SEESAC Supports 4 Seminars on Gender Equality for Serbia's Military Academy Cadets
In an effort to raise gender awareness among the next generations of officers in the Serbian Armed Forces, SEESAC supported organization of four (4) seminars on gender equality in the Security Sector Reform (SSR) at the Military Academy of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia. Four one-day seminars were organized on 2nd, 8th, 14th and 23rd April 2015 with the support of SEESAC for total of twenty nine (29) women and fifty one (51) men, all military cadets at the Military Academy in Belgrade.
The trainings, specifically tailored for cadets, included basic concepts related to gender equality, and the relevance of gender equality for security sector reform; statistical overview on the position of men and women in Serbia, and the Serbian Armed Forces in particular. The seminars also presented different strategies for achieving gender equality, types of gender based discrimination, ways for elimination of gender stereotypes, and the role of gender perspective in the Security Sector Reform.
Cadets took part in the seminar actively, especially in the exercises and expressed their interests in the topic, particularly in gender roles and position of women in the armed forces.
The gender awareness seminars were organized at the request of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia within the framework of the regional Gender Equality in the Military: Strengthening of Regional Cooperation on Gender Mainstreaming in Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans project.