UN appeals members to deploy more women police officers

Lalit K Jha

Washington, Aug 8 (PTI) The United Nations has appealed
to the member countries to consider deploying more women
police officers in its peacekeeping missions.

"We need more female police as soon as we can get them,"
Andrew Hughes, the UN Police Adviser, said, hailing the work
being carried out by the women police officers.

Goal is to have countries raise the number of female
police officers serving in peacekeeping missions to 20 per
cent by 2014, up from its current number of eight per cent, he
said during a press conference at the UN headquarters in New
York, Friday.

The briefing was held to highlight the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations' worldwide push to recruit more women
police, to enhance gender equity throughout the Organisation.

Currently, there are 11,000 United Nations police
officers working in 17 peacekeeping missions around the world,
though the Organisation is mandated to have 15,000.

"Deploying more women makes practical and operational
sense in this line of work," Hughes argued, emphasising that
female police officers in all roles added value to the
missions in which they worked and were a benefit to relations
with host populations.

One of the many areas where female police officers could
"add value and break down barriers" was in facilitating
investigations of gender-based violence.

India is a major contributor to the UN's women police
corps.

Besides India, the current top contributors of
policewomen are Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Zambia,
Cameroon, Nepal, Philippines, Canada, and Côte d'Ivoire. The
10 countries account for more than 60 per cent of the female
police officers deployed.

Addressing the press conference Ann-Marie Orler, Deputy
Police Adviser, said Security Council resolution 1825 (2008)
had been adopted, symbolising that body's concern for
increasing incidents of sexual and gender-based violence being
used as a tactic of war.

Today, in peacekeeping missions in Timor-Leste, Liberia,
Kosovo, Sudan, Burundi, Haiti and Sierra Leone, United Nations
Police had helped create specialised units that helped
investigate incidents of gender-based violence and assisted
victims.

"Police services are most effective when both sexes are
represented [and] the equal participation of female police
officers at all levels of the United Nations Police provides
enhanced operational efficiency," she said.

In addition, as role models, women police officers
empowered local female populations in reporting sexual crimes,
and encouraged young women to become police officers. Women
also brought a diverse set of skills to tasks such as crowd
control, investigations, community policing, and intelligence
gathering, she added. PTI LKJ
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