On 5 June 2023, the Violence against Women Division organised a follow-up roundtable on the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Montenegro, aimed at promoting national synergies in addressing violence against women. The meeting provided the unique opportunity to take stock and discuss progress, remaining challenges and ways forwards in order to comply with the findings of Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) baseline evaluation report on Montenegro published on 15 October 2018 as well as the conclusions of the Committee of the Parties to Montenegro adopted on 8 June 2022.
The meeting gathered 30 public representatives from all relevant sectors as well as women’s NGOs running specialist support services, involved in preventing and combatting violence against women in Montenegro. It was opened by the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Admir Adrović, who underlined steps undertaken by the Montenegro to strengthen its laws, policies and measures to sanction violence against women and improve the range of support and protection measures available to women victims as well as remaining challenges related to persisting gender stereotypes and other obstacles that hamper women access to recovery and justice.
The participants exchanged on improvements and measures to be taken to ensure multi-agency co-ordination in providing support services and protection, as well as effective access to criminal justice for women suffering gender-based violence, and their children. It includes specific discussing on improving the range of services and assistance available to women suffering from all forms of gender-based violence, including victims of rape, forced marriage or domestic violence, as well as child witnesses of such violence.
The need to develop further measures to address the additional barriers faced women at risk of intersectional discrimination was also underlined, such as Roma and Egyptian women or women with disabilities. The panel discussions also covered additional steps to be taken to strengthen the design, implementation and evaluation of co-ordinated policies to prevent and combat violence against women. The necessity to step up data collection on violence against women and ensure stable funding tailored to the policy needs, including in the context of women access to economic assistance, was also identify as a priority area for further action.
Montenegro is expected to submit its state report in the context of the first thematic round of GREVIO evaluation, on the theme of “Building trust by delivering support, protection and justice”, by October 2023. Following it, it is planned that a GREVIO delegation will carry out an onsite evaluation visit in early 2024.
