Page 37 - Coespu Magazine 2017-2

GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN MILITARY OPERATIONS

The role of police and military
components in peacekeeping and
peace support operations is
primarily to provide a secure
environment as a precondition for
lasting peace agreements in often-
complex conflict-affected areas,
where parties to conflicts include
state and non-state actors, and
where civilian populations are
often implicated in the conflict,
either as combatants or as victims.
This context generally necessitates
direct interactions between police
and military components and local
populations. The approach requires
harnessing the professional
expertise of male and female peace
operators to achieve optimum
operational effectiveness for
ensuring that the security concerns of women, men, girls and boys are adequately addressed without
discrimination.
So far lessons learned have demonstrated that war and conflicts affect men, women, girls and boys
differently and peace
operations conducted in
areas with very different
cultures and gender roles,
severe use of sexual
violence or other forms of
abuse and repression, have
made it obvious that gender
perspectives are an
important part of a
comprehensive approach in
order to effectively fulfill
the aim of the mission.
With reference to these
issues, the Swedish Nordic
Center for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM), in cooperation with the Swedish Defense
University, organized a Key Leaders Seminar on Gender Perspectives in Military Operations in
th
th
Stockholm, Sweden, from 12 to 13 June, 2017.

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