The European Union Monitoring Mission recognizes that gender equality is essential for effective stabilization, normalization and confidence building. Inclusion of both women and men is key in our efforts to attain and promote enduring peace and security.
The Mission’s mandate to support effective stabilization, normalization and confidence building can be achieved only if we consistently strive to increase participation of women in our work – internally as well as externally. This means that in line with the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security and European Union gender policy, the Mission works towards mainstreaming gender in all that we do.
The Mission maintains a network of Gender Focal Points; these are women and men across the mission, who provide guidance and support on gender mainstreaming. In practice, this can mean informing planning processes to ensure the mission sends out patrols reflecting the diversity of the mission - women and men, different nationalities and backgrounds. This can also mean considering what questions monitors may ask along the Administrative boundary lines to obtain the different perspectives of women, men, boys and girls, and the impacts of varying situations on their lives. “Mixed patrols are more effective, smarter patrols – women in local communities often feel more comfortable talking with female Monitors, giving a broader perspective”, says Mission Gender Advisor Stacy Ziebell.
Gender equality is a core value of the European Union, enshrined within the EU political and legal framework. The Mission has one of the highest percentages of women amongst the EU Common Security and Defence Policy missions, currently standing at 25%. The Mission, however, recognises that 25% of women is still not high enough and consistently encourages Member States to send more women applicants to the Mission.
Find out more about EUMM’s practical actions on gender mainstreaming in its 2016 annual report on gender mainstreaming here.
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We care about Gender Equality
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