Workshop on the OP-ICESCR in Montenegro

On September 15-16, 2014, ESCR-Net, CEDEM and Human Rights Action organized a workshop on the Optional Protocol on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) in Budva, Montenegro, with the participation of twenty lawyers and representatives of civil society organizations, working with the rights to housing and food, as well as the rights of women, children, Roma, the youth, LGBTI, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. 

The main issues raised regarding potential litigation in the future were housing and school segregation of Roma, undocumented migrants’ access to food, access to health services and medicines by the elderly and persons with disabilities, accessibility, shelters for women victims of violence and bullying in schools. Participants also addressed potential connections between the reporting system established for economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) at the United Nations, on the one hand, and the individual communication system under the OP-ICESCR, on the other.

The workshop was organized just before the Committee’s revision of Montenegro’s report in November 2014 and it created opportunities for civil society organizations to discuss priority issues to be included in an alternative report.

Montenegro ratified the OP-ICESCR on September 24, 2014, creating new opportunities for individuals and group of individuals to protect their ESCR in the country. For more information on the OP-ICESCR please click here.