Launch of the Report in Serbia - Establishing the Southeast Europe Women Police Officers Network

On 7 October 2010 the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia, with the support of SEESAC organized the launch of the report Establishing the Southeast Europe Women Police Officers Network (WPON). The launch was followed-up by a seminar on the Position of Women in the Police Services of the Southeast Europe and Mechanisms for the Promotion of Gender Equality.

The press conference was opened by Mr. Ivica Dacic, the First Deputy Prime Minister – Vice Premier of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. William S. Infante, UNDP Resident Representative, Ms. Jelena Vasiljević, Assistant Head, Border Police Directorate, MoI Serbia and Ms. Snezana Novovic, Assistant Head, Police Education Directorate, MoI Serbia.

In his opening remarks Mr. Dacic said that the Ministry of Interior supports the activities for the establishment of the WPON and that the employees of the Ministry participated actively in the research leading to the production of the report Establishing the Southeast Europe Women Police Officers Network – Research Findings.

The UNDP Serbia Resident Representative, William Infante, stated his hope that the project of establishing the WPON in South East Europe would contribute to raising citizens’ awareness on this subject and that this would result in an increased feeling of security, affiliation, social cohesion.

The launch of the report and the seminar were organized within the framework of a regional project implemented by SEESAC in cooperation with the South East Europe Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA). The project, Support for Gender Mainstreaming in Policing Practice in the South Eastern Europe, is financially supported by the UNDP Gender Thematic Trust Fund and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The overall goal of the project is to advocate for gender equality and democratic principles in policing.

Besides SEPCA and the Ministries of Interior of the countries in the region which took part in the survey, an extraordinary contribution to the finalization of the report was provided by: the OSCE Mission in Belgrade, OSCE Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Office (OSCE/ОDIHR), United Nations Development Programme in Serbia (UNDP), and Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF).

The Agenda of the meeting can be downloaded here.