Achieving gender equality in political life in Montenegro: The role of political parties
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Political parties are the ‘gatekeepers of democracy’ and key actors that facilitate, enable, but also in some cases hinder, meaningful political participation and representation of women. Political parties play a central role in ensuring that women join political life, run for office and participate in representative institutions and executive bodies.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is collaborating with the Gender Equality Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro and the OSCE Mission to Montenegro to organise a roundtable to discuss achievements and ways forward in improving women’s political participation in Montenegro. ODIHR will introduce the participants to its existing work and to the ODIHR Gender Audit for Political Parties online tool. All major parliamentary political parties are expected to participate.
Why is it important?
The equal participation of women and men in political affairs is first and foremost a human rights and democratic governance issue, but achieving such equality also has benefits for political parties making efforts to ensure compliance with relevant international standards and recommendations. By diversifying the composition of a political party, it is also possible to widen its support base and reach out to a larger pool of voters and potential candidates.
Workshop objectives
- Preliminarily assess the current status related to gender balance and gender equality in the political life of Montenegro;
- Identify achievements and ways forward in further advancing gender balance and gender equality in political life by political parties as gatekeepers of democracy;
- Discuss possibilities for conducting participatory gender audits with a group of selected political parties and supporting them in developing party gender action plans.
Target audience
- Representatives of all parliamentary political parties, either MPs or representatives of party management bodies. Parties should ideally be represented with two delegates (one female and one male);
- Members of the Gender Equality Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro;
- Representatives of parliamentary staff, including staff working with parliamentary committees, on legislation and research for the parliament;
- Representatives of key civil society organisations working on women’s political participation and gender equality in politics.
Registration
Only directly invited participants are eligible to participate.
Contact
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Saša Gavrić, ODIHR Associate Gender Officer, at sasa.gavric@odihr.pl.