05Dec2014
5th Annual Meeting of the Women Police Officers Network in South East Europe (WPON)
The Fifth Annual Meeting of the Women Police Officers Network in South East Europe (WPON) was held on 3 and 4 December 2014 in Tirana, gathering representatives of eight (8) Police Services from Southeast Europe (SEE).
The aim of the meeting was to enable information exchange and experience-sharing on the advancement of gender equality in policing and to offer updates on activities and results achieved in advancing gender equality over the course of last year. In addition to this, the meeting enabled networking and knowledge-sharing among high-level women police officials in the region.
WPON members also reviewed the draft analysis of the data collected in 2014 on the representation of women in police services in SEE. The data on the representation of women in police training, education and different positions within police institutions was collected by WPON members and initial results were discussed at the meeting. The analysis will be finalized at the beginning of 2015.
Participants planned forthcoming activities aimed at further strengthening gender perspective in police services in SEE, and elected the new WPON Executive Committee. Members of the WPON Executive Committee for 2015 are: Ms. Tatiana Turcan, from the Ministry of Interior of Moldova - as Chair, Ms. Željka Mileusnić from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, BiH - as Deputy Chair, and Ms. Verica Golijanin from the Federal Police Administration in BiH - as Chair Elect.
In addition to this, a one-day workshop was organized for WPON members to strengthen their leadership skills.
Mr. Artan Didi, General Director of the Albanian State Police, Ms. Enkeleda Toska, WPON Executive Committee Chair from the Albanian State Police, and Mr. Vladimir Malkaj, Programme Specialist from the UNDP Albania gave opening remarks, while Dr. Ivan Zverzhanovski, SEESAC Coordinator, chaired the opening session.
ABOUT WPON
WPON was established under the umbrella of the South East Europe Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA) by representatives of nine (9) police services in SEE: Albania, BiH-Federation, BiH-Republika Srpska, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Regional study on the position of women in police services, Establishing the Southeast Europe Women Police Officers Network – Research Findings, facilitated the network’s establishment. The study compiled the data on women in police services in nine SEE countries, which clearly indicated the necessity of improving recruitment, retention, promotion and working conditions of the women in the police, as well as a need for a network such as WPON. With this in mind, WPON was established at the first Annual Meeting of the Network in 2010.
WPON later followed up with a corresponding, jointly formulated the Guidelines for Gender Sensitive Policing, or a set of recommendations defining a set of simple and low cost measures, which would help police services in SEE attract and retain more qualified women and advance gender equality. Collecting the research findings and formulating the subsequent joint recommendations was a unique experience for national police services.
Through WPON, its members enjoy the benefits of networking and exchanging information with colleagues from across the region, and of participating in trainings for women police officers to advocate for gender equality in police services.
Since the establishment of WPON and with the support of SEESAC, two women police officers associations have been established at the local level – that way further entrenching the efforts to improve the position of women police officers in individual countries.