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While Swiss parliament is divided about sending Swiss
military operations as peacekeepers for the UN, the
agency wants to increase the number of women police
officers for such missions.
Currently the police only account for 8% of the UN
forces, and the goal is that by 2014 it will be 20%,
said Andrew Hughes, Police Adviser to the UN, in
reporting the agency's call to recruit more female
police officers.
According to the official, the call to recruit more
women at the UN will have a positive effect at the level
of employment policies in the member nations of the
organisation. “This effort will also encourage the
growth of female police personnel in all countries”, he
said.
Combating Gender Violence
Moreover, the advisor of the police force attached to
the UN, Ann-Marie Orler, said that increasing the number
of women working in peacekeeping operations for the
United Nations “is an urgent need”.
In her view, more women police officers will effectively
promote the help and protection to women against the
growing use of sexual abuse, which is often used as a
weapon in armed conflict. It is also a matter of “equal
participation of women police officers at all levels of
the United Nations”, he added.
According to officials, they may assume a greater role
in reporting sex crimes “without being limited to, an
area in which women police can remove barriers to
facilitate research on gender violence”, he said.
"While confronting violence against women and
children, of course, is a responsibility of all
officers, both men and women, but women are increasing
the value of peacekeeping missions and improving
relations with local people”.
Seven Missions in the World
Ann-Marie Orler announced the launching of seven new
missions of peacekeeping in East Timor, Liberia, Kosovo,
southern Sudan, Haiti, Burundi and Sierra Leone, which
sent specialist units to investigate and help victims of
gender and sexual violence.
“We can do better if we have more women police officers.
However, we depend on Member States to designate them.
The UN, therefore, strongly encourages
troop-contributing countries to establish a policy on
gender equality”.
In the immediate future the UN needs for qualified
female staff for the French peacekeeping missions in
Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chad and
Ivory Coast.
Countries that contribute more female peacekeepers for
UN operations are Nigeria, India, South Africa, Ghana,
Zambia, Cameroon, Nepal, Philippines, Ivory Coast and
Canada.
In the case of Switzerland, the women who do voluntary
military service are in a minority, despite the fact
that last year their number increased. As to sending
Swiss soldiers to peacekeeping missions abroad, the
issue remains the subject of parliamentary debate
between advocates of neutrality at all costs and whose
who favour a form of “active diplomacy”.
Swisslatin / UN press
(19.08.2009)
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