SEESAC Contributes to the Dialogue on Gender Equality in the Defence and Security Sector
On 23-24 April 2013, the Ministry of Defense of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in collaboration with the Faculty of Security and the Defense Institute for Security and Peace, organized an international academic conference titled “Gender Equality and Gender Perspective in the Defense and Security.” The conference aimed to provide a set of recommendations on how to best incorporate gender equality into the defense and security policies.
The conference successfully gathered representatives from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s Ministries of Defence and Interior, the Army Headquarters, as well as high ranking officials from the MoDs in the region, ambassadors of the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, representatives of academia and international organizations. Dr. Ivan Zverzhanovski and Ms. Danijela Djurovic participated in the event on behalf of the UNDP/SEESAC.
Mr. Talat Dzaferi, FYR of Macedonia Minister of Defense opened the conference. Mr. Dzaferi stressed that the MoD is not only a key pillar of the security sector but that it is the carrier of National Action Plan for the implementation of the UNSCR 1325 – Women, Peace and Security, which was adopted in January 2013. He reminded the audience that the demand for the establishment of gender responsive peace and security politics is based on the need to respond to challenges and risks which are influencing the position of women in our societies or are marginalizing their role in the peace building and post conflict processes.
Chief of the Army General Staff, Major General Goranco Koteski, noted that responsibility of every democratic state is to allow women equal access to building a professional career. General Koteski noted that the army is proud of its achievements, pointing to the statistics which show that women are as represented in the FYR of Macedonia army as they are on average in the European armed forces.
On behalf of UNDP, Mr. Alessandro Fracassetti, UNDP Resident Representative a.i. stressed that achieving gender equality is a prerequisite for any democratic and developed society and is one of the core cross-cutting principles of the UN development vision. Mr. Fracassetti pointed out that it is vital to ensure that the issue of gender equality and the position of women is addressed more systematically in future reforms of state security institutions. He also noted that gender equality will make security institutions more efficient service providers for citizens.
Speaking on behalf of SEESAC, Ivan Zverzhanovski, addressed the conference and informed them about SEESAC’s two regional initiatives, which aim to strengthen gender perspectives in the security sector reform in the Western Balkans and through which significant results have been achieved. Furthermore Dr. Zverzhanovski praised the work of the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior of FYR of Macedonia in their efforts to advance gender equality in security sector reform.
Through facilitation of the Gender Equality in the Military project and the Women Police Officers Network in Southeast Europe (WPON), in direct partnership with the Ministries of Defence and Interior throughout the Western Balkans region, regional platforms for exchange of information and advocating for improved position of women in the security sector have been established.