First LGBT Group Begins Work in Montenegro
21/02/2011
Submitted by
ILGA-Europe
Original source: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/a...-lgbt-group-begins-work-in-podgorica
Montenegro's first NGO for the protection of the rights of the lesbian and gay community, LGBT Forum Progress, has begun work in the capital Podgorica.
LGBT organisations began registering as formal associations in the wake of an initiative submitted to the constitutional court to review the law on family, which would give homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual ones.
LGBT Forum Progress was recently registered at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and currently has about a dozen members.
While parliaments across the Balkans have adopted anti-discrimination laws that include protection for the LGBT community, the rights of members of this community are generally limited in practice, and Montenegro has been seen as particularly unfriendly towards gays and lesbians.
According to research conducted by Nela Lazarevic, a fellow in the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, up to now Montenegro has been the only country in Europe without a specific LGBT organisation.
Montenegro's new LGBT organisation says it aims to improve support and solidarity, strengthen the overall capacities of the LGBT community and strengthen the position of lesbian and gay people in society, and in the economy, labor market, sport and education. The group also hopes to help protect, improve and monitor the human rights of people with different sexual orientation, according to a statute from Forum Progress.
Montenegro's first NGO for the protection of the rights of the lesbian and gay community, LGBT Forum Progress, has begun work in the capital Podgorica.
LGBT organisations began registering as formal associations in the wake of an initiative submitted to the constitutional court to review the law on family, which would give homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual ones.
LGBT Forum Progress was recently registered at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and currently has about a dozen members.
While parliaments across the Balkans have adopted anti-discrimination laws that include protection for the LGBT community, the rights of members of this community are generally limited in practice, and Montenegro has been seen as particularly unfriendly towards gays and lesbians.
According to research conducted by Nela Lazarevic, a fellow in the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, up to now Montenegro has been the only country in Europe without a specific LGBT organisation.
Montenegro's new LGBT organisation says it aims to improve support and solidarity, strengthen the overall capacities of the LGBT community and strengthen the position of lesbian and gay people in society, and in the economy, labor market, sport and education. The group also hopes to help protect, improve and monitor the human rights of people with different sexual orientation, according to a statute from Forum Progress.
