Final working session was held on the occasion of drafting Guidelines for dealing with cases of sexual and gender-based harassment in the police

The final working session of the Working Group for the development of "Guidelines for dealing with cases of sexual and gender-based harassment in the police" was held in Konjic  (21-22 July, 2021). The aim of the Guidelines is to improve the conduct of officers responsible for investigating and documenting cases of discrimination in the police, given the fact that previous research has shown that they do not have enough practice and experience to deal with these cases and a high dark number of cases of sexual and gender-based harassment is present within the police structures.

The Guidelines were developed within the project "Combating Gender-Based Violence within Police Structures in BiH", funded by U.S. Embassy  and implemented by the "Policewomen's Network" Association.

The Guidelines were preceded by a series of trainings aimed at raising awareness of the presence of sexual and gender-based harassment in the police, familiarizing police officers with the basic forms of this type of discrimination and protection mechanisms, as well as encouraging such cases to be reported. Three trainings for policewomen were realized, which were attended by about 100 policewomen, members of the "Policewomen's Network" Association from 16 police agencies. Also, two trainings were conducted for representatives of the internal control department on the topic "Investigation of gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment", which was attended by about 30 investigators responsible for investigating this type of discrimination.

During the working session, members of the working group worked on finalizing the Guidelines and creating posters that will be distributed to all police authorities in BiH in order to raise awareness about sexual and gender-based harassment in the police and encourage employees to report such cases. .

The Guidelines will be finalized by the end of August this year and submitted to all police agencies. In this way, the "Policewomen's Network" Association will help police agencies to enforce the law.