3. POLICE-RELATED ACTIVITIES OF OTHER THEMATIC UNITS 3.1 Gender Section Background In 2013, the Gender Section continued its efforts to gender mainstream policing, to ensure that security is accessible to all segments of society and to raise awareness that men and women are affected by violence and discrimination differently. Addressing gender issues in policing is requested by a number of international and regional commitments related to security and gender, such as the 2004 OSCE Gender Action Plan or United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Including gender into police matters also helps improving efficiency and effectiveness of police-related activities and police organizations. During 2013, the Section continued to support OSCE staff working in the first dimension to take gender aspects into account by offering capacity building to field operations, as well as technical assistance and tools. Activities The latest edition of the Secretary General's Annual Evaluation Report on the Implementation of the 2004 OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality, published in November 2013, shows that there is limited progress in recruiting women within the first dimension. The report also outlines that the politico-military dimension has the highest percentage among the three dimensions for participatory projects and the lowest for targeted action which means that a majority of the gender mainstreamed projects mainly focus on the participation of women but do not look at how the project as a whole affects both men and women. In order to assist the field operations, Secretariat departments and Institutions to include gender aspects in their programming and activities, the Gender Section continued to offer on-site customized capacity building sessions on gender mainstreaming and/or on gender and security sector reform. In 2013, a number of field operations benefited from this training (Centre in Bishkek/Community Security Initiative in Kyrgyzstan, Centre in Ashgabat, Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, OSCE Presence in Albania). In 2013, the Gender Section provided support to the TNTD/SPMU on the design and implementation of a project on ‘Enhancing the Knowledge of and Response to Domestic Violence in Belarus’. Belarusian police officers were trained in better understanding domestic violence and how to proceed with processing cases of domestic violence (see also chapter 2.2). In 2013, the GenderBase, a roster created to promote female experts in the first dimension, has been successfully merged with the TNTD/POLIS database in order to improve outreach and accessibility. Moreover, a guidance note on Integrating Gender into Internal Police Oversight, was jointly developed by DCAF, the OSCE Gender Section and ODIHR, designed as a practical resource for police services and a complement to the DCAF, UN-INSTRAW, ODIHR Toolkit on Police Reform and Gender. On 11-12 November, the Gender Section, together with UN Women and the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, organized a high-level conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where the practical enforcement of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions was discussed, including how to translate these international commitments into concrete national 42