STATEMENT OF SERBIA, October, 2015

Two years ago, the 2014 Swiss and 2015 Serbian OSCE Chairmanships identified gender equality as one of their priorities in the joint workplan for their consecutive Chairmanships. In June 2014, the first- ever OSCE Gender Equality Review Conference took stock of progress in the implementation of the 2004 OSCE General Action Plan, as well as a number of follow-up Ministerial Council decisions. It identified implementation gaps, challenges and lessons learned since the adoption of the Action Plan in 2004. The current Serbian OSCE chairmanship is working on the adoption of an addendum to the Action Plan at the meeting of the Ministerial Council in Belgrade, in December, in order to update the Gender Action Plan and operationalize the recommendations developed during the 2014 Gender Review Conference. Over the past decade, the OSCE has made important strides in implementing measures to achieve gender equality in its policies and programmes, including in the political-military dimension. That development goes hand in hand with a steadily growing global awareness of the importance of the women and peace and security agenda.