All Montenegrin municipalities signed Memorandum of Understanding committing to promote gender equality

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights signed on October 28 2015 a Memorandum of Understanding with Montenegrin municipalities of Žabljak, Šavnik and Plužine, aiming to strengthen the co-operation in the area of gender equality.

With this ceremony, 23 Montenegrin municipalities are now officially signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding.

The Memorandum defines the methods in which the Mission and the authorities will work together to promote gender equality at the local level, including the ways to increase the number of women in decision-making positions.

“We can proudly say that there is not one municipality left that did not commit to work on promotion and implementation of gender equality standards and principles,” said The Head of OSCE Mission to Montenegro, Ambassador Janina Hřebíčková. “This gives us the right to claim without any doubt that gender equality and gender mainstreaming in Montenegro have gained a certain momentum that will not only continue but is picking up the pace.”

The municipalities oblige themselves to appoint Gender Focal Points, which will receive training from the Mission and the Ministry and become responsible for the co-ordination of all gender equality activities in their respective municipalities.

The Mission will support further development of the Local Action Plans for Gender Equality in the municipalities, by which a number of related topics, such as participation of women in public and political life, sports, culture, economic empowerment of women, fight against gender-based violence and other related issues will be systematically addressed.