We inform the public that the NGOs Women’s Rights Center, Anima, Association of Paraplegics – Podgorica, Centre for Civic Education, Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations, Center for Monitoring and Research, Center for Roma Initiatives, Children’s Rights Center, Civic Alliance, European Movement in Montenegro, Human Rights Action, Institute Alternative,  Institute for Social Inclusion, Juventas, Rule of Law, SOS Hotline – Nikšić, and Women’s Safe House will submit the proposal for amendments to articles of the applicable Law on Election of Councellors and Members of the Parliament to the President of the Montenegrin Parliament, the Working Group for Building Confidence in the Election Process, presidents of the parliamentary political parties and the Members of the Parliament, for the purpose of providing higher level of  involvement of women in political life of Montenegro.

Therefore, we welcome the initiative of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms for adopting the Law on Amendments to the Law on Election of Councellors and Members of the Parliament, as well as the amendments proposed for the same purpose by SNP, Pozitivna Crna Gora and the Center for Monitoring (CEMI), because they address the same changes to the existing law that we advocate for.

We remind that in September 2011, the Members of the Parliament of Montenegro adopted the Law on Amendments to the Law on Election of Councellors and Members of the Parliament, intentionally avoiding the adoption of the proposed amendment that was the only one to truly guarantee the essential change in the level of involvement of women in the operation of Montenegrin Parliament and local authorities.  This amendment provided for a requirement that the candidate lists included no less than 1/3 of the nominees of the less represented gender; that at least one individual from the under-represented gender is included among every three candidates on the electoral list, starting from the first to the third, from the fourth to the sixth and so on.

Failure to adopt the above-mentioned solution clearly demonstrated the lack of political will for achieving equality that Montenegro officially stands for, despite the fact that this proposition was jointly formulated and submitted to the President of the Parliament in May 2011 by the representatives of all parties in the Montenegrin Parliament, representatives of international and non-governmental organizations and the experts from the fields of women’s rights and electoral legislation.

Today, two years later, once again we address the need  to amend the Law on Election of Councellors and Members of the Parliament as its results after the last elections were discouraging.

Although women comprise more than half of Montenegrin population and constitute the majority of the voters, the percentage of their involvement in representative bodies and in decision-making is among the lowest in Europe – only 16 % of members of the Montenegrin Parliament are women. There is an evident political tendency of completely avoiding inclusion of women in some parliamentary committes (the Constitutional Committee, the Committee for Security and Defense, Committee on Economy, Finance and Budget Committee and the Anti-Corruption Commission to Monitor and Control the Privatization Process); the President and the Vice-President of the Parliament are men; there are only three women in the Government of Montenegro; there is only one female president of the municipality of twenty-one municipalities in Montenegro, and there are only  14%  women councilors.

Therefore we urge the President of the Montenegrin Parliament, the representatives of the Working Group for Building Confidence in the Election Process, the MPs of all political parties to demonstrate full political competence and responsibility for their official statements on gender equality and support the proposed amendment. This obligation also arises from the Constitution of Montenegro, the Law on Gender Equality, a number of binding national documents such as the Action Plan for Chapter 23 (measure 3.6.2.11 i 3.6.2.12), the Action Plan for Aquiring Gender Equality 2013-2017 (measure 7.1.1.), as well as from numerous international conventions that commit Montenegro to maintain the gender equality policies.

We demand from the President of the Parliament, as the declared socio-democrat and as the chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE to support the amendments, especially since they  enable the implementation of recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR and the Council of Europe on the greater participation of women in political life, the European Parliament Resolution on status of Women in the Western Balkans (4 April 2013) and the binding recommendations of the UN CEDAW  Committee (November 2011) that demand from the State of  Montenegro to change the electoral law “to ensure that in each group of three candidates, at least one candidate is a woman on political parties’ electoral lists”  by the end of 2013.

 

Women’s Rights Center   

Maja Raičević

 

ANIMA, Kotor              

Ljupka Kovačević

 

Centre for Civic Education

Daliborka Uljarević

 

Center for Democracy and Human Rights

Nenad Koprivica

 

Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations

Ana Novaković

 

The Center for Monitoring and Research

Zlatko Vujović

 

Center for Roma Initiatives

Fana Delija

 

Children’s Rights Center

Rajka Perović

 

Civic Alliance

Edina Hasanaga Čobaj

 

European Movement in Montenegro

Momčilo Radulović

 

Human Rights Action

Tea Gorjanc Prelević

 

Institute Alternative

Stevo Muk

 

Institute for Social Inclusion

Andrija Đukanović

 

Juventas

Ivana Vujović

 

Paraplegic Association – Podgorica

Dejan Bašanović

 

Rule of Law

Tanja Jovović

 

SOS Hotline – Nikšić                      

Nataša Međedović

Women’s Safe House

Ljiljana Raičević

* * * * *

Proposed amendment as follows:

PROPOSAL FOR AMENDMENT OF APPLICABLE LAW ON ELECTION OF COUNCILLORS AND MEMBERS OF THE PARLIAMENT

Article 39a is amended as follows:

The submitter of the electoral list shall nominate no less than 1/3 of the individuals belonging to the under-represented gender.

At least one individual from the under-represented gender is included among every three candidates on the candidate  list, starting from the first to the third, from the fourth to the sixth and so on.

If the candidate  list fails to meet the requirements referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article,

it shall be considered to contain flaws preventing it to be declared a candidate list, and the submitter of the list shall be invited to remove the flaws of the list, in accordance with this Law.

The submitter of the candidate list that fails to remove the flaws referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article shall be denied the declaration of the candidate list by the election commission in accordance with this Law.

 

Article 96 is amended as follows:

Mandates obtained by the candidate list are given to the candidates according to the candidate list order.

Not less than 1/3 of mandates are assigned to persons of underrepresented sex.

In Article 104, after paragraph 2, two new paragraphs are added that state:

Not withstanding paragraph 2 of this Article, if the mandate of the candidate belonging to the under-represented gender terminates, the first following candidate belonging to the under-represented gender will be chosen instead.

If there are no more candidates of the less represented gender on the list from which the councilor or an MP was elected, the candidate who is next in the list order  will be selected.

The existing paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 6 become paragraphs 5, 6, 7 and 8.