OSCE Mission and Kosovo Police encourage women and communities to join police ranks

From 5 to 12 May 2014, the OSCE Mission and the Kosovo Police will organize a series of four workshops to encourage women and communities  in Kosovo to join the police ranks.

“Representation of different ethnic communities in the Kosovo Police, with the exception of Kosovo Roma, Kosovo Ashkali and Kosovo Egyptians, is currently at a satisfactory level, while the representation of women is relatively low. Only 15 percent of some 8,600 police staff and officers are women,” said Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Paivi Nikander.

“In order to keep the multi-ethnic character of the Kosovo Police and increase the number of women working in the law enforcement agencies we need to ensure that more members from all communities and women apply to join the police ranks”.  

Out of 216 cadets who responded to the last two calls for applications to join the police and had started training at the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety, only eight were Kosovo Serbs, three Kosovo Bosniaks, and two Kosovo Gorani, while only 17 were women – 15 Kosovo Albanians and two Kosovo Serbs.

“The numbers of serving women and indicators of community diversity are crucial for the acceptance of the police by different social groups living in Kosovo,” said Nikander.

The workshops will be held on 5 May in Mitrovica/Mitrovicë North, 7 May in Mamuşa/Mamushë/ Mamuša, 8 May in Štrpce/Shtërpcë, and 12 May in Gračanica/Graçanicë.

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo is mandated with human and community rights protection and promotion, democratization and public safety sector development.