Women Count: Security Council Resolution 1325 – Civil Society Monitoring Report 2013

BCSP researcher Maja Bjelos, together with the colleagues from Women in black, Autonomous Women’s Center, Humanitarian Law Center and Anti trafficking Action ASTRA, contributed to the Monitoring Report by writing the chapter that refers to implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Securuty in Serbia.

In the report it was said that Republic of Serbia has ratified most of the international documents important to improving women’s human rights. At the national level since 2000 Serbia adopted 109 strategies , some of them dealing with human rights and gender equality. But it was pointed out that implementation remains a problem. Strategic documents and action plans for their implementation are not harmonized enough. There is a hyper-production of documents and plans without precise distribution of responsibilities and competence and with absence of coherent frameworks for implementation and reporting on the results of planned measures and activities.

The report shows that in Serbia women are participating at all levels of Government, but their representation as ministers/directors, state secretaries, advisors in security sector state bodies is lower than the average for all other ministries. Serbia for the first time has more than 30% women in Parliament which is the result of the new Law of election of deputies but also of raising awareness of women politicians and general public on the importance of women’s participation in the public sphere. Percentage of women in the Ministry of Interior has increased over the last ten years, but the security sector in Serbia is still considered to be dominated by men. Men hold operational positions, while women are engaged in administrative work and lower ranking positions.

In the report can be found recommendations for Government of Serbia and to the UN.

The report „Women Count: Security Council Resolution 1325 – Civil Society Monitoring Report 2013“ is a project of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), a program of the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN). The monitoring report contains 15 chapters which analyze the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Securuty in Armenia, Canada, Columbia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Fiji, Liberia, Nepal, Netherlands, Philippines, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sweden and Uganda.

Complete report „Women Count: Security Council Resolution 1325 – Civil Society Monitoring Report 2013“ can be found here.