The Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security of the NATO General Secretary Mari Skåre visited the BiH Ministry for Security yesterday.
She spoke with the BiH Deputy Minister of Security Mladen Ćavar and the Assistant Minister on gender equality in public administration, the participation of women in BiH in peace missions and in the decision making process.
Special Representative Skåre said that in modern conflicts women and children are the greatest victims, and that one of the goals of her visit to BiH is to encourage NATO forces to learn lessons from the BiH war experiences in the goal of preventing sexual violence in conflict.
She said that the inclusion of women in BiH in political life and processes is of the highest importance for NATO.
Deputy Minister of Security for BiH Mladen Ćavar presented to the Ministry of Security the great efforts taken in including women in the security sector and concrete activities in promoting UN Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.
Thus, he initiated the introduction of a gender perspective in training for police officials before being sent on peacekeeping missions.
The training content is aligned with UN standards with a special emphasis on prevention and protection of women and children from gender-based violence in areas where there are certain missions.
During the meeting it was pointed out that, with the aim of a sizeable participation of women in peace missions, the BiH Ministry of Security used affirmative measures in reducing the number of necessary years of experience as one of the main criteria, from eight to five years for women.
