Fourteen policewomen from Egypt, India, Myanmar, Sudan, Jordan, Nigeria and Ethiopia are attending a two-week international course designed for police officers to serve in UN peacekeeping missions and are being trained by Croatian instructors. "This is the first time such training has been organised by Croatia and it's a Croatian contribution," Pusic said.
The project was launched at a round table led by US Vice-President Joe Biden, held as part of last year's UN General Assembly session. Pusic said that Croatia had then undertaken to organise a training course for policewomen.
"We undertook to train these policewomen because we believe that in post-conflict situations women are key because they have been victims of various horrors of war and they are also key to the reconstruction of society because helping them means also helping the children and elderly family members they most frequently care for," Pusic said.
The policewomen will undergo a detailed training programme at the Training Centre for International Military Operations at Rakitje, a western suburb of Zagreb, before joining peacekeeping missions led by the United Nations. The programme is being held from May 4 to 15 and is co-organised by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence.
The programme is part of Croatia's international development cooperation and of its support for the participation of women in peacekeeping missions and operations. The empowerment of women in transition countries and their influence on peace and security are one of Croatia's foreign policy priorities.