OSCE event at UN Commission on the Status of Women’s session stresses need to change cultural norms in order to provide equal security for women and men

The implementation of existing gender equality commitments and changing deep-rooted cultural norms are crucial for creating stable, safe and peaceful societies for all, said participants at a side event organized on 16 March 2016 in New York by Germany’s 2016 OSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Gender Section, on the margins of the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Speakers agreed that policies and mechanisms to enhance gender equality and to protect women from gender-based violence must be firmly established and implemented during peacetime, in order to minimize the risk of sexual violence in times of conflict and strife.

"Almost 40 years after the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was signed, a large number of women experiencing violence are scared or hesitant to report the crime to the police,” said OSCE Adviser on Gender Issues, Ambassador Miroslava Beham. “Clearly, security institutions need to rethink how they provide their services. Every woman exposed to violence, no matter where or by whom, should feel confident that she will be heard and assisted, and that the perpetrator cannot act with impunity."

Elke Ferner, Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens and Women and Youth, said: "Security can only be reached when women can participate at any level and in any area of society."

While discussing large-scale migration and refugee movement panellists agreed that in the context of the current humanitarian crisis unfolding in Europe, refugee women should not just be regarded as vulnerable, but should be empowered to utilize their capacities to become agents of change.

The OSCE comprehensive approach to security was considered by participants as an effective tool to provide for the individual security of both women and men.

The side event "Bringing security home to empower women" was organized as a contribution to the debate at the CSW, which addressed the issue of the empowerment of women and the elimination of gender-based violence.