Contributed by: Vanja Mikulic and Irena Milatovic, Montenegro National VAW Monitors
On March 8, 2007, a network of women’s NGOs in Montenegro continued activities previously begun in November 2006 in public (performances, press conferences, sending letters to political clubs, addressing to international organizations, reception at the President of the Parliament) with two clear political requests:
- Request for visibility of women in the Constitution of Montenegro and gender equality to become a grounded value of the new Constitution of the Montenegro state.
- Request for the resignation of the President of the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality since she gave in public incompatible
and offensive statements in response to legitimate requests of women’s NGOs, and she does not recognize her own responsibility as the President of the abovementioned Committee in the process of drafting the new Constitution. The press release in Serbian is attached.
The following are the reasons why women’s NGOs have requested the resignation of the President of the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality:
She has to go...
- Because she claims that women and men are equal in Montenegro
- Because the position she occupies needs knowledge, responsibility, and solidarity with women
- Because she receives a salary
for working in the Committee, and she is not doing her job Because she is funded by women citizens of Montenegro who she calls: - Street walkers
- Foreign solvents
- Some women over there…
Because women of Montenegro do not have time nor money to lose. Following the press conference, where the journalists obtained the press release with these two requests, women's NGOs have organized an activity to gather signatures (in the form of a petition) asking for the resignation of the President of the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality, Mrs. Ljubica Dzakovic.
Source: Women’s Safe House, Podgorica and ANIMA, Kotor.