We live in a country which valorizes boys more than girls.

Because of that Montenegro is facing a huge social problem of prenatal sex selection, which has already damaged the natural ratio of newborn boys and girls. According to the data from the Statistical office of Montenegro, in the last twenty years the annual ratio is 109 boys on average to 100 girls. Only in 2009, 113 boys were born to 100 girls. Three thousand women in the reproductive age are already missing in Montenegro, and the projections are that in less than 20 years, there will be 8,000 less women than men.

This situation, according to the UN Population fund, puts Montenegro alongside Albania, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the top of the list of countries with greatest imbalance of male and female children.

The root of this issue lies in Montenegrin patriarchal tradition which prefers a “male heir”. It’s about a deeply entrenched discrimination which starts before giving birth, and it manifests through unequal position of girls and women in all spheres of life. Consequences of this problem are the misuse of prenatal tests and sex selective abortions, but also other social implications such as growth of violence, organized crime, conflicts etc.

Wanting to make our society better for both our girls and boys, NGO Women’s Rights Center in cooperation with the agency McCann initiated a volunteer campaign #Unwanted, which aimed to invite citizens and competent institutions to react on such serious problems, to change patriarchal attitudes on women and men, and to sign the petition aiming to prevent the misuse of early prenatal test for the purpose of sex selective abortions.

This initiative is directed to change the afore mentioned system of values and to stamp out the misuse of prenatal tests and selective abortions as drastic examples of gender discrimination, with full respect of all reproductive, legally guaranteed, women’s rights.

It is necessary to overcome the negative patriarchal values in Montenegro which, because of the tradition of male heirs, lead to selective abortions and girls are being put in the negative position.

At the event organized in the University park, executive director of Women’s Rights Center, Maja Raičević revealed a plate dedicated to all the girls who never got the chance to be born.

“The topic of our campaign and our initiative is to start a social dialogue which will overcome the system of values in which female children do not exercise the same rights as male children. That problem reflects on the position of women in all areas of society and the consequences are so drastic that we have an increase of number of selective abortions in Montenegro and the misuse of prenatal tests”

Campaign includes signing of the petition which will be sent to the government of Montenegro and it refers to the request to solve the problem of prenatal sex selection in Montenegro.

#Unwanted – Campaign against prenatal sex selection

We live in a country which valorizes boys more than girls.

Because of that Montenegro is facing a huge social problem of prenatal sex selection, which has already damaged the natural ratio of newborn boys and girls. According to the data from the Statistical office of Montenegro, in the last twenty years the annual ratio is 109 boys on average to 100 girls. Only in 2009, 113 boys were born to 100 girls. Three thousand women in the reproductive age are already missing in Montenegro, and the projections are that in less than 20 years, there will be 8,000 less women than men.

This situation, according to the UN Population fund, puts Montenegro alongside Albania, Azerbaijan and Armenia on the top of the list of countries with greatest imbalance of male and female children.

The root of this issue lies in Montenegrin patriarchal tradition which prefers a “male heir”. It’s about a deeply entrenched discrimination which starts before giving birth, and it manifests through unequal position of girls and women in all spheres of life. Consequences of this problem are the misuse of prenatal tests and sex selective abortions, but also other social implications such as growth of violence, organized crime, conflicts etc.

Wanting to make our society better for both our girls and boys, NGO Women’s Rights Center in cooperation with the agency McCann initiated a volunteer campaign #Unwanted, which aimed to invite citizens and competent institutions to react on such serious problems, to change patriarchal attitudes on women and men, and to sign the petition aiming to prevent the misuse of early prenatal test for the purpose of sex selective abortions.

This initiative is directed to change the afore mentioned system of values and to stamp out the misuse of prenatal tests and selective abortions as drastic examples of gender discrimination, with full respect of all reproductive, legally guaranteed, women’s rights.

NGOs Women’s Rights Center, Women’s Safe House and SOS Hotline Niksic asked the supreme state prosecutor Ivaca Stanković and the minister of internal affairs Mevludin Nuhodžić to determine a personal responsibility of the professionals in order to stop the cases of family violence and violence against women resulting in death and which were previously reported to the police.

Cause for the protest was the homicide of a professor from Podgorica, one out of at least eight victims of family and partner violence, who were murdered in the period between 2015 and 2017. She is one of four women, that is known, who had previously reported violence from male family members and whose homicide could have been prevented had the institutions reacted in a timely manner. In the same period, three women survived a homicide attempt, five children witnessed first degree murders in family, and one father was murdered while protecting the lives of his daughter and grandchildren.

We want to change the negative practice of the police which refers to warning the perpetrators without filing the charges. We also requested from the Supreme state prosecution to check the personal responsibility of civil servants, because without that we can’t know who exactly failed in the system and whose responsibility it is.