Leading police officers at workshop on gender equality

Today, a Round Table on "Gender Equality in the Security Sector" is being held in Sarajevo, which is implemented within the project "Raising Awareness of Gender Equality in Police Structures in BiH through Education of Managers", implemented by the "Policewomen's Network" Association. The project is funded by the BiH Agency for Gender Equality through the FIGAP II program. The training is attended by middle management police officers from all over BiH.

This is the final activity within the mentioned project, which is aimed at decision makers in the police, since the practice has shown that managers in police agencies did not attend trainings on this topic, because gender equality issues are still seen as "women's issues", and not capacity building activity of police services. The aim of the workshop is to raise awareness about gender equality in the police, pointing out the need to adopt a program of measures aimed at achieving gender equality, bearing in mind the fact that women are underrepresented in police agencies at all levels in BiH. Also, raising awareness about gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace, as there is a high dark number of these cases in BiH.

Through the training of executives, efforts are made to raise awareness on this issue, which will contribute to the promotion of equal participation of women in decision-making positions and gender mainstreaming in all spheres of police work (admission to the police, promotion to higher rank, participation in working groups, education, budget planning, etc.).

Since education is the best way to overcome gender stereotypes and prejudices about the police as a "male occupation" and women as a "weaker sex", it is extremely important that police leaders receive training on this topic, in order to begin to take concrete measures towards the integration of a gender perspective into all spheres of police work, which will ultimately contribute to greater efficiency of police bodies.