Strengthening the system support on prevention of violence against women, girls and boys

Project title  Strengthening the system support on prevention of violence against women, girls and boys
   
Participating agencies  UNICEF and UN WOMEN
   
Lead Agency  UNICEF
   
Project manager

Nada Djurovic Martinovic, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF Country Office Montenegro

Rachele Megna, Project Management Specialist, UN WOMEN
   
Timeframe 30 July 2025 - 1 September 2027
   
Budget  500,000 USD

 

Area of intervention 

Violence against women, violence against children, gender-based violence, child protection

 

Partners 

  • The Government of Montenegro is a central partner, with key ministries — including the Ministry of Social Welfare, Family Care and Demography, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Parliament of Montenegro (Gender Equality Committee, Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare), and Ministry of Human and Minority Rights — playing critical roles in both implementation and sustainability.
  • Partnerships will be ensured with the Ombudsperson’s office, civil society including women’s CSOs, media, parents, children and adolescents. International partners such as the CoE, OSCE, the EU Delegation, and others will play important roles. 

 

Key objectives 

  1. Increased availability of quality, innovative and catalytic services for girls and boys survivors of violence in Montenegro through establishment and operationalization of the Barnahus model.
  2. Improved Montenegrin legislative and policy frameworks on VAW, including adequate costing and budgeting for services for survivors.
  3. Increased awareness and availability of knowledge and evidence of the intersection between VAW and VAC in Montenegro along with the introduction of peaceful conflict.    


Major expected results 

Under Output 1, the project will lead to the establishment and operationalization of the country’s first Barnahus service model, a multi-sectoral, child-friendly and trauma-informed response centre for child survivors of violence. In the first phase of the intervention, national standards and a National Roadmap for Barnahus implementation will be developed and adopted, laying the regulatory, operational and procedural foundation for its sustainable operation. At least 100 professionals from justice, health, social welfare and law enforcement sectors will be trained in the Barnahus model, with an additional 50 experts receiving training on trauma-informed, child-sensitive approaches. Furthermore, three standard operating procedures (SOPs) and legal or procedural documents will be developed or amended to enable coordinated and effective case management. Ten inter-sectoral coordination meetings will ensure alignment of stakeholders and readiness for implementation.

Output 2 will enhance Montenegro's legislative and financial frameworks on violence against women, enabling a more strategic and evidence-based response. By the end of the project, at least 25 public officials will have increased capacity to apply gender responsive budgeting tools to the costing and planning of services for survivors of violence. Key VAW services - such as shelters, legal aid and psychosocial support - will be costed at both the central and local levels. Legal reform efforts will also be advanced through the development of two legal amendments aligned with international and EU standards, particularly addressing emerging forms of violence such as digital and technology-facilitated violence. A comprehensive policy paper analysing this intersection will be developed and disseminated to inform systemic responses and the public debate.

Under Output 3, the project will deepen understanding of the intersections between Violence Against Children (VAC) and Violence Against Women (VAW), promoting violence prevention, reporting, and response mechanisms at the community level. To foster social and behavioral change, peaceful conflict resolution programs will be implemented in 12 schools across Montenegro, directly engaging 1,900 children (1,000 girls and 900 boys) and 420 school staff. These programs will include capacity-building activities to equip school professionals and students with skills in peer mediation, emotional regulation, and empathy-building, cultivating a safer, braver, and more inclusive school environment. Additionally, targeted public awareness campaigns and behavior change communication strategies will address harmful social norms, promote gender equality, and encourage bystander intervention. These efforts will reach over 200,000 people online and 500 individuals through in-person workshops and community dialogues, fostering a collective commitment to a zero-tolerance culture toward violence and reinforcing positive social behaviors across diverse audiences.

 

Target groups 

  1. Girls and boys survivors of violence (particularly sexual abuse and gender-based violence)
  2. Women survivors of violence, including mothers and fathers of child victims
  3. Policy makers and professionals (Ministries of: Social Welfare, Human Rights and Minorities, Health, Finance, Justice, Interior, the Parliament, courts and prosecutors’ offices.)
  4. Schools, educators, and students
  5. Media and children, youth, women and men, including from the most vulnerable groups
     

Implementing status 

  1. UNICEF supported the organization of the two days workshop with intersectoral Technical working group lead by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Family Care and Demography to discuss draft Roadmap and Standards for establishment of Barnahus service model. The finalization of the Roadmap and Standards is envisaged by end 2025 and second workshop to be schedules in November 2025.
  2. UNICEF discussed the scaling of school mediation programme with the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation and CSO Association of Mediators. The project documentation to be created by CSO in the coming weeks.
  3. UNICEF has started to develop the concept note for organization of exchange of experience and learning opportunity of Government technical group with EU country that have developed Barnahus service model/ This opportunity should take place by end of 2025.
  4. UN Women has initiated the project set-up including recruitment processes of key experts and consultants to support the implementation of activities.
  5. A joint information session for partners will be organized by UNICEF and UN Women to present the intervention to institutional partners, CSOs and other UN Agencies. 

 

Contribution to EU Accession 

The EU legislation regulating the area of addressing violence against children and women is set out within Chapter 23 focused on fundamental rights. These proposed interventions will significantly contribute to closing the benchmark for Chapter 23 related to fundamental rights - Montenegro protects fundamental rights both in law and in practice and is fully prepared to implement the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and other relevant EU acquis upon accession, specifically the two priorities:  

Establishes a credible track record implementing provisions on non-discrimination, gender equality and combating gender-based violence, protection of persons belonging to minorities and cultural rights, in line with the EU acquis and European standards and provides effective mechanisms for redress and assistance to victims.  

The project is linked with policy instruments of the enlargement process for Montenegro. The Recommendation of Enlargement Package for Montenegro in Montenegro 2023 report states that in the coming year, Montenegro should in particular: 

→ amend and adopt legislation in line with the EU acquis, European and international standards on domestic violence, anti-discrimination, hate crimes and hate speech, harmonisation of the 2020 Law on same-sex partnership, and data protection. 

→ amend the criminal legislation in line with the EU acquis, European and international standards for the protection of fundamental rights and procedural rights. 

→ more efficiently protect fundamental rights, for vulnerable groups, and ensure the harmonised interpretation of European Court of Human Rights case-law and European and international human rights standards throughout the justice system, including by improving inter-institutional cooperation

The project will directly result in contributing to fulfilling the specific recommendations in regard to Chapter 23 and 24, including:  children victims of violence as follows:

Chapter 23: There is no satisfactory level of protection of children from perpetrators of sexual offences and there is still a lack of systematically collected disaggregated data on child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation

Chapter 23: Child access to justice, of vulnerable groups, has yet to be improved, and child-friendly proceedings for all children in contact with the law have yet to be ensured. This refers both to children in criminal proceedings (child offenders, child victims and children witnesses) and to children in proceedings related to civil or family law and misdemeanour proceedings.

The intervention also fully aligns and responds to the EU Directive 2024/1385 ‘in combatting violence against women and domestic violence’ provides a comprehensive framework to effectively prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence across the Union. It includes definition of criminal offences and reiterates the core values of equality and non-discrimination across all aspects of work of the Union. In addition, the project is fully aligned with the EU Strategy on victims' rights (2020-2025) and EC recommendation on developing and strengthening integrated child protection systems in the best interests of the child, and with the EU Strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse 2020-2025.
 

Project brief description

The project envisages the accomplishment of the following results:

  1. It will strongly contribute to the protection of and support for victims and survivors of gender-based violence and domestic violence through the establishment of Barnahus service for children victims of violence. Namely, the project will support the Government of Montenegro in setting up a Barnahus service model – one-stop shop that brings together all relevant sectors (social, health, education, and justice) under one roof to avoid re-victimisation of the child during investigation and interrogation procedures and provide every child with a coordinated and effective response that has a legal standing. Implementing the Barnahus-model service, which provides integrated support for child victims of violence, can also enhance the protection and support for women experiencing violence by addressing the needs of both children and their mothers in a coordinated manner. 

  2. It will enhance availability of adequate costing models for services for violence against women, following gender-responsive budgeting principles. The initiative will increase GRB capacities of key ministries involved in preventing and responding to violence against women, including the Ministry of Human Rights and Minorities, Ministry of Social Welfare, Family Care and Demography and Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Interior, the Parliament of Montenegro (Gender Equality sub-committee) to apply key principles of gender-responsive budgeting and cost services for violence against women in Montenegro, and will develop costing of specific services for central and local level. 

  3. It will significantly enhance the understanding of how violence against children and violence against women intersect and impact each other, through the development of evidence-based analysis and a policy paper. This policy document will be discussed with relevant public authorities and the international community. In addition, scaling up school mediation will enable teachers, professional workers in schools and students (children and adolescents) to resolve and overcome conflicts using constructive and peaceful ways. This programme will teach, empower and encourage pupils to own and apply the mediation model among peers at school. Applying this programme will contribute to having school as a safe and secure place where conflicts are resolved peacefully.
     

 

 

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