aggravating circumstance to copes with, in preparing proposals for certain measures, analyse, monitor and evaluate the achievement.

a) The activities are often not adequately monitored, but reports were developed instead, incomplete, not further considered or presented to higher levels. It is noticeable that there was no interest or request to establish whom the report should be submitted to or who is accountable (this is not specified by the Law either).

b) There was no coordination, monitoring and regular reporting at the institutional level to contribute to more efficient activity implementation; also, the reports most often provide quantitative data, while the qualitative impact is not sufficiently visible and measurable. It is equally important to emphasise that, despite the adopted legislation, an ambitious implementation of the APAGE is a great challenge.

c) There was no synchronisation and, along with the lack of knowledge, relevant strategic papers have not been updated with comparative studies or consultative process in order to fully implement gender equality as a cross-cutting area. All this constitutes a perennially worrying factor.

2. The main shortcomings in efficient achievement of results are:

a. Lack of legislative reform due to the lack of auxiliary laws or to selectiveness (i.e. the Law on Education and Upbringing, the Law on Culture, Media Laws, etc); or the audit of rules of procedures in the Parliament in accordance with the AP’s goals that have not been implemented; as well as the fully implemented Articles 13, 13a and 13b; no introduction of concepts of gender equality and all relevant laws;

b. Insufficient and inconsistent intervention among the inter-related fields, such as the lack of changes in executive branches of power;

c. A modest effectiveness in initiatives through educational system;


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d. Lack of efficiency through inclusion of marginalised groups (LGBTI) although they have got their own respective strategies.4

Actually, this evaluation has revealed a very fragmented implementation of the AP, as well as of the provision of the Law at hand. In many cases, the activities were restricted and without continuity, thus preventing a stronger impact of the interventions themselves.

Two more forms of restrictions were identified:

e. Limited horizontal effectiveness – a small scope of implementation (e.g. the number of trained staff in public administration; women and also men involved with different interventions, especially at the local level is without a clear insight);

f. Limited vertical effectiveness– demonstrated through various forms of intervention (research without adequate impact on policy and decision-makers or awareness raising in a broader sense, amendments to the law or by-laws and regulations at lower levels, such as the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure or the initial Action Plan for Strengthening the Legislative and Oversight Role of the Parliament of Montenegro, 2016); or, for instance, the lack of institutional coordination among legislative, executive and administrative branch of power.

Also, it can be noted that there are no good practices for exchange:

Ø In the area of media, education or culture – different stakeholders are involved and no efficient way of visibility or exchange of achievements and good practices.

Legal, regulatory, self-regulatory and professional activities call for simultaneous implementation so that change can be efficiently made. The APAGE activities relevant for the strategic goals in part related to the implementation of Articles 13 and 13a have not been successfully coordinated and many legal and political changes were introduced without supported by-laws, mechanisms or instruments.

At the level of institutions and developed mechanisms – the Gender Equality Council is still without a functionally appropriate support and this body is very important to be set up for the long-term goals, in order to work on gender mainstreaming in all areas under executive power.

The mechanisms for monitoring g the implementation have not been established yet, so this report relies on the annual reports of the Gender Equality Department. So, the activities established at the local level remain invisible, unless the said reports cover them, mainly as quantitative data.

In the backdrop of these shortcomings, the APAGE is limited to higher participation of women in politics, modest, but very important improvement of gender statistics and the generally raised awareness of the importance of women in decision-making processes outside the Parliament is still almost invisible. In media, other than the moderately used gender-sensitive language, there are no substantial changes in the context of understanding the gender equality concept and the importance of human rights protection, especially women’s rights, because sexism and misogyny are still overwhelmingly present in media contents and articles.

_____ 4 The Strategy for improving the quality of life of LGBTI persons in Montenegro 2019-2023.


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Individual activities of CSOs (for the entire area of gender equality and promotion of women’s rights) and those for gender-sensitive reporting and importance of the use of gender-sensitive language were only sporadic (CSO ”Ženska akcija’’ (“Women’s Action”), CIN with the support of UNDP and OSCE) and donor-dependent. Thus, such initiatives that entirely followed the APAGE goals in keeping with the Law do not yield far-reaching effects nor do they contribute to a systemic change.

Also, it remained unclear from interviews with women journalists and CSO representatives how regulatory bodies consider their reports and they seem to do it sporadically, not within regular activities.

Due to much polarised political and social situation in Montenegro, no sustainable partnership has been established.

Besides the named technical, human and financial aspects, the selected Articles of the Law and the entire legal arrangement are clearly implemented only selectively. Actually, the areas of upbringing and education, culture and media, which area the APAGE parts most relevant for full implementation of the selected Articles 13a and 13b (along with 13 and 33a) have not been significantly covered by the interventions.

Therefore, gender-sensitive language and Article 13a or practices have not been broadly applied across the legislation, as a vehicle to change the misrepresentation of women via media (Article 13) and the contents produced by the same media. As a matter of fact, the elimination of misrepresentation is primarily observed as a task of media industry, but not as a policy goal and this pertains to all media, but with a special focus on the public broadcasting services or owned by local self-government authorities (commercial media have not been particularly considered although it is very important to take into account that their projects are supported by the national/local institutions).

Lessons learned The analysis of the implementation of relevant APAGE areas and legal provisions unequivocally points to the necessity of cooperation among actors through vertical and horizontal hierarchy of power at the national and local level, with external stakeholders (academic community, CSOs, media), such as partnerships among the business sector, Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Montenegro and representatives of Women’s Political Network creating a synergy, in order to have full implementation of the APAGE and the relevant Law. An example from within institutions is the cooperation between the Statistics Department and Gender Equality Department. Such partnerships can only provide incentive to various forms of cooperation. Also, they contribute to new practices as applied standards from other fields (women in business sector).


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Recommendations The recommendations are based on the analysis of the findings, conclusions and lessons learned, as well as on the consultations with various actors contributing to the survey. Important contribution has been provided by representatives of gender mechanisms at the legislative and executive level, representatives of ministries and other public institutions responsible for activities and Law implementation, as well as other CSO and media representatives. Given the scope of PLS and reporting it is possible to propose the following recommendations:

o The electoral law should be further improved in terms of affirmative measures for less represented gender and ensure full implementation as well as gender-sensitive language and training; conduct a review of Article 33a because there are no registered interventions, i.e. implementation due to the disregard for Article 13a;

o Reform the Parliament’s work in order to enhance the representation of women in working bodies, i.e. committees, notably, in the so-called traditionally male ones (finance, defence, anti-corruption, etc.);

o Through amendments to the legislative framework, include the recommendations from the document “Gender-Sensitive Mirror for Political Parties in Montenegro’’ and the ”gender-Sensitive Mirror for Media”;

o Undertake activities not implemented until March 2020 and planned under the current APAGE (gender-sensitive statistical data in those areas);

o Establish the work of the Gender Equality Council in full capacity; include the gender equality principle in the Action Plan for Strengthening Montenegrin Parliament’s Legislative and Oversight Role;

o Empower the work o Women’s Political Network and improve their cooperation with the CSOs;

o The cooperation of the Parliament representatives is especially relevant to establish with citizens by introducing procedures for processing appeals and petitions.

The identified challenges and questions, as well as recommendations, in order to support the international partners/donors focus through their programmes and projects especially on media and their importance in the context of overall democratic capacity building – from social, political, cultural and development-oriented environment.

Education

o Strategic documents for education should include gender component, have a holistic approach from early childhood to higher education; include the gender aspect into all levels of education curricula, because education, upbringing and gender should be taken together (through research, policies and practice);

o Certain number of activities do not include the same activities for all levels, from pre-school and elementary school, despite the fact that the largest gap between children appears precisely there; also, by insight into optional subject for grades VII, VIII and IX, it


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is evident that the gender aspect is not included in the curriculum (e.g. in the Healthy Life Styles course);

Media and culture

o Activities not implemented under the previous AP, relative to the implementation of Articles 13, 13a and 13b, should be implemented by the end of the current action plan implementation;

o Broaden the initiatives and requests towards all media for gender-sensitive reporting, but also for gender mainstreaming through reporting/treatment of various subjects; recommend new formats for promotion of new audience (include online media);

o Develop a positive approach to promoting creativity and achievements of women and gender equality policy, adjusted to target groups/audience and new creative professions;

o Encourage public debates on the position of women in Montenegrin society, their underrepresentation in decision-making and policy-making positions (public institutions, business sector, media, educational institutions, etc.), where WPN and relevant parliamentary committees should be involved, as well as regulatory bodies or self-regulatory bodies (media ombudspersons) committed to these issues;

o At the higher education level, include gender-sensitive curriculum (through journalism or new gender studies or feminine studies);

o Promote gender-sensitive journalism through associations and media industry;

Mechanisms

o Build the capacities of the Gender Equality Department as the body responsible for the implementation of the AP;

o Carry on with training of staff employed with all relevant institutions enforcing all the APAGE interventions, implementing gender equality policy in keeping with the Law; in particular, involve men in trainings to be delivered; keep improving the staff’s understanding on the importance of gender equality concept and their involvement through inter-sectoral cooperation;

o Permanently raise the level of information and awareness of public administration staff regarding the importance of implementing gender equality principles through various trainings (e.g.: gender and information; gender and online media/social media, creative industries and women;);

o Improve the ways of funding so that the APAGE implementation’s efficiency could become more comprehensive;

o Establish a monitoring system and data collection system on results achieved under the APAGE and Law implementation, conduct training in order to improve the reporting to ensure quality, but also work efficiency, on monitoring and internal evaluation; in the 2019 Report, the Department underscore the quality of most municipalities’ reports – it would be nonetheless important to make it publicly available.

Further on, it is important to establish a stronger, more comprehensive cooperation with national institutions, but equally high quality of cooperation with the mechanisms at the local level that have already undergone somewhat more intensive training on all capacity building for the


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implementation of gender equality policy, but also to develop strategic framework, as stated in one of the APAGE implementation reports.

Certainly, there are several contextual factors that have a bearing on gender equality policy implementation, some of them being: social, cultural, patriarchal norms, but also political – it implies a high degree of political will and in particular the understanding of the importance of protecting women’s human rights in order to develop democratic and prosperous society.


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The Parliament of Montenegro

The Parliament of Montenegro is a unicameral parliament with 81 members. The Parliaments takes its decisions with majority vote of attending MPs at a session attended by more than half the convocation, unless the Constitution stipulates otherwise. The term of office is four years long and can cease earlier, by disbanding the parliament or shortening the tenure. The MPs’ primary role is to pass legislation in accordance to the citizens’ best interests and needs. One of the key functions of the Parliament is to scrutinise the Government’s work. The Parliament has got several instruments to exercise parliamentary scrutiny at its disposal.

The Parliament, as the highest legislative authority, enables citizens’ active participation in the parliamentary life. Therefore, the Parliament’s work is public and special attention is paid to its openness and accessibility. The principle of transparency is reflected in cooperation with the civil sector, the representatives of which can attend the sessions of the working parties, as well as in publication of relevant information and documents made through the Parliament’s proceedings on the Parliament’s web page, publication of strategic documents, annual and other activity reports, financial statements, newsletters and other publications, followed by direct TV broadcasting of parliamentary sessions and collective and individual visits of citizens.

The Human Rights and Gender Equality Network of Committees (HUGEN)

Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is a public body of the United Kingdom committed to supporting democracy and democratic processes around the globe. Working in more than 40 countries across the world, WFD has cooperated with parliaments, political parties, civil society organisations and electoral committees in order to help them become more just and inclusive, accountable and transparent in their work. Operating in the Western Balkans since 1992, WFD is in a good position to support the endeavours towards enhancing the rule of law, governance, gender equality as well as post-conflict reconciliation.

In the second half of 2019, WFD launched a 30-month programme implementation (April 2019-November 2021), aiming at the establishment of a network of parliamentary committees for human rights and gender equality in the Western Balkan region (HUGEN). The Programme is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and includes the working parties from eight parliaments in the region of the Western Balkans. The Programme Program is implemented by the WFD regional office in Belgrade, in collaboration with local WFD offices in the region. Working across the Balkans, the Programme has been supporting the MPs and members of the parliaments’ professional services in strengthening parliamentary cooperation in the region, supervisory and control capacities of the parliaments and improvement of the best standards’ and practices’ implementation in the area of human rights and gender equality.

@WFD_Democracy

Documents

6ITSVX7YQQEV] 1SRXIRIKVS SR+IRHIV)UYEPMX]SJ ......Post-Legislative Scrutiny of Selected Articles of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Gender Equality of Montenegro – Report Summary