Georgia hosts female leaders in Security and Defence
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The Ministry of Defence of Georgia, with the support of UN Women, organized the Workshop on Female Leaders in Security and Defence - “National Implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325)”.
The two-day workshop was carried out within the framework of the South-Eastern Europe Defence Ministerial Process. The meeting brought together 25 representatives from the security and defence sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Romania, Turkey and the United States to discuss issues related to the role of women in the armed forces, international missions and operations, as well as gender mainstreaming within the security and defence sector in the context of the national implementation of UNSCR 1325 (2000).
Ms. Lela Chikovani, First Deputy Minister of Defence of Georgia, opened the workshop by underlining the importance of women’s participation in the security and defence sector as a matter of ensuring more effective and efficient security sector operations. “Sustainable peace and security is unthinkable without women’s active contribution. Women in the security and defence sector are an important part of the effort,” she stated.
UN Women has been supporting the Ministry of Defence of Georgia under the National Action Plan (NAP) for the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. For a long time, the ministry has been considered as the leader in NAP implementation. In the absence of explicit legislation addressing sexual harassment in the workplace in Georgia, the leadership of the ministry amended the Disciplinary Code of the Defence System by Governmental Decree No. 537. Article 501 of the Code introduced for the first time the notion of sexual harassment within the Defence System of Georgia and articulated sanctions for the perpetrators.
The two-day meeting served as a platform to exchange best practices for many other areas, including sex-disaggregated data collection and analysis used to improve HR policies; and capacity development for military and civilian staff on gender equality and anti-discrimination.
The meeting was supported by two experts from the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations based in Stockholm and UN Women as part of the technical support provided to national partners implementing the commitments to the Women, Peace and Security agenda.