SEESAC at the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme Advanced Research Workshop in Geneva

Photo by DCAF

Photo by DCAF

Photo by DCAF

Geneva, Switzerland - SEESAC took part in the workshop ‘Preventing and Responding to Gender-Related Complaints in the Armed Forces’, held from 28 to 30 April 2015.

The workshop brought together military and civilian ombudspersons, parliamentary commissioners, equal opportunities commissioners, human resources and equal opportunities personnel from armed forces, and external experts. The aim of the workshop was to review and compare practices related to prevention and response to complaints of gender-based discrimination, harassment and abuse which are considered as one of the barriers for women’s retention and equal participation in armed forces.

The workshop was organized to facilitate the identification and documentation of good practice that will be documented as a Handbook on Gender and Complaints Mechanisms for Armed Forces, which will be published later this year by DCAF.

SEESAC Programme Officer Bojana Balon participated in a panel on assessing discrimination, harassment and abuse. Balon presented the findings from the Study on the Position of Women in the Armed Forces (AFs) in the Western Balkans, discussed reasons for low number of gender related complaints in the AF in the Western Balkan as well as highlighted the importance of the work by the Regional Network of Gender Trainers in raising gender awareness in their respective Western Bakan Armed Forces.

Ombudsman for the Norwegian Armed Forces and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, funded by NATO Science for Peace and Security Porgramme organized the workshop.