Role of gender-sensitive prevention and exit programmes focus on OSCE webinar on International Day for the Prevention of and Fight against All Forms of Transnational Organized Crime

To mark the International Day for the Prevention of and Fight against all Forms of Transnational Organized Crime on 15 November, the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) held a webinar to discuss the role of women in organized criminal groups. The webinar brought together over 50 participants including policymakers, criminal justice practitioners, academia and civil society.   

OSCE research shows that women’s agency in organized crime is rarely recognized by criminal justice practitioners across the OSCE area, resulting in women being able to act with impunity within criminal networks and being underrepresented in – or absent from – prevention, exit and witness protection initiatives.  

Drawing on experience and good practices from the OSCE region, discussions focused on how gender-sensitive approaches are essential to recognize and address the different roles played by women and men in transnational organized crime.

“A cultural shift and a strong commitment to gender mainstreaming is needed to promote more targeted, systematic and impactful criminal justice responses to organized crime”, said Ambassador Alena Kupchyna, Co-ordinator of OSCE Activities to Address Transnational Threats, in her opening remarks. “The OSCE is proud to support its participating States to strengthen institutional and civil society capacities to implement gender-sensitive organized crime prevention, exit and witness protection initiatives,” she added.

Speakers highlighted that when prevention and exit initiatives are not gender-sensitive, they often fail to shield women and girls from becoming involved in criminal activity and reduce their opportunities to leave criminal groups. They also underlined the importance of engaging women as actors in their own right in prevention and exit programmes, and not just as the partners or family members of male organized crime members.

Implementing gender-sensitive approaches to prevent and fight organized crime is a cross-cutting priority of the OSCE’s overall strategy to address organized crime, which prioritizes better understanding the phenomenon through research, addressing illicit financial flows and confiscating criminal assets and strengthening prevention to foster resilience.