Training for members of the armed forces on gender and human rights assessments
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As part of the state structure, armed forces personnel are bound to respect human rights and international humanitarian law in the exercise of their duties. At the same time, armed forces also bear a responsibility to ensure that the rights of service personnel are guaranteed within their own organizations. The responsibilities of states in both respects are clearly reflected in the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security.
In line with its mandate to support OSCE participating States in implementing their OSCE Human Dimension commitments, ODIHR has developed a methodology to guide their armed forces on how to assess their institutional adherence to human rights obligations and commitments, including on gender equality.
This methodology draws extensively on the ODIHR and DCAF Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel: Compendium of Standards, Good Practices and Recommendations, as well as on the ODIHR, DCAF and UN Women Gender and Security Toolkit (Tool 3: Defence and Gender). It aims to support the practical implementation of the material in these publications, and of the human rights provisions of the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security within the armed forces of OSCE participating States.
The methodology developed by ODIHR is set out in a Facilitator’s Guide and course curriculum, both designed to enhanced armed forces’ knowledge and capabilities to identify human rights and gender equality gaps in their internal policies and practices.
In order to test the developed methodology, ODIHR is organizing a pilot training for members of the armed forces from selected OSCE participating States. The feedback from the trainers and participants will inform the finalization of the guide and curriculum. Participants who complete the training will will become human rights and gender assessment facilitators and will, therefore, be able to run assessments within their own institutions.
The training is by invitation only.