30 Gender and Security Toolkit belonged to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, a former guerrilla movement, and the vice president was from the right-wing ARENA party that had engaged in deathsquad activities against the guerrillas throughout the 1980s. It became a symbol for women and men in parliament in terms of how dialogue was possible across hostile party lines.11 The association’s main goal is to offer training for women parliamentarians on leadership skills.12 5.3 Inclusive processes, reaching out to civil society The committee structure is an important mechanism through which parliaments can seek civil society and other expert input on security affairs. Beyond engagement with a women’s caucus or gender equality committee, parliamentary defence and security committees and gender equality committees should reach out to women’s organizations, gender experts and civil society organizations that deal with the security sector or focus on human rights. Committees should ensure that diverse groups are meaningfully consulted (see Box 8). Parliaments can employ different means to interact with civil society, such as holding national dialogues, organizing public consultations, including public parliamentary hearings on proposed laws, and soliciting presentations by experts. For example, one of the ways in which Austria has tried to address GBV is by involving civil society in the deliberations of the Committee on Gender Equality. In 2018 the committee undertook a special initiative against GBV in co-ordination with the non-governmental sector, integrating perspectives from civil society.13 Box 8: Conducting diverse and inclusive consultations Representatives of diverse groups of men and women, including LGBTI persons, should be given opportunities to participate in legal reform processes and security sector oversight. This is crucial to ensure that communities’ diverse needs are heard and addressed. In this regard, it is important to remember that neither women nor men nor LGBTI persons are homogeneous groups, and thus it is necessary to engage a diversity of groups to bring diverse experiences, needs and views to inform reform. Participation of representatives of diverse groups in legal reform processes and security sector oversight should be:  comprehensive – in sufficient number  meaningful – in decision-making roles and with influence  throughout the whole process – from inception of reform through implementation of reforms to evaluation. Tokenism (consulting just a small number of “diverse people” merely as a formal display of inclusion) or engagement only after key decisions have been made must be actively avoided! Parliaments’ oversight function can include receiving, on a regular basis, information from civil society organizations and associations of female staff in the security sector with regard to the status of women in the sector and issues that are of current concern to them. When necessary, victims’ rights groups and other relevant organizations should also be consulted. Such consultations with civil society make parliaments more representative and effective in their oversight function. Based on the information obtained, parliaments can question the executive and, if needed, pass legislation to address abuses.