GOOD PLANNING IS HALF THE BATTLE: We have been working hard on human rights!

Although, according to recent data, women outnumbered men in our society, they are still not fully equal to men in all spheres of public life. Under-representation in the total number of employees in public institutions or in decision-making positions are just some of the problems women face.

This is perhaps best shown in the security sector, in positions where the uniform is traditionally and wrongly tied to male strength. According to our 2017 research, out of a total of 16,275 police officers in 16 police agencies in BiH, there were only 1,288 women, or 7.91%. In terms of numbers, they were most represented in the lowest police ranks, while they were absolutely nonexistent in the rank of Inspector General and Chief Inspector General. If you are not familiar, these ranks are the alpha and omega in managing of all police actions. If we intend to become a part of the European Union, every citizen of BiH, in every part of it, must enjoy equal rights in every way. This is one of the core values embedded in the existence of the European Union.

On the other hand, most of our police officers are great guys and girls. They work hard, consciously putting at stake the most important thing – life, for all of us to enjoy a peaceful and secure environment. But there are individuals among them who, by abusing their statutory powers, undermine the importance and reputation of such a noble work in the public eye. We need to report bad conduct of individuals! However, research shows that our citizens are not sufficiently familiar with the mechanisms of reporting bad conduct of individuals. To make matters worse, even those who are familiar with such mechanisms, in most cases, report the lawful conduct of police officers. Therefore, an additional problem is the fact that our citizens have a poor knowledge of police powers.

In early January, the Centre for Security Studies joined forces with the “Police Women’s Network” Association and the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) to address the above issues through the project “The police and the respect for human rights in BiH“, which is funded by the European Union. Introducing best international practices in advancing the position of women in the security sector, training the trainers for each police agency on gender issues and promoting mechanisms to protect human rights in the event of police misconduct are just a few of the activities of how we will do it!

The project team, through the meetings held so far and the day-to-day coordination in these difficult circumstances and with the expert assistance of EU representatives in BiH, has successfully launched the project, which activities aim to strengthen respect for human rights within police agencies and when exercising the police powers in BiH.