The 2012 Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men replaced the previous 2006 law. It contains the same definition of discrimination provided in the previous law, clarifies the reporting responsibilities of all public actors and obliges public authorities to adopt gender responsive strategic plans and budgets. It regulates the basic principles and special measures for equal opportunities for women and men, the responsibilities, tasks and obligations of the public entities etc. The main objective of the Law is to promote the principle of establishing equal opportunities for women and men in the political, economic, social, educational and other fields of social life. Other implemented legal measures in this direction are: the 2009 amendments to the Law on the Ombudsman which required the Office of the Ombudsman to establish a unit for “protection of citizens from discrimination”; the 2012 amendments to the Law on Labour Relations which expressly prohibit discrimination against women workers during pregnancy, maternity and parenthood regardless of the type or duration of work and the 2010 Law on Free Legal Aid which assists women without financial resources to access justice. In 2012 the Labour Law was amended to avoid employment discrimination, prohibiting employers to ask for a pregnancy test in the process of recruitment and / or to dismiss an employee because of pregnancy.
A report on gender equality in the Ministry of Culture was published in 2012. According to the report, out of 146 public servants, 83 were women and 63 were men. 31 women and 12 men hold management positions. There is no similar data for the cultural institutions.
In order to have better data on gender participation, in the application form for the 2021 Annual contest, the Ministry of Culture included a question on the number of men and women included in the project.
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