gender sensitive police reform policy brief 2007

Upload: ccentroamerica

Post on 29-May-2018

215 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    1/12

    Policy brieng paper:

    Gender Sensitive Police

    Reorm in Post Conict

    Societies

    October 2007

    The UNs rst all-emale peacekeeping orce arrives in Liberia. (Credit: UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein)

    Contents

    Introduction ................................. 2

    Denitions ..................................... 3

    Mandate: Criminalizing

    Abuses o Womens Rights........ 4

    Operating Practices,

    Incentives, Perormance

    Measures ........................................ 6

    Sta Composition: Divisions

    o Labor and Power ....................8

    Accountability Systems:

    Responding and Correcting .....11

    Conclusion ..................................... 12

    United Nations

    Development Programme

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    2/12

    2 UNDP - UNIFEM

    Introduction

    In early 2007, the Government o India sent over 100 highly trained women police ofcers to

    Liberia, as the UNs rst all-emale peacekeeping contingent. Early reports suggest that their

    presence in Liberia is helping to bring Liberian women out, both to register their complaints

    and encouraging them to join the Liberian police service. The unit is making security services

    more accessible to ordinary women in a country with high rates o sexual and gender-based

    violence (SGBV).1 The contingent is a bold example o the UNs broad aspiration to implement

    gender-sensitive police reorm in post-conict states.

    In the last decade, womens engagement in democratic governance, conict resolution, and

    economic activity, which are key components o the sustainability o peace in post-conict

    contexts, has grown rapidly. Security Council Resolution 1325

    (October 2000) mandated UN member states to recognize this

    act and ensure womens participation in peace processes.

    However, women ace ormidable constraints to eective

    engagement in public lie ater conict, not least because o thethreat or the experience o SGBV. Womens physical security is

    thereore an essential prerequisite to their eective participation

    in peace-building.The challenge o making public and private

    lie sae or women alls on many public institutions, amongst

    which police services are central. With proper support, reormed

    police services can play a central role in promoting womens

    peace-building work.

    Police recovery and reorm is widely understood to be one o the mainstays o post-

    conict recovery, as the eectiveness o all governance processes derives rom eective lawenorcement.2 However, a wide range o concerns must be addressed in post-conict eorts

    to re-establish the rule o law, and in the past womens entitlement to security has oten been

    an overlooked aspect o the reorm process. In addition to violating their human rights, the

    neglect o womens security needs can compromise the inclusiveness and sustainability o

    peace-building and eorts to build democratic governance ater conict. As a contribution

    towards more eective, rights-based and sustainable programming in this area, this brieng

    note reviews key components o gender-sensitive police reorm (GSPR) in post-conict states.

    To urther the UNs commitment to empower women and work towards gender equality in times

    o war and o peace,3 in 2006, the United Nations Development Fund or Women (UNIFEM), the

    United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) Bureau or Crisis Prevention and Recovery

    (UNDP/BCPR) and the Department o Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) commissioned a

    study4 o the UNs experience in gender-sensitive police reorm to capture best practices to

    contribute towards the development o minimum standards or policing policy and operations.

    1 Indias toughest women gear up or UN deployment to violence-torn Liberia, in the International Herald Tribune, Friday 8 Sep-tember 2006, www.iht.com. See also Muneeza Naqvi, All Female Peacekeeper Squad to Deploy, in www.washingtonpost.com,

    Friday, January 19, 2007.

    2 Police reorm is a component o Security Sector Reorm (SSR), which, writ large, is essential to establishing the rule o law,

    building accountable institutions and promoting eective and democratic governance. The UN is in the process o reviewing itsapproach to SSR, with a Secretary Generals report on SSR expected by late 2007 constituting a rst step towards this aim.

    3 UNDPs Eight Point Agenda http://www.undp.org/cpr/how_we_do/gender.shtml and UNIFEM strategic goals.

    4 Report on Gender and Police Reorm in Post-Conicts or UNDP-BCPR, UNIFEM, DPKO/UN Police/Best Practices, William G. ONeill,January 2007. Detailed eld notes on GSPR in all three sites Liberia, Sierra Leone and Kosovo are available as unpublished

    mimeos upon request rom UNIFEMs New York ofce. The eld notes cover 2006-2007.

    Womens physical

    security is an essential

    prerequisite to their

    efective participation

    in peace-building.

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    3/12

    Policy brieng paper - Gender Sensitive Police Reorm in Post Conict Societies 3

    This study ocused specically on lessons learned rom gender-sensitive police reorm in

    Kosovo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The studys ndings show that gender-sensitive police reorm

    constitutes a vital instrument in advancing the implementation o Security Council Resolution

    1325, and implementing womens human rights entitlements under the Convention on the

    Elimination o all orms o Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It is an excellent means by

    which to establish accountable, equitable, eective and rights-respecting police services that

    are capable o delivering or women in crisis and post-conict situations.5

    This brieng note outlines key elements o gender-sensitive police reorm, based on

    ndings rom this inter-agency study and lessons emerging rom UNIFEM and UNDP

    programming in other countries.6

    Denitions

    Gender-sensitive police reorm (GSPR) is based on the premise that women and mens socially

    constructed roles, behaviors, social positions, access

    to power and resources create gender specicvulnerabilities or gendered insecurities, some o

    which are particularly salient during and ater conict,

    because sexual and gender-based violence may have

    been used as a weapon o war, and may continue at

    high levels when conict is ormally ended. GSPR

    thereore applies a gender analysis to police reorm

    processes, ensuring gender equality principles are

    systematically integrated at all stages o police reorm

    planning, design, implementation and evaluation. It

    also addresses or instance how the construction o

    gender identities shape perceptions o security and

    police mandates.

    As a result o successul GSPR, police services will more

    eectively prevent and respond to the specic security needs o women and men, boys and girls.

    GSPR should also contribute towards building police institutions which are non-discriminatory,

    reective o the diversity o citizens and accountable to the population at large. As such, police

    services will better ulll the polices essential mandate o upholding the rule o law.

    The UNs commitment to supporting GSPR is based on the rationale that a gender-sensitive

    police service can signicantly enhance the security o citizens. This is paramount or human

    development, human rights and peace without GSPR the threat o an increased level o

    SGBV is ar greater, particularly in post-conict situations, seriously undermining the rule

    o law and post-conict recovery eorts. Women in countries emerging rom conict are

    entitled to respect or, protection, and ulllment o their human right to gender equality.

    CEDAW and Security Council Resolution 1325 together provide powerul global legal and

    normative authority or the requirement that police reorm incorporates all measures

    5 For example, the UNDP-UNIFEM joint programme with the police in Rwanda: Enhancing Protection rom Gender-Based Vio-lence

    6 Note: The relationship between the police and the prison population is a separate subject requiring in-depth treatment. PR or

    prisoners, even emale prisoners, is not addressed in this brie.

    Successul gender-

    sensitive police

    services will more

    efectively prevent and

    respond to the specic

    security needs o

    women and men, boysand girls.

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    4/12

    4 UNDP - UNIFEM

    necessary to guarantee women their rights. The UN accordingly recognizes the security sector

    as a duty bearer with responsibility to guarantee womens physical security both a right in

    itsel, and an essential pre-condition or womens enjoyment or all other rights.7

    Key elements o gender-sensitive institutional change in the police reorm in any institution

    usually involves change in our areas:

    The institutions mandate what is it supposed to do and or whom?

    Operating practices, incentive systems and perormance measures, inormal cultures

    what it is supposed to do, who does it and how, who reviews perormance?

    The composition o stafand the division o labor and power between dierent social

    groups who does the work, who makes decisions, who is held accountable?

    Accountability systems how does the institution learn, correct mistakes, respond to

    changing client needs, and how do internal and external actors monitor and, i needed,

    correct mistakes?

    Post-conict police reorm designed to address problems such as corruption, excessive use oorce, ethnic bias, gender discrimination and the like, must work with each o these elements o

    institutional change. Similarly, each o these elements o institutional change comes into play

    in eorts to build a police orce that is more responsive to womens security needs.

    Mandate: Criminalizing Abuses o Womens Rights

    In some contexts where systematic abuses o womens rights are

    not prevented or investigated by the police, there is a proound

    gender bias in the legal system in eect, a lack o a strong

    mandate to deend womens rights. Abuses o womens bodies

    and property particularly when perpetrated by a male relative

    in the domestic arena may be seen as a private matter, not or

    police attention. Breaking the silence, including through legal

    reorm to bring national laws up to international human rights

    standards is thereore an essential rst step towards building a

    law enorcement system that protects women.

    In post-conict contexts, law reorm has been a priority or the

    womens movement and or UNIFEM and UNDP. In Liberia, or

    instance, one o the rst new laws passed ollowing the electiono President Johnson Sirlea was a strong law on rape.8 In Sierra

    Leone, the passage o three laws in June 2007 designed to

    strengthen womens rights in relation to marriage, inheritance, and gender-based violence has

    been seen as essential to supporting eorts to improve the responsiveness o the police to

    abuses o womens rights.

    Formal mandates, however, may do little to alter entrenched gender biases and discriminatory

    attitudes. For GSPR measures to be eective, they must also be internalized by society and

    7 For more inormation regarding the application o CEDAW and Security Council Resolution 1325 to post-conict recovery and

    reconstruction eorts, see UNIFEM, CEDAW and Security Council Resolution 1325: A Quick Guide, UNIFEM New York 2006.

    8 Rape Law, Dec 2005; the law criminalizes gang rape - making it a non-bailable oence-marital rape and rape against minors.

    Abuses o womensbodies and property

    particularly when

    perpetrated by a male

    relative in the domestic

    arena may be seen as

    a private matter, not or

    police attention.

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    5/12

    Policy brieng paper - Gender Sensitive Police Reorm in Post Conict Societies 5

    the police themselves. This can be a particular challenge in contexts where exerting violence

    against women is viewed as a male social prerogative. Unchanged attitudes and mentalities

    results in some amiliar obstacles toeective policing o abuses o womens rights, notably with

    regard to SGBV:

    under-reporting by victims and witnesses;

    impunity or perpetrators by tacit social

    consensus;

    the pressure to treat violence against women

    as domestic disputes which can and should be

    settled outside o the criminal-justice system;

    the tendency to regard child abuse as an internal

    amily matter;

    the stigmatization o women who experience

    sexual violence rom known persons;

    blaming the victim;

    isolating the victim ater trauma;

    treating abuse as a matter o shame or the victim.

    Worse still, the police themselves may perpetrate crimes against women, ranging rom sexual

    harassment on the streets to sexual assault in police cells.9 At times, police women themselves

    are subject to gender-based discrimination and violence rom male colleagues.

    In traditional contexts, both society at large and the police may avor negotiation and compromise

    as the appropriate ways to deal with SGBV. This leads to situations in which men orgive men

    or violence committed against women. Such culturally determined behaviors are very hard

    to dislodge or alter through institutional reorms that do not engage with society as a whole.

    Like many other public institutions, the police reproduce the stereotypes and prejudices o their

    societywith respect to women and men. This directly shapes the institutional culture, aecting

    mandates, operations and allocation o resources. For these reasons an essential eature o legal

    and social change is building womens and mens awareness o womens rights and encouraging

    a shit in generalized gender biases through the use o media and popular culture.

    Both male and emale police ofcers require awareness building about the nature, extent, and

    seriousness o crimes perpetrated against women. GSPR thereore needs to invest in specic

    training to build understanding o new mandates in law enorcement that specically include

    gender-based violence. Police have to be trained to take these orms o violence against

    women and children seriously. They need to change their methods o dealing with victims

    and survivors who are oten too araid or too vulnerable to cope with aggressive, invasive orinsensitive behavior rom ofcers and sta in the police station. A number o UN Agencies

    invest in gender training or the police, notably UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP and UNIFEM.

    While the criminalization o sexual and gender-based violence are priorities or police reorm in

    post-conict situations they need to be accompanied by wider eorts to bring institutional

    mandates, doctrines, and strategic missions in line with gender equality principles. For instance the

    Nicaraguan police has enshrined a gender perspective as one o their nine institutional principles

    and values. Moreover, gender issues should be systematically integrated into all components o

    police training to ensure that reorm eorts go beyond the issue o gender-based violence.

    9 A report based on participatory research conducted in 1999-2000 in 23 countries prepared or the World Banks World Develop-

    ment Report 2001 ound that or many poor people in developing countries, the police orce was the public institution per-

    ceived as most corrupt and most predatory, particularly on poor women. Deepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera Kaul Shah,

    and Patti Petesch, Voices o the Poor: Crying Out or Change, Oxord University Press, New York, 2000.

    Like many otherpublic institutions,

    the police reproduce

    the stereotypes and

    prejudices o their

    society with respect to

    women and men.

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    6/12

    6 UNDP - UNIFEM

    Operating Practices, Incentives, Perormance Measures

    Training must be reinorced by changes in operating protocols and procedures, concrete

    incentives to motivate and reward changed practices, and sanction systems to prevent or

    punish ailure to comply with a gender equality mandate. Finally, perormance measures should

    record sta commitment to gender equality principles, as reected by new types o policing

    that respond to womens and mens needs so that these innovations do not go unrecognized.

    Operational protocols and procedures

    translate new mandates into new

    practices. In relation to eective

    responses to gender-based violence

    (GBV), new operating procedures have

    been developed in police services

    around the world that mandate arrests

    o perpetrators upon reasonable

    suspicion (instead o persuadingwomen to return to a violent partner),

    mandatory reporting to a higher

    ofcer, and assistance in providing

    medical attention to victims.10

    Another visible change in operating practices involves setting up dedicated police units to

    address crimes against women. Womens Police Stations, Family Support Units and Womens

    Desks are intended to provide an environment in which emale victims o violence eel saer

    registering their complaints and taking steps towards seeking prosecution. They are oten

    staed exclusively by women police personnel or women and men specially trained to dealwith victims o sexual crimes and to build eective investigations. Womens Police Stations and

    dedicated gender units help to counter the under-reporting o crimes against women that

    is ubiquitous in patriarchal societies as well as in their police services. By allocating specic

    resources to deal with gender-based violence, a strong message is sent to the population about

    the end o the impunity or these crimes. At the same time, these measures contribute to

    rebuilding trust among the civilian population in security sector institutions.11

    In April 2005 the Liberian National Police (LNP) established the Women and Child Protection

    Unit (WACPU) with help rom the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) as well as UNICEF.

    WACPU works together with various governmental and non-governmental entities, supported

    by the Gender-Based Violence Inter-Agency Task Force that coordinates eorts o UN and other

    donors. Similarly, in Rwanda, the Gender Desk o the Gender-Based Violence Ofce (GBV Ofce)

    at the Headquarters o the Rwandan National Police (RNP) was launched in May 2005 with

    UNIFEM and UNDP support.12 The GBV Ofce was created to strengthen the ormer Child and

    Family Protection Unit, and to respond to the legacy o SGBV and especially rape as a orm o

    genocidal violence.

    10 See the sample protocol or addressing GBV available in: Economic Community or Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),

    Report o the ECLAC-CDCC/CIDA Gender Equality Programme Regional Conerence on Gender-Based Violence and the Admin-

    istration o Justice Port o Spain, Trinidad and Tobago 3-5 February 2003. Available online: http://www.eclac.cl/publicationes/xml/3/12533/lcarg744.pd

    11 More monitoring and evaluation will be required to produce evidence o the impact o Womens Police Stations, and to continue

    learning how to improve them. UNDP is supporting national partners in such eorts, or instance the national police in Nicara-gua

    12 http://www.uniem.org/gender_issues/voices_rom_the_eld/story.php?StoryID=588

    Gender-based violence ofcers in Rwanda

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    7/12

    Policy brieng paper - Gender Sensitive Police Reorm in Post Conict Societies 7

    GSPR has, in many places, led to the creation not only o special Womens Police Stations

    mentioned above, but also to dedicated units within the police that are specically designed to

    ght SGBV, domestic violence, human trafcking and prostitution, as or instance, in the orm

    o Domestic Violence Units.

    In recognizing the need or specialized approaches to gender-based violence in law enorcement,

    the UN General Assembly passed resolution 52/86 on Crime Prevention and Criminal JusticeMeasures to Eliminate Violence against Women.13 This provides guiding principles or the design

    o new operating practices and procedures to be applied in specialized units.

    Another vital operational measure or mainstreaming gender equality concerns into police

    practices is the physical and communications inrastructure in a police station that allows sta

    to attend to and record the complaints, depositions, and narratives o SGBV victims. Toll-ree

    telephone hotlines or rape crisis; dedicated vehicles servicing the gender units; ambulances;

    separate medical examination rooms; private spaces or interviews; and tie-ups with shelters

    that provide longer stays or women who cannot return home are some basic elements o

    how a gender-sensitive inrastructure can best serve survivors o sexual violence. Occasionally,

    higher-order acilities like medical treatment and social, legal and psychological and counseling,

    provided by NGOs, are also integrated into the reormed police station.

    Dedicated gender units in the police can support attitudinal change amongst the general

    public and encourage better reporting. They can have a similar eect on the attitudes o male

    and emale police ofcers. The creation o a gender

    unit in the Kosovo Police Service helped bring human

    trafcking and orced prostitution major problems

    in post-conict Kosovo out into the open and made

    them priority areas or the police.

    For this positive eect to occur it is essential that

    dedicated gender units do not become undesirable

    areas o police work, under-recognized and under-

    rewarded. Powerul incentives must be provided

    to encourage police personnel to work in this

    demanding area, including promotions, visibility,

    public approval and psychosocial support. Personal

    commitment to gender equality should be rewarded

    and considered an indispensable complement to

    wider institutional commitment.

    In Liberia, WACPU has acquired something o the prestige o an elite task orce within the larger

    body o the police, in part because donor support has ensured that these police units are better

    equipped than some other areas o police work. Thus police ofcers want to be associated

    with gender-related work it does not carry the common stigma o being a neglected or low-

    priority backwater.

    13 12 December 1997, www.unpa.org/gender/docs/52-86.pd. See also Resource Manual Model strategies and practical measures

    on the elimination o Violence against Women in the eld o crime prevention and criminal justice, www.icclr.law.ubc.ca/Publica-

    tions/Reports/VAWMANUA.PDF

    Dedicated gender units

    in the police can support

    attitudinal change

    amongst the general

    public and encourage

    better reporting.

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    8/12

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    9/12

    Policy brieng paper - Gender Sensitive Police Reorm in Post Conict Societies 9

    because incentive systems and training may still reinorce operating practices that discriminate

    against women, particularly i women in the police are present in just token numbers.16

    For this reason, eorts to recruit women must aim high in the sense o seeking to attract

    large numbers o women to improve gender parity. Recruitment drives targeting women must

    avoid gendered divisions o labor and power that relegate women to the lower ranks and the

    least-valued tasks.

    In post-conict Sierra Leone, the Sierra Leone Police

    (SLP) set a quota o 30 percent or emale ofcers, and

    it is hal way towards achieving this. The Kosovo Police

    Service currently succeeds in recruiting 18 percent

    women, above the Balkan average o 14 percent. The

    UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) developed a Gender

    Policy or the Liberia National Police that includes

    eorts not just to recruit and train more women

    ofcers, but to ensure they are not isolated in the

    lower ranks. Women are placed in leadership roles in

    the police hierarchy, and a newly-created Association

    o Women Police Ofcers enables them to build a

    culture o support amongst themselves. The Kosovo

    Police Service not only has women ofcers in all its

    units, but several o them occupy senior positions,

    a tactic that has a trickle-down eect and keeps

    womens morale high.

    Eective GSPR ensures that women are promoted to the higher echelons in order to subsequently

    serve as role models or others wishing to enter and rise through the ranks. Likewise, GSPRshould ocus on promoting womens equal representation in operational posts, actively

    addressing womens marginalization to non-operational and administrative posts.

    Post-conict contexts can oer special opportunities or attracting larger numbers o women

    recruits to the police, because o the way conict may have changed traditional gender roles,

    with women taking on new roles as community leaders and even combatants. At the same

    time, a requent obstacle to emale recruitment into the police in post-conict contexts is a

    lack o qualications stemming rom years o neglected schooling, which prevents them rom

    entering the service in the rst place and excludes them rom promotions. In Liberia, the

    Liberian National Police (LNP) addresses this problem by providing ree education at the high-school level to young girls who are wiling to undergo specialized police training once they are

    awarded their high-school diplomas.

    Making the workplace a sae and supportive environment or women is an essential part o

    attracting women to, and retaining them in the police. First and oremost, emale ofcers

    must be protected rom sexual harassment by colleagues. Zero tolerance policies with respect

    to sexual harassment and abuse are essential elements o GSPR and must be backed by

    strong enorcement actions, including complaints mechanisms, to demonstrate high-level

    commitment to GSPR.

    16 See: Do Women Represent Women? Rethinking the Critical Mass Debate, by multiple authors, in Politics and Gender, No. 2,2006; 491-530.

    Efective gender

    sensitive policy reorms

    ensures that women

    are promoted to the

    higher echelons in

    order to subsequentlyserve as role models or

    others wishing to enter

    and rise through

    the ranks.

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    10/12

    10 UNDP - UNIFEM

    In addition, amily and child support policies, including maternity and paternity leave, maternity

    uniorms, and time o on working days or emale ofcers to nurse inants have been introduced

    in some contexts to retain women recruits. These policies have

    been deemed eective in retaining women in the Kosovo

    Police Service, or instance. GSPR recognizes that women have

    special workplace needs related to their physical saety, their

    child and amily care responsibilities. Womens unequal access

    to education in some instances owing to entrenched societal

    gender biases might require additional investment in training

    to ensure women the education and experience o their male

    colleagues, and ensure policewomen meet prerequisites or

    promotion. In addition, both women and men experience high

    levels o stress associated with working with survivors o sexual

    violence, and this must be addressed through psychosocial

    support services.

    Thus just as new physical inrastructure is oten required oreective policing o crimes against women, new physical

    inrastructure may be needed to support the operational

    eectiveness o women sta.

    Making the workplace

    a sae and supportive

    environment or

    women is an essential

    part o attracting

    women to and

    retaining them in the

    police.

    ( Photo Credit: UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein)

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    11/12

    Policy brieng paper - Gender Sensitive Police Reorm in Post Conict Societies 11

    Accountability Systems: Responding and Correcting

    GSPR requires that women become engaged in holding the police to account. Ensuring the

    accountability o security services in any country presents important challenges. Eective

    civilian and democratic oversight o security services, or instance, depends upon the level

    o transparency and democratic participation in any country. Beyond encouraging women in

    national politics to participate in Parliamentary deense and internal security committees, there

    are other means o enhancing womens engagement in oversight mechanisms.

    Police review boards, national human rights

    commissions, community-police liaison committees,

    and international organizations can improve the

    relationships between women and the police, opening

    up channels or making complaints or supporting the

    police better to respond to womens needs. Such

    complaint mechanisms should also be expanded to

    include complaints by internal actors and addresswider issues o sex-based discrimination, ethnicity,

    HIV/AIDS among others.

    Another key component o eective accountability

    systems are public consultations between the police

    and individual women and the wider public, including

    members o the womens movement, human rights

    organizations, marginalized ethnic groups and HIV/

    AIDS advocacy groups. Such consultations could

    orm part o policy design, implementation andmonitoring.

    The Kosovo Police Service works closely with a network o 85 organizations in the Kosovo

    Womens Network, and with UNIFEM to ensure that the police are regularly apprised o womens

    needs and concerns. The GBV Ofce in the Rwanda National Police is supported by UNIFEM and

    UNDP to likewise engage with local womens organizations to better design and deliver its

    response to gender-based violence.

    Finally, new operating systems should be backed up by gender-sensitive inormation systems,

    which allow or evidence based perormance reviews and evaluations. They also constitute a

    tool or gender-sensitive planning and better gender analysis in policy design, implementationas well as monitoring and evaluation.

    Another key

    component o efective

    accountability

    systems are public

    consultations between

    the police and

    individual women and

    the wider public.

  • 8/9/2019 Gender Sensitive Police Reform Policy Brief 2007

    12/12

    12 UNDP UNIFEM

    Conclusion

    In post-conict contexts, there is not only a particularly strong need or GSPR, but also oten

    particularly opportune conditions or pursuing institutional change in law enorcement

    institutions and practices. This brieng note has drawn out our dimensions o institutional

    change that are evident in current GSPR eorts in some post-conict countries. These are:

    mandate change to direct the police to respond to crimes against women;

    new operating practices, incentive systems and perormance measures to motivate and

    reward new orms o policing that respond to womens needs;

    the recruitment o women and measures to retain and promote them; and,

    engaging women in accountability systems.

    It is important to note that GSPR is still relatively new. While some regions, such as Latin America,

    are quite advanced in terms o setting up inrastructure to address crimes against women,

    others are still coping with deeply gender-biased legal rameworks. UNIFEM and UNDP will

    continue to support national eorts to make police services more inclusive and responsive, and

    will also support broader UN eorts to mainstream gender equality concerns, advance womens

    human rights and other system-wide eorts to build coherence in post-conict security sector

    reorm. Looking orward, eective and coherent GSPR will require the setting o standards o

    perormance in addressing womens needs, eective monitoring systems to track compliance,

    and evaluation o GSPR eorts to assess impact.

    Women are an indispensable part o the process o peace building and social stabilization.

    Ater conict, re-establishing a viable, gender-sensitive police service as quickly as possible is

    essential to allow women to both recover rom the eects o extreme violence, and to moveorward with the business o rebuilding their lives and those o their amilies.

    This policy brie beneted rom the input and contributions o the ollowing individuals: Megan

    Bastick, Anjali Dayal, Tara Denham, Vanessa Farr, Anne Marie Goetz, Katja Hemmerich, Nadine Jubb,

    Wenny Kusuma, Comort Lamptey, Marcus Lenzen, Antero Lopes, Annette Lyth, Caroline Smit, Anne-

    Kristin Treiber, Ananya Vajpeyi, Kristin Valasek and Lee Waldor.

    For urther inormation please contact:

    UNDP

    Alejandro AlvarezJustice and Security Sector Reorm Adviser

    Conict Prevention and Recovery Team

    UNDP - Bureau or Crisis Prevention and Recovery

    Tel: + 41 22 917 8688

    Email: [email protected], Internet: www.undp.org/cpr

    UNIFEM

    Anne-Kristin Treiber

    Programme Analyst

    Governance, Peace and Security Unit

    UNIFEM

    Tel: +1 212 906 5110Email: [email protected], Internet: www.uniem.org