Chairperson of the Gender Equality Committee Ms Nada Drobnjak, Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms Mr Halil Duković and Mr Momčilo Martinović, MP, will take part in the Fourth Meeting of the Human Rights and Gender Equality Network of Committees in the Western Balkan (HUGEN) Steering Committee, to be held via video conference on 26 June 2020.
The meeting will be attended by representatives of human rights and gender equality committees from six Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the Republic of Kosovo, the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia, which participate in the Westminster Foundation for Democracy project “Creating a parliamentary network on human rights in the Western Balkans", implemented from April 2019 to November 2021.
The meeting will discuss the ongoing pilot process of post-legislative oversight in the parliaments participating in the HUGEN network, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on this process, the status of each of the reports and the possibility for promoting them at committee meetings. To remind, upon the proposal by the Chairperson of the Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms, post-legislative oversight for the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities is being implemented, while at the proposal of the Gender Equality Committee, post-legislative oversight for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Gender Equality is also implemented.
Also, planned activities of the HUGEN network in the period from September 2020 to September 2021 will be presented.
Participants will also discuss ways in which the Westminster Foundation for Democracy can support parliaments participating in the HUGEN network, with a special focus on organising multilateral/bilateral meetings and public/control hearings.
Finally, representatives of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy will inform participants about the status of current products they are developing, including an online tool for monitoring the implementation of national human rights institutions' recommendations and research on the parliamentary response to Covid-19 in the Western Balkans.
