NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives
The NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives (NCGP) is an advisory body to the Military Committee (MC) on gender related policies for the Armed Forces of the Alliance. It promotes gender mainstreaming as a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programmes and military operations.
Role and responsibilities
Military operations in today’s world require a diversity of qualifications and resources to ensure that peace and security are achieved and maintained. The complementary skills of both male and female personnel are essential for the operational effectiveness of NATO operations, especially in light of the increasing complexity of civil-military interaction, public relations and intelligence gathering. The integration of the gender perspective into all aspects of NATO operations can be beneficial and have key influence on increased operational effectiveness.
The NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives' responsibilities are:
- to facilitate the exchange of information among NATO Nations, on gender related policies and gender mainstreaming;
- to facilitate the exchange of information within the NATO Command Structure (NCS), and specifically within NATO HQ;
- to liaise with international organizations and agencies concerned with the integration of a gender perspective into military operations as well as with gender related issues;
- as the NATO focal point, to collect, analyze and disseminate relevant information from NATO and Partner nations;
- to provide advice to the MC on gender issues, including the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) 1325 and 1820 and future related UNSCRs;
- as requested by the MC, to advise and support on specific gender related issues.
Working mechanism
The NCGP is comprised of senior military officers or civilian equivalent of each NATO nation, whose primary responsibility lies in the domain of gender mainstreaming. The NCGP is comprised of an Executive Committee (EC) and of delegates.
The NCGP meets periodically in whole and in part, to provide guidance and share information. The NCGP may request an individual or agency to provide information on relevant issues.
To maintain active cooperation with the 27 Partnership for Peace and seven Mediterranean Dialogue countries the NCGP usually opens one day of its annual Meetings for one Representative of each of those countries.
The Committee is supported in its work by the NATO Office on Gender Perspectives (NOGP). The Office is the permanent focal point for collecting, providing and sharing information regarding national programmes, policies and procedures on gender related issues, including the implementation of UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 and future related UNSCRs.
Evolution
Initiatives by senior national military women in NATO during the 1960s and 1970s led to ad hoc conferences. In 1973, a committee was formed and the first terms of reference were made.
The Committee on Women in the NATO Forces (CWINF) was officially recognized by the Military Committee on 19 July 1976 in document MC 249, and has met once a year ever since.
In 1998 a permanent office, the Office on Women in the NATO Forces (OWINF) was established in the International Military Staff (IMS) to provide information on gender and diversity issues and support the work of CWINF.
In May 2009, the Committee’s mandate was extended to support the integration of a gender perspective into NATO’s military operations specifically to support the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and 1820 as well as future related UNSCRs. The Committee was renamed into NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives.