14 Gender and Security Toolkit Women, men, boys and girls have different security needs, which should be reflected in criminal law and legislation concerning security and justice. While women and girls are the overarching majority of victims of GBV, men and boys may also be victims, not only during conflict but also in peacetime.* It is essential that laws defining rape and other sexual offences are gender-sensitive. Parliaments have the power to hold security institutions and personnel accountable for effectively preventing and responding to GBV affecting women, girls, men and boys. LGBTI persons and others of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions (see Box 4) often face particular forms of discrimination, exploitation, abuse and violence. This is recognized by the many states and international organizations that address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in their laws and declarations.5 Discrimination, exploitation, abuse and violence against LGBTI people include (but are not limited to) taunting and bullying for not adhering to gender norms, humiliation, extortion and blackmail, sexual harassment and exploitation, as well as various forms of physical and sexual violence, at times leading to death. In countries where homosexuality is criminalized, LGBTI persons who are victims of a crime can be reluctant to seek justice.6 It must be a fundamental goal of parliaments to defend the rights of all constituents, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. Box 4: Diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions Tool 1 explains in more detail what is meant by diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions. This inclusive phrase recognizes persons who identify as LGBTI, but also persons whose sexual orientations are not (or not only) primarily heterosexual and whose gender identities do not necessarily subscribe to a man/woman gender binary. This includes non-Western non-binary gender identities. While this Tool frequently uses the terms “man” and “woman”, it is important to remember that some people do not identify as either or exclusively man or woman. The discrimination and violence people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions face are intimately related to gender roles. 3.3 To achieve gender-equitable budgeting for the security sector Parliaments are able to shape gender-responsive budgets related to security that take the diverse gendered needs of all constituents into consideration. To do so, parliaments need to be aware of their budgetary oversight prerogatives (see Box 5) and be willing to exercise them. In many countries, because of widespread acceptance that the areas of security and defence lie primarily within the executive, parliaments have ceded their powers of initiative to the executive in these matters. In comparison to other sectors, such as agriculture and education, scrutinizing security and defence budgets poses an additional challenge due to the sensitive nature of certain budgets (e.g. intelligence) and governments’ tendency to overclassify information.7 Security budgets submitted to parliaments may not be sufficiently detailed or itemized, which makes it harder for MPs to identify areas with potential risks of corruption or to conduct a gender analysis. Nevertheless, the parliament “controls the purse strings” and has a duty to ensure that the security needs of women, men, boys and girls are equally taken into account. Recognizing the challenge of overseeing security sector budgets, parliaments around the world are seeking ways for enhanced parliamentary scrutiny of security budgets. In Germany the parliamentary Budget Committee established a subcommittee, called the Group of Trust, * For the purpose of this Toolkit, the phrase “genderbased violence” (GBV) is used to refer to all harmful acts inflicted upon someone because of normative assumptions about their gender. GBV is an umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and is based on socially ascribed (gender) differences between females and males. The nature and extent of specific types of GBV vary across cultures, countries and regions. Examples include sexual violence, sexual exploitation/ abuse and trafficking for sexual exploitation; domestic violence; forced/early marriage; harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation; honour killings; widow inheritance; and homophobic and transphobic violence. See UN Women (2019) “Gender equality glossary”, https://trainingcentre. unwomen.org/mod/glossary/ view.php?id=36 (accessed 6 September 2019); OHCHR (2011) “Discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity”, report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Doc. A/ HRC/19/41, 17 November, para. 20.