Raising awareness of gender equality in the MOI of Sarajevo Canton

Today (September 29, 2021), a one-day workshop entitled "Raising Awareness of Gender Equality in Police Structures in BiH" was held in Sarajevo, which was attended by 25 policewomen from the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of the Interior. The workshop was realized by the "policeomwn's Network" Association, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The focus of the workshop was on understanding the concept of gender issues in general and gender equality in the police, and specifically topics related to discrimination in the workplace with a focus on gender-based harassment and sexual harassment. The aim of the workshop is to raise awareness of these phenomena, the existing protection mechanisms and to encourage the reporting of such cases, as it is evident that in all police structures in BiH there is a dark number of genderbased discrimination cases and sexual harassment.
It was emphasized that policewomen are underrepresented in police structures at all levels in BiH, as well as that they are almost non women in senior and managerial positions, and it is necessary for all institutions to adopt an appropriate program of measures to achieve gender equality according to Law on Gender Equality in BiH.

The workshop was assessed as very useful from the aspect of getting to know and additional networking of policewomen from the Ministry of the Interior of the Sarajevo Canton, which will help in further work and implementation of the Mission of the Association.
After the workshop, a working meeting was organized with the members of the Association, where they discussed further directions of work, current projects and plans with the aim of improving gender equality in the MOI of Sarajevo Canton.