OSCE staff recognized for achievements in promoting gender equality

OSCE Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid presented annual Gender Equality Champion awards at the Permanent Council on 11 March. Empowering women leaders in Uzbekistan, combating COVID 19-related domestic violence in Ukraine, dispelling discriminatory rumours in North Macedonia and working for gender parity in OSCE executive structures were among the achievements recognized.

“Congratulations to our gender champions and also to all the nominees. You are an inspiration to your colleagues, your departments and field operations and to the entire organization. Your hard work and efforts bring us closer to implementing the 2004 OSCE Gender Action Plan,” Secretary General Schmid said.

• Lola Maksudova, National Project Officer and Gender Focal Point in the office of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, was selected for the transformative effect of her many initiatives for gender equality. She especially initiated projects on women's political participation, combating violence against women, ensuring the development of the national referral mechanism for survivors of gender-based violence and on supporting the country's efforts on developing the national action plan on Women, Peace and Security.  

• Cornelius Nolen, Monitoring Officer in the Odessa Monitoring Team of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) was recognized for his unwavering dedication to combating violence against women and preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. He designed and implemented an online lecture series on combating gender-based and domestic violence in the COVID-19 era for legal and psychological service providers. A second lecture series titled “UNSCR 1325 and SMM Women on the Line of Contact”, was presented to future leaders, young males and females, at six universities in the Odessa region, including law students and 150 police cadets.

• An anti-rumour campaign in North Macedonia received the award for raising awareness of the detrimental effects of discrimination on grounds of sex and gender by addressing deeply rooted gender biases. The campaign was implemented by Zhaneta Poposka, National Rule of Law Officer and Silvana Boshkovska-Georgievska, Senior Program Assistant at the OSCE Mission to Skopje. Facebook posts that reached 3.6 million people and 20 in-person events debunked stereotypes about Roma women, women with disabilities, Muslim women wearing religious insignia, young women, rural women and refugee and migrant women.

• Micheal Conneely, Deputy Director for Human Resources in the OSCE Secretariat, was named Gender Equality Champion in the leadership category. His inspirational and innovative work to support the OSCE’s Gender Parity Strategy includes the Bias Bites Campaign, Gender Coaching Programme, the webinar outreach programme and the Recruitment Boot Camp for Women.

The annual OSCE Gender Equality Champion awards were created three years ago to acknowledge exceptional work done by leaders, individuals, teams, and projects that promote gender equality. A total of 48 nominations were received in the four categories of the award: leadership, staff members, gender focal points and projects.