Within the formal educational system, there is still a lack of attention to a number of issues which are of great importance for the formation of young people and for fostering active citizenship and creating an impetus for their engagement in the decision making processes and development of democracy. Therefore the CCE organizes various schools:
Youth Leadership School has the aim to contribute to the improvement of the status of the young people, their participation in the society and their knowledge about the human rights and freedoms through: enhancing the level of knowledge and information of high school students from Podgorica in the field of democracy, tolerance, individual rights and freedoms, identities in their various forms and contents, the notion of authority, authoritative and democratic personality, attitudes, prejudices and stereotypes in the society, human and minority rights, gender equality, recognising violence, non-violent conflict management and resolution, public relations, advocacy, etc., establishing communication amongst supporters of various religious, cultural and ethnic groups, including the football fans as well; developing young people’s attitudes to values, which will have positive consequences for the raising of level of general culture in Podgorica, thus enabling these young people to contribute to constructive development of the environment in which they live.
Democracy School is dedicated to understanding of the idea of democracy and the manner of implementation of that idea. Within the School theoretical knowledge is being examined, as well as comparative practice and the skills and manner of implementation of democratic concepts in everyday life, and in particular in the political sphere. Its overall objective is raising the general level of the democratic political culture in Montenegro through: establishing of the core of the organised, methodologically and theoretically based educational activity, which would enable at least part of the citizens of Montenegro to gain the needed knowledge on: the idea of democracy, what it means, and where it comes from, which are positive and which are negative aspects of democracy, what is the democracy framework – as the process of fulfilment of human individual rights and freedoms, as the manner of social life and relations in the society, as the form of the government and ruling, as the institutional system, promoting the principle of the comparative analyses of the concrete experiences of implementation of democracy in Montenegro and other countries in Europe and worldwide; developing the ability of the critical approach and tolerant, rational and responsible public communication, or participation in formulating and proposing the measures of the public policy and its implementation.
The School of European Integrations (SEI) is an alternative adults’ education programme in the field of ideas, meanings, standards and symbols of European integration, but also European civilization and heritage in general. Besides researching above mentioned areas, the School also deals with enabling students for taking up independent and group activities regarding promotion and foundation of European standards in the contemporary Montenegrin society. By means of founding the School of European Integrations, a great step forward in promotion of ideas, meanings, standards and symbols of European integrations in the Montenegrin society has been made. Unique centre of organized educational work, adequately grounded as regards the programme and methodology and connected to the processes of European integrations as well as to the implementation and acceptance of European values and standards in general, was established with the help of the School. Primary aim of the School of European Integrations is qualitative and quantitative enhancement of human resource potentials in Montenegro, their adequate informing about the processes of European integration and putting their activity concerning aforementioned processes on the higher level.
The Human rights school provides broad theoretical and practical knowledge on concept of human rights, affirms the culture of human rights, inspiring and motivating people to stand for their rights, as well as for those who are not able to do that on their own and to empower them to have more direct influence within society in future. School comprises 3 modules in total of one intensive week with numerous lectures, workshops, film screenings and theatre forums which will offer an opportunity to learn and discuss various topics concerning human rights. All costs related to the Scholl are covered by the CCE, with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the regional project of human rights education in the Western Balkans.
The CCE is, inter alia, reference organisation in Montenegro of the Initiative for RECOM towards the establishment of a regional commission to identify the facts about all victims of war crimes and serious human rights violations committed on the territory of the Former Yugoslavia in 1991-2001. CCE has an extensive experience in projects related to transitional justice, education, advocacy and supporting sustainable peace policies. For years CCE has been active in projects related to dealing with the past, where it remains one of the Montenegrin NGOs with strongest track record. The V Forum on transitional justice of post-Yugoslav countries held in May 2009 and gathered app. 400 participants from all these countries, was organized by the CCE. Additionally CCE organized a number of national and regional consultations with various stakeholders on RECOM initiative, as well as diverse projects with different regional and EU partners such as panel discussions and conferences about Montenegrin war crimes cases (e.g. Conference War for peace- 20 years after, held in December 2011, which was the first time since the attack on Dubrovnik in 1991, that the Croatian and the Montenegrin sides engaged in a dialogue about the military campaign which cost dozens of lives, and inflicted significant material damage on the city of Dubrovnik). During last two years CCE has achieved excellent results in coordinating the RECOM process in Montenegro, especially in raising public support for the initiative and gaining the buy-in, and even pro-active support, of virtually all political actors in the country, both political leaders of the opposition and the highest state representatives. CCE is implementing the campaign RECOM for the future, producing photo and video materials followed by panel discussions and public actions and events, in order to widely spread the idea of the necessity to talk about recent, war history of Montenegro, and Western Balkan region in general. CCE has a great team of 20 young people engaged on full time contract or part-time contract, devoted to their programmes, working together on making the Montenegrin society more democratic and actively contributing to its further development.
CCE has conducted or still conducts, among others, following major projects: "Corruption on local level – zero tolerance!" with the overall aim to strenghten the role of the civil society organisations, local governments and relevant national bodies in policy development, monitoring and campaigning for the decrease of corruption in Montenegro's local communities. The specific objective is to strengthen the implementation of anticorruption policies at the local level and to increase citizens awareness on importance of effective anticorruption mechanisms and actions in 14 Montenegrin municipalities. Estimated results: 1) Identified corruption-prone areas within 14 municipalities; 2) Raised awareness of citizens on consequences and forms of the corruption within 14 municipalities; 3) Provided policy recommendations for critical areas (public procurement, public-private partnerships, urbanism, employment, political corruption and local parliament); 4) Strengthened participation of civil society, local authorities and citizens in fight against corruption in 14 municipalities. To be finished by May 2014, funded by the Delegation of the EU in Montenegro and Royal Norwegian Embassy. Through the inspection against the corruption! – with the overall aim to contribute to the increase of public trust in the criminal justice sector through implementation of effective watchdog activities to track the government responses to reports of illegal activities and corruption. Specific objective is to monitor the activities and enhance capacities of the Administration for Inspection Affairs and Inspection units as the first and citizens’ closest instrument to tackle corruption and misconduct in public institutions in Montenegro. Estimated results: 1) Assessed level of satisfaction of inspectors employed in the Administration for Inspection Affairs on the re-organisation of work within the Inspection units and the main problems/concerns in the implementation of work; 2) Monitored capacities of the Administration for Inspection Affairs to prevent and act as first response to corruption; 3) Strengthened active participation of citizens in reporting cases of corruption and misconduct. To be finished in May 2014, through the Criminal Justice Civil Society Program (CJCSP) financed by the U.S. State Department. Monitoring of the corruption cases in Montenegro – with the overall aim to contribute to reducing level of corruption in Montenegro through its effective prosecution. Specific objective is to assess judicial efficiency in processing anti-corruption cases and raise awareness among the general public as well as legal and media professionals of corruption problem and existing anti-corruption mechanisms. Project results: 1) established communication and cooperation channels with the authorities in charge for processing corruption cases (courts, prosecution, Ministry of Justice); 2) monitoring of the efficiency, impartiality and fairness of the Montenegrin judiciary and other stakeholders in processing corruption cases; 2) raised awareness among the general public as well as legal and media professionals of corruption problem and existing anti-corruption mechanisms; 4) recommendations for improvement of the legislation, mechanisms and procedures in place, as well as media reporting in a final report. The project was funded by Royal Dutch Embassy and finalized in spring 2013. Corruption in education – with the overall objective to accomplish to the decrease of the corruption level in Montenegro within education sphere. Specific objective is to establish mechanisms of monitoring and implementation of measures of fight against corruption in the sphere of higher education system. Project results: 1) Strengthened knowledge and skills of students in identifying and fighting corruption in higher education, using the methods and techniques for acquiring relevant information on corruption and best policies and practices in fighting it in respective field; 2) Increased level of transparency of the university and its organisational units in the field of financial management, employment procedures, and in the enrolment process, 2) Raised level of public awareness on key corruption issues within education and provided policy recommendations for decision makes. Ongoing from 2008, mainly supported by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. How much is invested into the fight against corruption and organized crime and are there visible results in this respect? – with the aim to raise awareness on the expenditures from the Budget of Montenegro and European Union funds. The specific objective is to point out the investments in the fight against corruption and organized crime, as one of the key problems of Montenegro on its path towards the EU and the (in)visible results in this direction. As a result detail study was published. Voluntary project, with new ongoing activities. Accountability and transparency of the authorities – with the overall aim to contribute to the building of accountability culture within decision makers. Main reports: “Parliament of Montenegro – public procurements and contractual services in 2011”, “Parliament of Montenegro – how much citizens paid for the work of their representatives in 2012”“How much have managers within the state administration bodies earned in 2012” as well as within Media and Democracy reports – “Report on the allocations for the media in the Budget of Montenegro in 2012”, “Report on the allocations for the media in the Budget of Montenegro in 2011”, “Report on the allocations for the media from local budgets in 2011”.
Also the CCE is the organizer of the Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival the first and only of its kind in Montenegro, is to raise awareness amongst the citizens of Montenegro about relevance of human rights, their protection and promotion, and foster a system of values which underpins harmonious relations between different people – whatever the grounds for their difference. Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival begins on the International Human Rights Day (10 December). During the past four editions of the Festival, which debuted in 2010, in cooperation with the Cultural Information Centre “Budo Tomović“, Montenegrin National Theatre and Rectorate of the University of Montenegro, we have shown 46 wonderful films from the most recent production, most of them winners of numerous nominations, awards and recognition all around the world. This way, the concept of human rights attracted a broad audience through an innovative and refreshing artistic approach. Growing attendance (more than 2000 visitors in 2012) at the Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival fully justifies its existence, and it is especially encouraging that many of the visitors are young people, who we hope will be additionally inspired by this experience to stand up for their rights. The value of the Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival is also its regional component, reflected in continuing cooperation with similar festivals in the region, above all the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival from Sarajevo and later on Beldocs from Belgrade. In addition to the central activity of film screenings, during the Fast Forward Human Rights Film Festival, we also organise panel discussions which explore unpopular topics, bringing them into the public space as relevant issues for reasoned debates.
More details at: http://cgo-cce.org/en/
