Abstract
This article examines gender training of police deployed to UN peace operations. It describes the role of the police component in contemporary peace operations, developments in UN approaches to gender equality and adult learning methods. Comparing gender dimensions in four selected training courses for police peacekeepers, it finds that while important policies, guidelines and training approaches to gender have emerged, the effectiveness of gender training appears to be undermined by failure to make training more fully learner-centred and innovative, the divergence between declared UN values and practice, particularly with regard to gender equality and the prohibition against sexual exploitation and abuse, and weak monitoring and evaluation of training.
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Notes
- 1.
First established as a global strategy at the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995, gender mainstreaming was further defined and outlined in the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Agreed Conclusions 1997/2, Chapter IV (I), “Concepts and Principles”.
- 2.
Most of the research for this topic was conducted in the context of the “Learning from Experience: International Police Reform” project, 2014–2017, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I would like to thank all course directors and trainers for their willingness to allow me to observe the training courses and to interview trainers and course participants.
- 3.
See Caparini (2016).
- 4.
See the new DPKO/DFS Guidelines “The role of United Nations Police in protection of civilians” from 1 August 2017 (UN DPKO/DFS 2017b).
- 5.
See Whitman (2010).
- 6.
UNPOL (2018d). https://police.un.org/en/sgf. Accessed 16 December 2018.
- 7.
- 8.
As of January 2018, the UN had 1164 women police (544 FPUs, 601 IPOs) deployed out of more than 11,000 police personnel in 16 missions. See UNPOL (2018e: 23).
- 9.
In 2017, the CPTM core curriculum was updated. However, all of the training courses that the author discusses below were based on the 2009 CPTM.
- 10.
Personal interview, 3 November 2015.
- 11.
Personal interview, 25 September 2015.
- 12.
For example, in November 2018 UNAMID’s police component numbered 2500 personnel deployed from 35 police-contributing countries. https://unamid.unmissions.org/unamid-facts-and-figures. Accessed 15 December 2018.
- 13.
Personal interviews, August 2015.
- 14.
Personal interviews, September 2015.
- 15.
Personal interview, September 2015.
- 16.
Personal interviews, September 2015.
- 17.
For example, in June 2015, only 22% (37 of 166) of positions in the UN Secretariat at Under Secretary General or Assistant Secretary General level were held by women. The USG/ASGs, as heads of major UN departments or offices, comprise 50% of the UN senior leadership positions. See Yancopoulos (2016).
- 18.
Personal interview, 5 August 2015.
- 19.
United Nations (2018c). See: https://www.un.org/gender/content/strategy. Accessed 16 December 2018.
- 20.
See frequently updated data tables in “Conduct in UN Field Missions: Sexual Exploitation and Abuse”, https://conduct.unmissions.org/sea-data-introduction. Accessed 16 December 2018.
- 21.
See UN DPKO/DFS (2017a).
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Caparini, M. (2020). Gender Training for Police Peacekeepers: Where Are We Now?. In: Scheuermann, M., Zürn, A. (eds) Gender Roles in Peace and Security. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21890-4_7
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