Centre for Civic Education (CCE), on behalf of the Coalition for Equality STEP, in the framework of the project Civil Society Networking on Critical Human Rights Values in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, signed grant contracts with awarded civil society organizations through public competition.
The total of 15, 000 € was allocated to the four organisations from Montenegro dealing, from different perspectives, with the promotion and protection of human rights. The decision was based on the prescribed evaluation grid and criteria for project quality assessment, as follows: Institute for Legal Studies (IPLS), Monitor’s Centre for Media and Democracy (MCMD), LGBTIQ Association ,,Queer Montenegro“ and the Association of Youth with Disabilities Nikšić (AYDN).
On the occassion of contract signing, Petar Đukanović, CCE Programme Coordinator, briefly explained that ,,the objective of this part of project was to contribute to encouraging and capacity building of citizens and non-governmental organizations in order to more actively participate in the process of improving implementation of anti-discriminatory policies, as well as improving women representation in public and political life and the status of LGBT persons“. Also, he pointed out that ,,these issues are recognized as critical areas when it comes to the human rights situation in Montenegro, as well as in the region“ and recalled the earlier activities of the Coalition for Equality STEP, with the announcement of the upcoming ones.
Dr Ilija Vukčević, executive director of the Institute for Legal Studies, announced that within project which will be implemented over next four months, this NGO will work on the analysis of the case law of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro concerning discrimination and that focus will be on the compliance of the case law of this court with the practice of supranational judicial institutions, primarily of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. ,,The final phase of the project will analyze the capacity of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro and its ability to protect citizens adequately”, concluded Vukčević. Project findings will be published in the study ,,The types of discrimination in the case law of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro – a comparative analysis with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union”.
The issue of LGBT rights is the focus of the Coalition STEP from its establishment, and the supported project in that framework was presented by Danijel Kalezić, President of the Steering Committee of QUEER Montenegro. He stressed the importance of implementation of activities that directly increase the level of visibility of LGBT persons in Montenegro and specific activism in the public areas through artistic expression and cultural events. ,,Queer Montenegro will have the campaign for raising awareness about the rights of LGBT persons while waiting the second Montenegro Pride, and the series of these activities will start this week with the premiere of ,,Merlinkina ispovijest” in the Montenegrin National Theatre, thus marking the International day of Fight against Homophobia and Transphobia. In addition, within the project we will implement LGBTIQ film festival, panel discussions, as well as street campaign”, stated Kalezić.
Zoran Radulović, the President of the Monitor’s Centre for Democracy and Media, said that within supported project this organization will analyze the representation of the women in Montenegrin political life, both in the national and local parliaments, as well as in the political parties, especially in their governing bodies. ,,While preparing the project we concluded that there are parties in which political representation of women in their governing bodies is higher than requested by the legal framework and European standards are, while there are political organizations for which you cannot be sure if their leaders are completely aware of whether they want or not to allow women in Montenegro to vote”, said Radulović.
One of the most discriminated groups in Montenegro are certainly persons with disabilities. Therefore, within the Competition the emphasis was also on the projects in this area. Jelena Čvorović, executive director of the Association of Youth with Disabilities Nikšić, said that project of this organization will deal with studying conditions of persons with disabilities at the Faculty of Philosophy in Nikšić, as well as with proposals for the improvement of these conditions. ,,The main objective of the project is to provide quality education of students with disabilities at the Faculty of Philosophy in Nikšić, and target groups are students with and without disabilities, academic and administrative staff“ , explained Čvorović.
CCE launched on 9 April, on behalf of the Coalition for Equality STEP, the competition for civil society organizations project proposals that should contribute to the fight against discrimination and promotion of equality. Application deadline was 30 April 2014. The Coalition for Equality STEP, with the support of the European Commission, provided funds for small projects in total amount of 15, 000 EUR, while the minimum amount that could be awarded to individual project was 3,000 EUR and maximum amount was 4,000 EUR. There was 13 project proposals submitted and 4 of them, i.e. 30.8% are supported.
STEP is the coalition of nongovernmental organizations from Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, established with the aim to fight against discrimination on the regional level. Its members are as follow: Lawyers Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, CHRIS Network and the Gay Straight Alliance from Serbia, Centre for Civic Education (CCE) and LGBT Forum Progress from Montenegro, Humanitarian Law Fund Kosovo and Youth Initiative for Human Rights from Kosovo.
Svetlana Pešić, Programme Associate