Tool 7: Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender Box 3: International and regional instruments pertaining to gender equality and security A range of national, regional and global legal obligations are relevant to a gender perspective and/or oblige states to integrate a gender perspective in the work of the security sector. A compendium of international and regional legal instruments is published online as part of this Toolkit. Key instruments include the following.  CEDAW and the CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendations.  The Yogyakarta Principles and Yogyakarta Plus 10 Principles pertaining to rights of persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions.  Regional human rights treaties, such as the African Union’s Maputo Protocol and the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.  The UN SDGs: SDGs 5 (achieving gender equality) and 16 (promoting peaceful and inclusive societies) are of particular importance for the security and justice sector, but SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 13 are relevant as well.  Regional institutional frameworks, such as the OSCE 2004 Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality and the 2009 Ministerial Council Decision No. 7/09 on women’s participation in political and public life. This Tool uses the similar but more inclusive concept of “integrating a gender perspective”. A gender perspective is a way of seeing or analysing which looks at the impact of gender on people’s opportunities, social roles and interactions. This way of seeing is what enables one to carry out gender analysis and subsequently to mainstream a gender perspective into any proposed programme, policy or organization.3 Integrating a gender perspective should occur alongside measures actively designed to promote gender equality. 3.2 To ensure that laws and regulations concerning security are inclusive and address diverse needs The central power of parliaments lies in law making, which is interdependent with oversight processes. Parliaments establish the legal frameworks that can support and advance gender equality and lay the ground for relevant policies and budgeting, including with regard to personnel, services and standards of the security sector. Women are increasingly being recruited into and advancing within security sector institutions.* These efforts are based on the following rationales: a commitment to equal employment opportunities for men and women; that gender-balanced security sector institutions increase the perceived legitimacy of, and trust in, the security sector; and that women do embody different useful skills and strengths.4 Parliaments can play key roles in directing and supporting security sector institutions in becoming more inclusive of women and more representative of society at large by, for example, reforming legal provisions that block women from certain roles (such as close-combat roles within the military), drafting legislation and amendments aimed to promote gender equality within institutions and scrutinizing the impact of laws and regulations on women and men. A person’s gender – as well as age, disability, ethnicity, sexual identity and class – is intimately associated with how he or she experiences, is affected by and participates in violence. Moreover, a person’s gender – along with other characteristics – is intimately associated with how he or she experiences and is involved with the provision of security. * See discussion and data in Tools 2, 3 and 14. 13