Presentation of the WPON Report in Tirana, Albania

On 17 November, the State Police of the Republic of Albania organized the presentation of the report “Establishing the Southeast Europe Women Police Officers Network” research findings. The event was attended by Deputy Minister of Interior - Ms. Iva Zajmi, General Director of State Police - Mr. Hysni Burgaj, the UN Resident Coordinator - Ms. Zineb Touimi-Benjelloun, as well as by the heads of regional police departments, police officers members of the Women’s  Forum of the Police Association, and representatives of international donor organizations that support Albanian State Police.

The report consists of research findings reached through a questionnaire collected in eight countries, with a sample of over 4,000 participants, and it explores issues of recruitment and admission policies towards women in police service, education and training, career development, normative regulations, discrimination and the issue of the establishment of association as a way to improve quality and efficiency of the police work, as well as to promote gender equality.

Ms. Zajmi and Mr. Burgaj opened the meeting, stressing the importance of recruitment of more women in police services as way to advance gender equality and democratic policing. Ms. Zajmi and Mr. Burgaj also spoke of the recent efforts of the Albanian Ministry of Interior and the Albanian State Police to advance gender equality and diversity through a recruitment campaign designed specifically to attract more women in the police force, which was launched in 2011.

Ms. Touimi-Benjelloun, also commended on the recent exceptional measures put in place by the Ministry of Interior and the State Police to increase women’s participation in the police force by admitting only women to the police academy this year. Not only is this a significant step forward, but it represents a historical opportunity to meaningfully increase women's participation in this sector, said Ms. Touimi-Benjelloun. Gender mainstreaming in policing practices is not only important from the perspective of women's human rights, but it is also a tool to ensure that the priorities and needs of different groups in teh population are fully addressed.

Ms. Bojana Balon, Project Coordinator of the Women Police Officer’s Network in South East Europe (WPON), presented the findings of the report, highlighting that there are no more than 8% of women in any of the uniformed police services in the region and that this number is significantly lower in the management ranks. This is partially explained by the fact that the mass requirement of women by the police services began only recently in the region. Ms. Balon outlined some of the key recommendation provided by the report:

 -  Recruitment and retention strategies and practices need to be reviewed and revised to become more gender sensitive;
 -  Topics related to gender equality should be more strongly included in police education;
 -  Women police officers associations should be established to enable information exchange, sharing of best practices and provide support to police services in advancing gender equality.

The workshop was concluded by a presentation by Mr. Edwin Berry, Regional Project Manager from UN Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina who presented the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on “Women, Peace and Security.”