Secretariat - Gender Section

The Gender Section is involved in the development and review of organizational regulations, rules and instructions in order to ensure that a gender perspective is taken into account.

Training activities

The OSCE Training Section, in co-operation with the Gender Section, provides training support on gender awareness and mainstreaming to staff members in the Secretariat and in the field. A module on gender mainstreaming is included in the general orientation programme for new staff members.

Gender equality in recruitment

The OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality stresses the need for a transparent process to ensure the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity. It also encourages the participating States to submit more female candidates for OSCE positions, particularly at the higher-level, where women are underrepresented.

Based on statistics prepared by the Department of Human Resources, the Gender Section analyses the representation of women and men in each category of post at each level in the OSCE, the result of which is annexed to the Secretary General's Annual Evaluation Report on the Implementation of the Action Plan.

On 1 December 2006, the total number of people working in the OSCE was 3,257, 43 per cent of them women. Over the last three years, the proportion of women at the support level has remained roughly the same at 46 per cent. Meanwhile, there has been an increase at the professional level, where women held 35 per cent of the positions in 2004, 40 per cent in 2005, and 42 per cent in December 2006.

Women continue to be underrepresented at the level of management, where they occupied only 15 per cent of positions in 2004, and 17 per cent in 2005 and 2006.

Professional working environment

The Action Plan calls on the Secretary General and heads of institutions and field operations to exercise active leadership in building gender awareness in the OSCE and to intensify their efforts to achieve a professional working environment.

The Gender Section assists in the implementation of the OSCE policy on harassment, sexual harassment and discrimination.