Political activism of Women in Montenegro

On 1st of September, CeMI has started implementing the project „Political activism of Women in Montenegro“, which is supported by Friedrih Ebert Stiftung. Through this project, CeMI would like to contribute to raising level of participation of women in politics, by encouraging women to become more involved in the decision making process, in both political parties and state institutions, and in that way affirm themselves as the politicians, activists and state executives.

Even though it is visible that Montenegro has made a step forward concerning conscious of women about the need to become more politically involved, the level of their participation is still under the standards set by international community and regional practice . There is data showing that, regardless the fact that Montenegro is now candidate to EU, the presence of women on its political scene is 11% lower that it was in the European Union fifteen years ago. Problem can also be found in the legal framework which does not provide a norm demanding women to form 30% of Parliament members (EU standard). Finally, the most significant cause of low level of women participation in politics is the traditional understanding of gender relation and differences. It creates a psychological barrier that prevents women from becoming more politically involved.

Since the gender equality is considered a pre-condition for further democratization process of Montenegro, this project will be aimed at detecting key weaknesses of the system that affect gender equality issue, as well as identifying main legal obstacles for participation of women in politics. In the last phase of the project, CeMI will provide concrete recommendations for improvement of the legal and institutional framework.

Project realization is consisted of four main activities:

• Conducting a research on current legal and institutional framework, current practice and data concerning women participation ad activism in the politics in Montenegro;

• Public opinion survey on gender equality in politics in Montenegro;

• Publishing policy study on political activism of women in Montenegro;

• Organization of national conference for presentation of policy study results.