Promoting Gender Equality through Security Sector Reform - Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and International Alert
Security sector reform is explicitly mentioned in many of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (UNSCRs on WPS): UNSCRs 1820, 1888, 2106, 2122. It is also implicitly mandated in the UNSCRs on WPS’ calls for reform within peacekeeping, armed forces, police services and the judicial system, as well as increased collaboration with civil society. From the full and equal participation of women in decision-making to ending impunity for sexual and gender-based violence, security sector reform that is designed and implemented to promote gender equality is absolutely necessary for the successful implementation of the UNSCRs on WPS.
Urge Member States, United Nations bodies, donors and civil society:
- To ensure that SSR processes and initiatives promote gender equality, including within the broader mission and mandate of security sector institutions as well as within their institutional culture.
- To ensure that the security and justice needs of diverse groups of men, women, girls and boys as well as sexual and gender minorities are assessed in a comprehensive and participatory manner as a starting point for post-conflict planning, including SSR.
- To engage with overlooked actors in the security sector, including customary and religious leaders, private military and security companies, security sector oversight actors and the penal system, in order to strengthen gender equality, including through prevention and response to human rights violations such as sexual violence.
- To improve gender equality within the security sector by linking strategic-level transformation that takes into account the institutional, sectoral and social linkages together with institutional-level, practical actions that increase people’s access to security and justice.
- To support the institutionalization of mandatory gender-related education and training for all security sector personnel through a comprehensive process of curriculum review, development, implementation and assessment in national and regional training academies.
- To ensure that provisions are made to foster family-friendly and non-discriminatory work environments free of all forms of harassment and violence within security sector institutions, in order to further the goal of gender equality, including increasing the participation and retention of female personnel in the security sector and in deployments.
- To ensure that security sector institutions critically assess their internal institutional cultures and modes of operation from a gender equality perspective, examining inter alia whether or not these are reinforcing gender inequality, hampering effective service, undermining public trust, and obstructing the recruitment and retention of a more diverse base of talent.
- To ensure that internal accountability, oversight and control mechanisms are equipped, trained and mandated to uphold laws and policies aimed at maintaining a non-discriminatory work environment free of harassment and violence as well as ensuring professional service provision to all women, men, girls, boys, sexual and gender minorities.
- To ensure that all institutions responsible for external oversight, including women’s organisations, are equipped, trained and mandated to hold the security sector accountable for its obligations in respect of gender equality and service provision to all women, men, girls, boys, sexual and gender minorities.
Preventing and responding to sexual violence in South Africa’s prisons
The Detention Justice Forum is a coalition of South African civil society organisations, lawyers and academics formed in 2012 to advance the rights and well-being of detainees. One project aims to prevent HIV transmission by reducing sexual violence against detainees and, following release, their family members. Activities include research and evidence collection, advocacy for legal reform, capacity building for prison staff, media campaigns and measures to hold the government accountable.
Changing institutional culture through the Swedish Gender Coach Programme
Sweden’s Gender Coach programme involved assigning a coach – usually a senior gender expert from an NGO – to high-level members of security and humanitarian agencies. This partnership involved regular meetings to develop and implement personal action plans to mainstream gender and implement activities mandated by the Swedish National Action Plan on 1325. The programme successfully raised the visibility and high-level support for gender equality initiatives in institutions such as the armed forces.
Benefits of the Sierra Leone Police’s gender self-assessment
In 2011, the Sierra Leone Police undertook an institutional gender self-assessment with the support of DCAF to measure achievements and gaps in promoting gender responsiveness since the reform process began in 1997. The assessment, which was also a capacity building exercise, triggered the review of policies on gender mainstreaming and sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment; the creation of a gender unit; and the streamlining of gender structures into a gender directorate.
Eliminating gender bias in Bosnian courtrooms
DCAF and Atlantic Initiative undertook two innovative projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a study examining gender bias in the judiciary, and the drafting of a domestic violence benchbook by a panel of judges from across the country. These projects provided entry points for future work on gender equality in the country such as the development of an officially endorsed gender training curriculum and guidelines to prevent sexual and gender-based harassment in the judiciary.
