The Civic Alliance hosted a meeting where the co-presidents of women’s clubs from the municipal assemblies of Bijelo Polje, Ulcinj and Nikšić signed the first Cooperation Platform. They recognized the key role of joint action in improving the position of women and other vulnerable categories of society in local communities. Through this Platform, they plan to build strong bridges of cooperation, to enable the exchange of ideas and resources in order to bring about positive changes in all aspects of society.
By signing this Platform, a Network of Women’s Clubs was formed in the Municipal Assemblies in Montenegro. Through joint work on this Platform, women’s caucuses in the country want to bring about sustainable changes in society, emphasizing the importance of inclusivity, equality and diversity.
Among other things, we want to achieve the goals of the Platform through:
• The organization of workshops, seminars and public events, with which we want to raise awareness of the importance of gender equality and the fight against discrimination against women in politics and everyday life.
• Organizing educational programs to improve leadership, communication and management skills, enabling our members to be more successful in their political and other civic roles as women leaders and managers.
• Working together to develop and promote policies that address issues of importance to women, such as health and social protection, education, employment and violence against women.
• Organizing campaigns, meetings with key decision-makers and advocacy in order to change the situation in this area.
• Organizing cultural events, artistic events and cultural exchange, we want to strengthen the ties between our municipalities and encourage understanding and mutual respect.
• Providing support to young women who aspire to get involved in politics, mentoring, counseling and providing resources, all with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of equal participation of women in political and public life.
The mission of local councils is to empower women and other vulnerable categories, contribute to the sustainable development of municipalities, and promote gender equality in order to achieve equality between women and men in all segments of public life. This especially applies to the positions of decision-makers, which they consider crucial for improving the position of women and achieving gender equality as a fundamental human right.
It is especially important to emphasize that the possibility is open for women’s clubs from other local parliaments to join the Network of Women’s Clubs in the assemblies of municipalities in Montenegro in order to jointly achieve the goals proclaimed by this Platform.
That’s why we invite the councilors in local parliaments who have not yet taken a step towards establishing women’s committee clubs to start the process of establishing them in their local parliaments. The Civic Alliance, as well as the Network of Women’s Clubs, will provide all technical support in order to form new women’s clubs in local parliaments in Montenegro.
The activity was implemented as part of the project “Platform for achieving gender equality” supported by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights.
You can find the full text of the Platform here: Platforma
