The conference organised by the Gender Equality Committee and the NGO Women's Safe House to continue tomorrow

International Conference dedicated to implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence onthe topic: “General and specialised services of assistance - guarantees of quality of service” has been opened in Podgorica today.

The following spoke at the opening of the conference: Ms Nada Drobnjak, Chairperson of the Gender Equality Committee, Ms Ljiljana Raičević, President of the Women's Safe House, Ms Barbara Rotovnik, representative of the EU Delegation to Montenegro and Ms Zorica Kovačević, Minister of Labour and Social Welfare. Ms Fiona McCluney, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative to Montenegro, via video message, emphasised inter alia the need for coordinated answer of the state and civil sector in cases of violence against women and domestic violence, emphasising the role of the Gender Equality Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro, which was of key importance for the system of protection in Montenegro, because the Committee had an important role in gathering all important actors in fighting violence. In addition, she expresses gratitude to Chairperson of the Committee Ms Nada Drobnjak, on her devoted work and commitment to solving problems in this field.

In her address, Chairperson of the Gender Equality Committee Ms Nada Drobnjak said, among other things, that violence against women was severely diminished and decreased, often preventing exercising of human rights by women, particularly their basic rights to life, security, freedom, dignity, physical and economic integrity. She stressed that Montenegro has undertaken measures for establishing legislative, investment and organisational framework for preventing and fighting violence against women and domestic violence, in order to provide a multidisciplinary approach of protecting victims of violence and effective punishment and resocialisation of perpetrators.

Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Ms Zorica Kovačević spoke on the achievements in the application of the Law on Domestic Violence Protection and so-called Istanbul Convention, reminding on the following: SOS Hotline for Women and Children Victims of Violence has been introduced, drafting of the new strategy on protection against domestic violence was ongoing, and a coordination body at the level of Deputy Prime Minister would be formed for monitoring the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.

The discussion was lead within panels: “General and specialised services of assistance - guarantees of quality of service” and “Specialised services of support - challenges regarding the availability and possible providers”.

Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences and Advisor to the President of Montenegro Ms Sonja Tomović-Šundić spoke on the topic: “Ethical aspects of violence against women and domestic violence”.

The conference is attended by: parliamentarians, representatives of governments and relevant public institutions and civil society organisations dealing with the protection and promotion of rights of women victims of violence from Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Austria, Macedonia, Turkey, Albania and Kosovo.

The conference was financially supported by the EU, through the project “Coordinated Efforts: Toward New European Standards in Protection of Women from Gender-based Violence” and TACSO (Technical Assistance for Civil Society Organisations), People2People component and UN WOMEN.   

International Conference dedicated to implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence is organised by the Gender Equality Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro and the NGO Women's Safe House.