You are here: Home > Activities > Gender equality

Activities

Gender equality

The OSCE aims to provide equal opportunities for women and men, as well as to integrate gender equality into policies and practices, both within participating States and the Organization itself.

With local partners, the OSCE initiates and runs projects across the OSCE region to empower women, and build local capacities and expertise on gender issues. It co-operates with authorities in reviewing legislation and assists in building national mechanisms to ensure equality between women and men.

The Organization also promotes gender balance among OSCE staff at all levels, and aims to ensure a professional working environment where women and men are treated equally.

OSCE Institutions active in promoting gender equality:

Features

Armenian aims to enhance women's economic opportunities

Sona Karapetyan (left) with a participant at an OSCE-supported summer camp for disabled and socially disadvantaged children in Kapan, Syunik province, 18 August 2007. ()

Sona Karapetyan, from the remote Armenian province of Syunik, believes that young people's most important task is to empower their community by participating in civic life.
More

ODIHR helps train police and change attitudes to combat domestic violence

Azeri police officers discuss domestic violence at a training course at the police academy in Baku, March 2007. (OSCE)

The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is tackling domestic violence by supporting legislative reform, police training and improved co-operation between NGOs and state agencies.
More

Election of "virtual" women's government highlights inequality in Serbia

Jelica Minic from the European Movement in Serbia speaks at the end of the media campaign "Vote for Virtual Women's Government", Belgrade, 1 September 2006. Head of Mission Ambassador Hans Ola Urstad stands in the background. (OSCE/Milan Obradovic)

To draw attention to the gender imbalance in high-level politics in Serbia, despite the active interest of a number of highly qualified women, the OSCE supported a media campaign to elect a women's "government of experts".
More

A workshop was organized by the OSCE Centre in Almaty to train repatriated women on leadership and business skills and to raise their awareness on human rights, Turgen, Kazakhstan. (OSCE/Gulnara Yessirgepova)

A workshop was organized by the OSCE Centre in Almaty to train repatriated women on leadership and business skills and to raise their awareness on human rights, Turgen, Kazakhstan. (OSCE/Gulnara Yessirgepova)