UPR on human rights in Montenegro

UPR on human rights in Montenegro:

Removing obstacles for girls and women’s access to justice, protection from violence and trafficking, sexual and reproductive health services and political participation

Podgorica, May 9, 2023.

On Monday, May 8, 2023, the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Report (UPR) of the United Nations Human Rights Council discussed the situation in the field of human rights in Montenegro for the fourth time, at a meeting that was broadcast live on the Internet: https:/ /media.un.org/en/asset/k16/k1690uofun

In addition to the national report submitted by the state, information from independent experts and human rights groups and other UN bodies, this review is based on reports and information that were presented by four non-governmental organizations at the pre-session held on April 5 this year: Women’s Rights Center (WRC), Human Rights Action (HRA), Civil Alliance (GA) and Roma youth organization “Walk with us – Phiren Amenca”.

We are encouraged by the fact that out of a total of 87 recommendations that the UN member states gave to Montenegro, as many as 39 refer to the improvement of the position and rights of women.

Recommendations were also given for other areas that the Women’s Rights Center addressed in its report, which pointed to the obligation of Montenegro to: ensure adequate access to justice and protection of victims of domestic violence and gender-based violence; to criminalize femicide; to improve the judiciary and ensure that legal aid to victims of gender-based violence is provided by specialized lawyers and to include NGOs in the system of free legal aid financed by the state; to take further steps against human trafficking and to establish an independent National Rapporteur to monitor anti-trafficking activities; to remove barriers to girls’ and women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services and ensure access to health care for all women, including trans women; to improve gender statistics etc.

The Universal Periodic Report on Human Rights is a unique process that includes a periodic review of information on the human rights situation in each of the 193 UN member states. Since the first meeting, held in April 2008, each of the 193 UN member states has gone through the review process three times, within the first, second and third cycles of the UPR. During the current, fourth UPR cycle, Member States are again expected to state the steps they have taken to implement the recommendations proposed during the three previous reviews, to which they have committed themselves, as well as to highlight the current developments in the field of human rights in the country.