At today’s meeting, the Gender Equality Committee held a consultative hearing of Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Mr Kemal Purišić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Interior Mr Dragan Pejanović, and Director General for Investment, Development of SMEs and EU Funds Management at the Ministry of Economy Mr Radosav Babić on „Gender aspects of measures undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic“
During the discussion, they talked about the impact of measures undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic on women and men, as well as on clearly expressed gender roles and expectations during the first wave of the pandemic. They highlighted the significant role of women in overcoming challenges that we had both at the state level and the family level. They noted that often invisible women’s work had been priceless in solving many existential issues.
During the discussion, they paid special attention to the registered increase in the rate of violence against women and domestic violence, as well as the undertaken measures of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Ministry of Interior, Police Administration and NGOs in order to provide protection and support to victims of violence.
They also discussed the measures that the Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare created and implemented in order to provide protection against dismissal from work, working from home, release from work obligations for one parent of a child under 11, subsidies for employees and others.
In conclusion of the discussion, the Chairperson of the Committee pointed out that the institutions provided a good response during COVID-19 pandemic, but that it was still necessary to work on mainstreaming all policies and practice and on consistent implementation of the Law on Gender Equality.
In addition to members of the Committee, the meeting was attended by: Mr Siniša Bjeković, Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro, Ms Lia Magnaguagno, Democratization Programme Manager at the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, Ms Daniela Gašparikova, UNDP Resident Representative for Montenegro, Ms Biljana Pejović, Head of Department for Gender Equality Affairs at the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, Ms Zvezdana Oluic, Union of Employers of Montenegro, and Ms Maja Raičević, NGO Women's Rights Centre.
