Raising awareness on gender equality and mechanisms for protection against discrimination in the MOI of the Zenica-Doboj Canton

A one-day workshop entitled "Raising awareness of gender equality in police structures in BiH" was held in Zenica yesterday (21/03/2019) in the official premises of MOI of the Zanica-Doboj Canton, which was attended by 20 policewomen. The workshop was organized by the "Policewomen's Network" Association, with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The focus of the workshop was on understanding the gender concept in general, different roles and needs of men and women, and topics related to discrimination in the workplace with an emphasis on gender-based harassment and sexual harassment. The aim of the workshop is to raise awareness of these phenomena, present mechanisms of protection and to encourage the reporting of such cases, since it is evident that there is a dark number of cases of discrimination in BiH in all police structures in BiH.

During the lecture, it was especially emphasized that the security sector must have the capacity to respond to the different security needs of men and women, boys and girls,  of which meny are determined by different gender roles, norms and behavior, and that gender training is a capacity building activity for police services .

The workshop was rated very useful both in terms of getting to know and additional networking of policewomen, which will help in the further work and implementation of the Mission of the Association.

The next workshop of this type will be held at the MOI of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton on March 28, 2019.