The program director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), Milica Kovačević, said that the environment for women's participation in politics has changed from unfavorable to hostile in the last few years, which demotivates women to engage politically.
"On the one hand, we have the fact that the political parties, in tacit agreement with the election administration, in the recently held local elections recklessly trampled on the legal provisions regulating the percentage of women on certain lists," the CDT press release states.
Kovačević points out that this shows "duplicitous behavior - while on a verbal level, in the public space, they support greater representation of women, behind the scenes they do everything to prevent it from happening".
He adds that hate speech and gender-based violence against women in politics are on the rise, while, as he says, "state institutions are mostly passive, so punishment for hatred and discrimination is ineffective and inconsistent."
"There is almost no woman in politics or in more important decision-making positions who had the courage to advocate her political views if she had not been the subject of disgusting campaigns on social networks or in the quasi-media," claims Kovačević.
He emphasizes that "powerful patriarchal social structures" are doing everything to maintain this state of affairs and to prevent significant changes in this matter.
"The progressive minority is trying to oppose them, not always successfully, which is trying to change this situation through its work and advocacy," adds Kovačević.
As he says, one of the very clear manifestations of this tendency is the "sabotage of the electoral legislation reform which, in addition to other very important changes, was supposed to improve the mechanisms for easier and better representation of women in politics".
Kovačević points out that the solution to these problems requires strong political will and forces that will have the courage to oppose the forces of the "patriarchy who believe that women have no place in politics."
He adds that this implies the improvement of electoral, media and criminal legislation, as well as ethical codes, "to ensure that the stimulating provisions for the participation of women in politics are effectively applied, and that misogyny and hate speech are effectively prevented and sanctioned".
"These are the key conclusions of the publication "How to improve the environment for women's participation in politics?", which was prepared by the CDT with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg," the announcement concludes.
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