Tool 7: Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender 5.4 Co-operation between parliaments and national human rights institutions and ombuds institutions in ensuring effective security sector oversight As highlighted in section 2, NHRIs and ombuds institutions play an important role in monitoring security sector institutions. They receive and investigate complaints from the public and/or security sector personnel, and issue reports and recommendations. Genderrelated violence is prevalent in the security sector institutions of many countries, and might involve violence against detainees or crime victims, or abuse of personnel’s own family members or other members of the community. Investigation and reporting by NHRIs and ombuds institutions can help to identify, address and deter problematic behaviour by or within the security sector, as well as highlight institutional shortcomings. In this sense, an NHRI or ombuds office can be seen as a key ally for a parliament’s oversight function. In overseeing the security sector, it investigates complaints, raises awareness of human rights violations and ensures compliance with national policies and the rule of law. Collaboration between a country’s NHRIs and ombuds institutions and its parliament can be an effective mechanism to advance gender equality and address GBV. In most countries, NHRIs and ombuds institutions report annually to the parliament. Their reports provide an overview of key human rights issues, with a particular focus on the actions and practices of state institutions that violate human rights. They give parliamentary committees an insight “into the overall situation in the services and the morale of their personnel”.14 They might urge parliament to prevent and correct human rights abuses by initiating corresponding legislation; for example, advocating that parliament pass gender-sensitive legislation that takes into account the different needs and experiences of women and men. Parliaments can rely on information provided by NHRIs and ombuds institutions to initiate hearings on reported abuses, and may be able to ask them to report on specific issues, such as the specific needs of women and girls.* The Department for Gender Equality of the Public Defender of Georgia is a good example of how an ombuds institution works to protect and promote the human rights of all citizens, especially those at risk of vulnerability such as women and the LGBTI community. In her 2016 report on Georgia, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences repeated her call for all states to establish a “femicide watch” or “genderrelated killing of women watch”. She explained that the purpose in doing so was to “collect and publish [annual] data on the number of femicides [committed] and [to] establish or entrust an existing body to analyse each case of femicide, in order to identify any failure of protection, with a view [to] improving measures to prevent femicides”.15 In April 2017 the Public Defender of Georgia assumed responsibility for monitoring of gender-based killings of women. In 2018 the Public Defender presented to parliament its preliminary monitoring findings: an analysis of six femicides and four attempted femicides committed in 2016. The Public Defender’s analysis identified gaps in data collection, essential for addressing shortfalls in the protection of survivors. It also called for the introduction of the term “femicide” into the Criminal Code, to facilitate legal qualification of the crime, strengthen the proportionality of sanctions and improve the system for victim protection.16 In 2019 the Conflict Prevention Centre of the OSCE Secretariat and Office for Democratic Institutions initiated a process leading to the establishment of an inter-agency platform where oversight bodies meet to discuss security sector governance and reform in the Republic of Armenia. The platform aims to bring together oversight bodies (National Assembly, Human Rights Defender’s Office and civil society organizations) with security and justice sector institutions (National Security Council, Ministry of Defence, police, * For more information on NHRIs and gender equality see OSCE/ODIHR’s (2012) Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality and DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, OSCE’s (2014) guidance note, Integrating a Gender Perspective into Oversight of the Security Sector by Ombuds Institutions & National Human Rights Institutions. 31