Opening Remarks

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.  I am grateful for having been given this opportunity to provide some opening remarks to the annual meeting of this very important committee.  Allow me to warmly welcome the delegates from our Partnership for Peace and Mediterranean Dialogue nations who are also present with us today.

Many of you may not be aware that NATO is working on a revision of its Strategic Concept, which is something that occurs every ten years or so.  It is a document that will define how the Alliance will function over the course of the next decade. The NATO Secretary General charged a group of experts, led by Dr. Madeleine Albright, to reflect on the document and provide him recommendations on what the Concept should contain.  The group’s recommendations were provided to the Secretary General and posted to the Internet just last week.  The Secretary General will now draft the new Strategic Concept and submit it to the NATO heads of state and government at the Lisbon Summit in November.

I mention this not to give you a lesson on the development of the new Strategic Concept, but because it is important to retain that the work conducted by Dr. Albright’s group was done in an entirely open manner offering the highest levels of transparency.  To arrive at its conclusions, the group conducted a series of seminars and consultations with scholars and officials, civilian and military alike, from within and outside of the Alliance.

Much like the openness afforded by the group of experts, it is equally as important for NATO to display its gender perspective initiatives in a candid manner for the whole world to see and emulate.

You, better than me, understand the importance of gender perspectives, especially in the “new” NATO in which we serve today.  In this 21st century security environment, where we are faced with hybrid threats, it is essential that the Alliance remain as versatile as possible.  It also goes without saying that the military will be ineffective in most cases if it acts independently from other institutions.  This is why we must engage all of our missions using a comprehensive approach.  What do I mean by this?  The comprehensive approach is simply a term to describe that NATO must work in harmony and through cooperation with partners and other organizations, civilian or military, because the era of tackling challenges unilaterally as an Alliance is clearly over.

In adopting a more robust comprehensive approach we should seek to enhance partnerships with countries outside of the Alliance, as well as through a combined effort with non-government entities and international organizations and agencies such as the UN, EU and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces; these last three are scheduled to take part in this meeting.  Rather than going it alone, NATO should tap into the expertise on gender issues that are resident in these other groups, with an aim of complementing our own actions. 

The Alliance is constantly evolving and adapting to the new security environment and with this evolution comes the need for new and improved approaches to how we tackle new and foreseeable challenges.  One such challenge is ensuring that our gender perspectives are an integral part of every mission that unfolds.

The gender perspective should be mainstreamed through all of NATO policy papers, plans, programs and documents.  Gender should be an integral part of every division’s activities, every operation, planned and current, as well as its resources, intelligence, budget and finances.  It should become part of the people’s mindset – this is mainstreaming!

On this 10th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security, the Alliance must step-up its efforts to ensure gender perspectives are considered in every action we take.  The Alliance and its partners are making a concerted effort to support the implementation of the resolution.  It is promoting the role of women within NATO-led operations and missions and in daily work, as well as improving its knowledge and skills with regard to questions of gender and diversity.

Providing useful and sustainable pre-deployment gender training to our personnel reinforces the importance of this initiative as an operational multiplier, assures credibility and consistence of the Alliance, and builds an effective, non-discriminatory and representative security sector institution.  Our forces must be able to respond to the different security needs of men, women, boys and girls, many of which are determined by differences in gender roles, norms and behaviors.  Targeted, appropriate and sustained gender-awareness training, which challenges stereotypes about men and women and deals with cultural differences in the relation between men and women, also helps our troops interact appropriately and respectfully with the civilian segment of the population.  This can lead to enhanced trust and strengthened collaboration with the local population.

Our experience in Afghanistan validates the fact that effective planning and strategic communications are essential to create the conditions for success.  Integrating gender perspectives in strategic communications and operational planning is critical in parts of the world where democratic values are less frequently practiced.  Although more are needed, the gender advisors and experts employed at high levels of our command structure and in Provincial Reconstruction Teams have permitted our forces to reach out to the entire Afghan population more effectively.

NATO troops have been in ISAF long enough to recognize the cultural differences that exist in Afghan society and commanders understand the need for our forces to be cognizant of these sensitivities because not doing so will undermine our credibility, put our troops at risk and, in the end, will undercut the chances of a successful mission.  Just imagine the reprisals on our military forces if we had male soldiers conducting searches for illegal weapons on female civilians.  We cannot discount the value added of having women and men operate side by side in conflict zones.  Each offers unique and distinct skills and capabilities that compliment the other.  Women victims of violence and those residing in oppressed societies are also more willing to approach and talk to another woman as opposed to a man.  This can be a great source of cultural and societal awareness which can contribute to better planning and enhance future missions.

Awareness of gender-specific issues should be viewed as another available tool to enhance the survivability and capability of our troops on the ground.  Women in our collective armed forces today play a vital role in the accomplishment of our missions abroad and their presence alone is an embodiment of our free and democratic values.  As called for in UNSCR 1325, women should be participating fully and equally at all levels with regard to issues ranging from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction.  We have already witnesses their ability to advance our military goals in places such as Afghanistan and Kosovo. 

To site an example, under the rule of the Taliban in the late 1990s, girls and women in Afghanistan were forbidden from going to school.  Today, more than 40% of all students in the country are females.  We must endeavor to support the Afghan government in continuing this positive trend and one way to do that is to provide our forces with the proper training and education they need.  We can no longer accept the alienation of half of a country’s population.  Women can and should play an equal role in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and we have to acknowledge the difficulties in achieving lasting stability without their contributions.

Significant strides for females have also been made in the Afghan National Security Forces.  A “train-the-trainer” program for a female Officer Candidate School company has begun; Combined Forces Command had the first female Afghan National Army non-commissioned officer report for duty; 16 Afghan uniform policewomen finished literacy training; and female Colonel Shafiqa Quarashi, who was recognized by the US Secretary of State as an International Woman of Courage, was promoted to Brigadier General.

ISAF troops have played a significant role in ensuring a safer security environment for the Afghan people, allowing young girls and women, specifically, to obtain an education that will lead to better employment opportunities, more equality vis-à-vis their male counterparts, and a stronger economy overall.  It is more evident with every passing day that women are becoming greater contributors to Afghan society, which is, in part, due to this Committee’s efforts in advancing the importance of gender issues that are at play in that embattled part of the world.

I will close by saying that the theme chosen for this year’s meeting “gender training for deploying troops,” is a very timely and fitting one.  I am confident that as your meeting unfolds over the next few days, your efforts will result in the development of tailored training templates for individual nations to use prior to the deployment of their forces.  This initiative will contribute to an increase in gender awareness among our military and provide standardization and consistency within NATO.  There is no reason why our organization should not strive to be on the forefront of such an initiative.  We have the experience and ability to set the example for other security institutions to follow and we should strive to do just that.

I wish you a very successful meeting and look forward to hearing a summary of the results.  Thank you.