First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said today that participation of women in the police has increased and that this tendency should continue.

Speaking at the conference “Gender Issue and Reform of Security Sector in Serbia” held at the Serbian parliament building, Dacic affirmed that data shows that women are underrepresented in the police and that their more extensive employment did not start before 2002.

The Minister presented statistical data which shows that in March 2001 16.98% of police employees were female, in August 2005 19.68% and in November 2009 this figure was 20.64%.

He specified that in 2005 women held 15.81% of the total positions of authorised officials in the Ministry of the Interior and this number increased to 19.95% late last year. He added that in 2005 6.60% of uniformed personnel were female, with today’s figure being 7.49%.

Dacic recalled that a woman has been the head of the Uzice police administration for some time now, and that one female police member was the commander of the Serbian contingent in a peacekeeping mission on Haiti.

The issue of female participation in the police is not only a matter of human rights, but also a need for introducing a new quality which women bring to the police service, Dacic outlined and explained that resolving conflicts with non-violent means and communication are some of the qualities attributed to women.

The Head of the Directorate for Strategic Planning of the Ministry of Defence, Major-General Bozidar Forca stressed that this Ministry has paid great attention to gender equality during the implementation of reforms.

The women in the army are assigned to many tasks, he underlined and added that the data shows that every fifth member of the Ministry of Defence is a woman, while 2.6% of women carry uniforms.

The conference was organised by the Belgrade Centre for Safety Policy, the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence and the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces.