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Resolution 2120 (2016)
Women in the armed forces: promoting equality, putting an end to gender-based violence
1. The missions
assigned to today’s armed forces are increasingly wide-ranging and
extend beyond national defence to include participation in peacekeeping
operations abroad and in internal operations in the context of combating
terrorism. At the same time, the professionalisation of armies and
increased competition with other employers mean that it is increasingly
in the armed forces’ interest to capitalise on a diversity of professional
experience and interpersonal skills.
2. Recruiting and retaining a larger number of women among their
personnel have therefore become important issues for the armed forces.
However, although Europe’s armies have gradually become more receptive
to the recruitment of women in recent decades, women are still very
much in the minority in military roles, especially among the higher
ranks.
3. Women who join the armed forces are faced with an environment
designed by and for men. They face many forms of discrimination
and are confronted with rigid career plans and mentalities that
are still rooted in a purely male approach to the armed forces.
4. The Parliamentary Assembly deplores the fact that sexual harassment
and assaults against women are still frequent within the armed forces.
Whereas conforming to the existing internal culture is often regarded
as a factor of cohesion, the armed forces should instead recognise
that diversity strengthens operational capacities. It is vital to
change mentalities, step up efforts to prevent such violence and
establish mechanisms for dealing effectively with complaints.
5. With reference to its Recommendation
1742 (2006) and to Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)4
on the human rights of members of the armed forces, the Assembly
underlines that members of the armed forces cannot be expected to
respect human rights in their operations unless respect for these rights
is guaranteed within the armed forces themselves. The Assembly also
points out that the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and
Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210)
covers all types of violence and applies both in peacetime and during
situations of armed conflict.
6. In the light of the above, the Assembly calls on the Council
of Europe member States:
6.1. with
regard to recruitment and career management for members of the armed
forces, to:
6.1.1. adapt recruitment
campaigns so as to eliminate stereotypes and attract more women into
the armed forces, including in operational roles;
6.1.2. place an emphasis in recruitment and career management
policies on identifying the skills needed to fulfil the missions
that are assigned to today’s armed forces;
6.1.3. open all positions in all corps of the armed forces to
women;
6.1.4. put in place proactive policies for recruiting women and
including them in roles from which they have previously been excluded;
look at the physical criteria applied in recruitment to these professions
and the advisability of running pilot projects to promote the recruitment
of women in these professions;
6.1.5. work actively to promote the assignment of women to overseas
deployments, including in operational roles; include gender advisors
in each overseas deployment by an armed force, at all stages of
preparation and deployment;
6.1.6. develop more flexible career opportunities in order to
increase the number of pathways providing access to the most senior
ranks;
6.1.7. introduce comprehensive and consistent measures to help
balance work and private and family life for all members of the
armed forces;
6.1.8. systematically incorporate the gender dimension in all
deliberations on the introduction, continuation or abolition of
military service;
6.1.9. carry out research into the reasons for the difficulties
encountered in recruiting greater numbers of women for military
duties, the reasons why the military careers of women are often shorter
than those of their male counterparts and the reasons why women
and men leave the armed forces before retirement age or the end
of their contracts;
6.2. with regard to the creation of a climate more conducive
to gender equality within the armed forces, to:
6.2.1. make an active commitment at
all levels of the chain of command to change mentalities and the
internal culture in the armed forces so that all differences are
positively accepted and turned to account;
6.2.2. include teaching on the gender dimension in all stages
of military training and make sure that both women and men teach
in military academies;
6.2.3. include gender advisors in all bodies so that gender is
taken into account systematically and as an integral part of everyday
work;
6.2.4. establish and support the functioning of networks of military
women;
6.2.5. ensure that equipment and uniforms are suitable for women’s
bodies and that living quarters are adapted for accommodating both
men and women;
6.3. with regard to combating gender-based violence in the
armed forces, to:
6.3.1. ensure that
the legislation applicable to members of the armed forces, including
the criminal law where appropriate, explicitly prohibits all forms
of gender-based violence and is both comprehensive and effectively
implemented; also ensure that internal codes of conduct include strict
provisions in this connection, which are widely known and applied
at all levels;
6.3.2. adopt and ensure the systematic application of a zero-tolerance
policy vis-à-vis gender-based violence and send the message to all
military personnel that such behaviour will not be accepted in the
armed forces;
6.3.3. make all levels in the chain of command aware of the need
for such a policy;
6.3.4. establish mechanisms, for instance free hotlines, to enable
victims to make informal complaints confidentially and anonymously
and obtain impartial advice about their situation;
6.3.5. facilitate access by victims to formal complaint mechanisms
and set up whistle-blowing mechanisms independent of the chain of
command to which victims belong;
6.3.6. provide support to victims when they report abuse;
6.3.7. define effective penalties and apply them to the perpetrators
of violence, as simply transferring the victim of a sexual assault
is not an appropriate response;
6.3.8. sign and/or ratify, if they have not yet done so, the
Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence
against Women and Domestic Violence.
7. Considering the significant role that parliaments can play
in the democratic scrutiny of the armed forces, the Assembly calls
on the national parliaments of member States to:
7.1. actively seek gender balance
in the parliamentary bodies dealing with the armed forces;
7.2. actively follow, through parliamentary debates, questions
and reports, the implementation by their country of Resolution 1325
(2000) and other United Nations resolutions on the theme of “women,
peace and security”, in particular concerning the situation of women
in the armed forces, and take legislative initiatives to achieve
the relevant objectives;
7.3. conduct parliamentary inquiries into the situation of
women in their country’s armed forces, in particular concerning
the treatment by the armed forces of complaints of harassment and
other forms of gender-based violence;
7.4. encourage independent bodies, such as parliamentary commissioners,
ombudspersons and equality committees, which have the requisite
powers in relation to the armed forces, to conduct inquiries into
these matters.