The Ombudsperson’s Office of Montenegro just concluded a study visit to the Zagreb, during which they have visited 3 key Croatian equality bodies – Ombudsman as well as commissioners for gender equality and people with disabilities. The visit was organised under the EU-CoE joint project ‘PREDIM’ – Support to the National Institutions in Preventing Discrimination in Montenegro, which aims to protect human rights by supporting Montenegrin institutions in combatting discrimination against vulnerable groups.
The study visit took place from 12 to 14 June 2017, delegation of Montenegrin Ombudsperson’s Office led by Mr Sinisa Bjekovic, Deputy Ombudsman for Anti-Discrimination and Mr Ivan Krkeljic, Secretary General, accompanied with 10 advisors working on anti-discrimination and human rights complaints as well as on human rights promotion.
Under the specific decentralized Croatian system of equality bodies, the Ombudsman maintains core anti-discrimination mandate, whereas specific equality bodies have been established to strengthen the institutional support to the prevention of discrimination of people with disabilities and on the grounds of gender and sexual identity. Those thematic frameworks are also the key focus area of PREDIM project support to the Montenegrin Ombudsperson’s Office. For those reasons, the study visit was conceptualized as the series of practical meetings between Montenegrin and Croatian peers on various topics, ranging from organizational structure and internal coordination in processing citizens’ complaints, proactive institutional work in the prevention and promotion of anti-discrimination standards.
Croatian counterparts already went through those processes (e.g. civil partnership legislation, aligning the national regulations with standards in the area of equality of people with disabilities especially in regards to the accessibility of public buildings, etc.) Hence, working sessions and exchanged good practices would assist the Ombudsperson’s Office to better respond to the increasing demands pertaining to the upcoming activities related to the organizational and thematic human rights reports, as well as work on the national human rights legislation and strategic policies.
