3. POLICE-RELATED ACTIVITIES OF OTHER THEMATIC UNITS 3.1 Gender Section Background 2014 was an important year for the OSCE in terms of gender equality as it marked the tenth anniversary of the 2004 Gender Action Plan. This provided a unique opportunity for the OSCE to reflect on what had been achieved over the past decade in terms of gender equality and, very importantly, to look at what remains to be done to fulfil agreed upon commitments. This included commitments relating to policing. During its December 2014 meeting in Basil, the OSCE Ministerial Council adopted Decision No. 7/14 on Preventing and Combatting Violence against Women, which, inter alia, encourages participating States to undertake numerous policing-related commitments to combat gender-based violence and reaffirms support for earlier gender equality commitments, including UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Activities The Gender Section, together with the Swiss CiO, organized the first ever Gender Review Conference in July 2014 to draw on lessons learned and best practices regarding gender equality commitments, as well as to identify what steps are still necessary to fulfil these obligations. An increased focus was on assisting participating States to further the implementation of UNSCR 1325; to identify women working in the politico-military dimension that could potentially be deployed to OSCE executive structures, in particular at decisionmaking and senior management positions; to make gender analysis standard in issues related to national security; and to recognize women’s roles in peace-keeping, mediation and reconstruction efforts. Furthermore, the ten-year anniversary of the Gender Action Plan highlighted the need for the OSCE to enhance the implementation of gender equality commitments. All departments and units in the Secretariat initiated a process during 2014 to create an implementation strategy for these commitments. The Secretariat implementation strategy will be finalized during spring 2015. The Secretary General's Annual Evaluation Report on the Implementation of the 2004 OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality, published in July 2014, shows that there was a decline in recruiting women to work in field operations as experts in police affairs. In May 2013, there were four women with civilian policing expertise working in field operations, approximately ten per cent of the total. At the end of 2013, there were none, which rose to one out of 30 total such positions at the end of 2014. Furthermore, the report shows that the politico-military dimension continues to have the lowest number of projects which include all aspects of gender mainstreaming and the highest number of projects that look only at the participation of women. There is thus still a strong need for enhancing capacities of staff in recognizing entry points for gender mainstreaming. The Gender Section will therefore continue to offer its tailor-made capacity building on gender mainstreaming to all OSCE structures during 2015. In order to raise awareness among OSCE participating States and OSCE staff, the Section organized several side events during formal OSCE meetings. On the margins of these meetings, the Gender Section arranged events focused on topics such as the impact of guns on gender-based violence as well as how to apply the Women, Peace and Security agenda in Afghanistan. 46