Celebrating the OSCE's Work in Combating Gender-Based Violence

Education empowers people and makes a real difference to their lives. This has been the focus of a number of projects across the OSCE region.

For a second consecutive year the OSCE Mission to Skopje supported the “Young Men Leadership Project” organized by YMCA Bitola and the US Peace Corps. In total 60 boys from the whole country age 14-18 participated in four sessions divided in four multi-ethnic groups. Among other issues the boys discussed social inclusion, multi-ethnic cohabitation, sensitivity to gender issues and gender based violence.

The OSCE Mission to Moldova also conducts training seminars for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, the police and social workers at the national and local levels to build capacity to combat domestic violence. Seminars, study visits and participation in international conferences expose Moldova’s institutions and officials to good practices on handling domestic violence cases in civil and criminal proceedings and effective investigative techniques.

For several years the OSCE Mission to Moldova has partnered with the Coliseum Art Centre in organizing country-wide tours of the “Casa M” theatre play. The documentary-style performance tells the true stories of women who were victims of domestic violence. The play aims to prevent domestic violence by raising public awareness and informing people about services and assistance available to victims and perpetrators.

In November 2013 the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and the UN Women Kyrgyzstan Country Office partnered to host a lecture and town hall discussion in Talas at the local State University on the topics of gender-based violence and women, peace and security. The lecture was followed by lively discussion between students. Issues included the worrying trend of early marriages and its negative consequences on the life of young women, the stigma of reporting domestic violence and the lack of psychological services to youth suffering from violence.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine supports the training of law enforcement officials in preventing and responding to domestic violence. This includes scenario-based training and role-play simulations of interviewing perpetrators and victims when documenting domestic violence cases. Part of the interactive training course for the precinct police inspectors was developed with OSCE support at the Dnipropetrovsk University of Interior.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in November 2013 by gathering state officials, journalists, and civil society activists at an event in Kyiv. The event, which was held jointly with the Ukrainian Ministries of Social Policy and Interior, and the parliament’s Commissioner on Human Rights, raised awareness of gender based violence issues in Ukraine, as well as presented and promoted the legal and institutional tools necessary for dealing with the problem.

The OSCE Border Management Staff College strives to promote the full participation of women in what has traditionally been a male dominated work area – border management. To date 142 current and prospective female leaders have taken part in BMSC courses that aim to enhance skills of senior border security officials. Heleena Kakaris is one such woman. She has been working in the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and recently was appointed the Director of the Research and Studies Directorate in the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics.