Seminar “Challenges and Opportunities in Peace Operations: The Incorporation of Women”

March 13, 2008 - (UN-INSTRAW) UN-INSTRAW participated in the “International Seminar - Challenges and Opportunities in Peace Operations: The Incorporation of Women”, organized by the Network for Security and Defence in Latin America (Red de Seguridad y Defensa de América Latina - RESDAL) and the Training Institute for the Sustainable Development (Instituto de Enseñanza para el Desarrollo Sostenible – IEPADES), on March 11th and 12th in Antigua (Guatemala).

Representatives from Ministries of Defense, Regional Training Centres, UN agencies and academia met to consider the issue of the participation of women in peace operations, within the context of the next Ministerial Conference on Defense in the Americas.

Among the issues discussed: peace operations and the incorporation of women in the armed forces; challenges and opportunities for the participation of women in peace operations; and the incorporation of women in peace operations.

As part of the Seminar, UN-INSTRAW presented the Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit, a comprehensive tool to strengthen the security sector’s response to violence against women and other gender-based crimes. Developed by UN-INSTRAW, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR), the Toolkit includes 12 Tools and easy-to-follow Practice Notes on different areas of security sector reform.

The event was organized within the project “Women in the Latin American and Caribbean Armed Forces: A Gender Approach to Peace Operations,” financed by the Global Peace and Security Fund (GPSF).

From:http://www.un-instraw.org/en/media-center/e-news/seminar-challenges-and-opportunities-in-peace-operations-the-incorporation-of-w-2.html