International workshop: Strengthening gender-responsive policing and gender parity in UN Police
WVR - An international workshop on 'Strengthening gender-responsive policing and advancing United Nations Police gender parity efforts' opened on December 17, in Ha Long City.
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| The international workshop on 'Strengthening gender-responsive policing and advancing UN Police gender parity efforts' on December 17 in Ha Long. (Source: UN Women) |
The workshop gathered representatives from member states, the UN Police Division (UNPOL), UN Women, UNITAR, and national peacekeeping institutions.
Co-hosted by the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, the UN Police Division, UN Women, and UNITAR, the three-day workshop provides a platform for dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and practical solutions to increase women’s participation and leadership in UN policing and peacekeeping operations.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, representatives highlighted Member States’, including Vietnam strong commitment to international peacekeeping and advancing gender equality in peacekeeping, as well as within security institutions.
The workshop also reflects the close partnership between the Government of Vietnam and the UN in implementing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and the UN Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy.
The workshop takes place at a critical moment, as peace operations face increasingly complex challenges driven by protracted conflicts, climate impacts, emerging technologies and artificial intelligence. Participants aexamined how gender-responsive recruitment, assessment, and deployment practices can strengthen the effectiveness, credibility, and accountability of UN Police.
Over the course of three days, the international workshop shall address critical trends and challenges in women’s participation in UN Police, highlighting persistent barriers to recruitment from Member State perspectives such as foreign languages, cultural, institutional, and policy gaps. Participants explored gender-sensitive recruitment and assessment practices designed to foster inclusivity, while also examining the development of leadership pipelines through initiatives like the UNPOL Women Command Development Course.
The workshop emphasized the importance of preventing and responding to gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and underscored the need to create enabling environments that support women’s meaningful participation in peace operations, ensuring that police forces are representative, effective, and responsive to the diverse needs of the communities they serve.
In his opening remarks, the UN Police Adviser underscored that integrating a gender perspective is central to the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Policing and to building effective, representative, and rights-based police services. While progress has been made toward gender parity targets, sustained commitment from Member States remains essential to close remaining gaps, particularly in leadership and specialized roles.
Welcoming participants, Senior Colonel Le Quoc Huy of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam emphasized the importance of partnership and collective effort. Citing a Vietnamese proverb— “One tree cannot make a hill, but many trees together can make a mountain”—he reaffirmed Vietnam’s readiness to work with international partners to advance gender-responsive policing and strengthen UN peacekeeping outcomes.
Mr. Japhet William Graham Eichel, Gender, Climate, Peace and Security Specialist at UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific emphasized: “Women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in policing is not only a matter of fairness—it is an operational necessity”.
“Gender-balanced police services are better equipped to build trust with communities, respond to differentiated security needs, and effectively prevent and address gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict settings”, he added.
The workshop’s recommendations are expected to contribute to ongoing UN Police gender parity efforts and inform discussions at the UN Chiefs of Police Summit (UNCOPS) in 2026.
