Another successful workshop organized by the "Policewomen's Network" Association

In the official premises of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) in East Sarajevo, a workshop titled "Raising awareness on gender equality in police structures in B&H" was held today (November 13, 2018). The workshop was attended by 20 policewomen from SIPA. This is the third in a series of trainings organized by the Association on this topic, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Today's Workshop was rated as very useful and it was focused on the concept of gender issues, with topics specifically addressing discrimination in the workplace with a focus on gender harassment and sexual harassment.

The aim of the Workshop is to raise awareness of discrimination in the workplace, appearance forms, present mechanisms of protection and to encourage the reporting of such cases, since the results of the research conducted this year showed that there is a dark number of cases of discrimination in BiH police structures on various grounds.

The topic of the Workshop was also representation of policewomen in police structures at all levels in BiH and the need to implement special programs and measures aimed at increasing the number of women in general, and especially in senior and managerial positions. In this context, SIPA has been highlighted as a positive example, since it is a police body with the largest number of policewomen (14%), compared to other police agencies where this percentage ranges from 5 to 10%.

Also, SIPA is the only police agency that has adopted Recommendations for the treatment of gender equality with specific activities to be undertaken in this field.

Over the next year, the Association will initiate the adoption of recommendations of this type in all police agencies, aiming to increase the number of women in police agencies in general, in particular senior and managerial positions, and protecting the integrity and right of policewomen.