UN Hails Decision By India To Send 125 Female Police Officers For Peacekeeping
India’s landmark decision to send 125 female police officers, one complete specialized unit, to assist United Nations
peacekeeping operations in Liberia next month is an “unprecedented” move that sends a message not only to other
post-conflict countries about the importance of having women officers, but also to police contributing nations," senior
UN officials said today.
“This is an unprecedented move by India to deploy these female officers in policing and we applaud it and think that it
is extremely timely and extremely relevant to the policing needs in the years ahead,” Police Adviser Mark Kroeker told
the UN News Service.
“We think it’s a breakthrough that India has expressed its willingness and it’s also good for our Liberia mission
because it brings to that police operation these officers who are trained, who are capable, who are women and who can
bring the best of what the UN police is to the component there.”
The 125 officers, who are currently undergoing the final stages of their training in India, will make up a specialized
unit, known as a Formed Police Unit (FPU). The UN has had increasing success with such units over the past few years as
a means of bridging the gap between regular and lightly-armed police and fully-armed blue helmets.
Details of what exact role the all-female FPU will play as part of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) are currently being
worked out, said Noor Gabow, Acting Mission Management Coordinator at the UN Police Division. However he added these
specialized units have traditionally been employed as a rapid reaction force, trained in crowd control and better armed
than regular police, as well as playing a strong training role for local officers.
“This Indian women’s contingent are made up solely of volunteers who have decided that they’d like to be a part of peace
operations and that they can play an effective, credible role which we know they can,” said Mr. Gabow.
India currently contributes almost 400 police officers to UN missions worldwide, one of the top 10 police-contributing
countries, but only 15 of these personnel are female officers, something which the introduction of the 125 women
officers next month will dramatically change and which UN officials say will also send a powerful message for change to
other contributing countries.
“This decision is extremely timely because as we look at our deployment of women in UN police components around the
world, we still retain an unacceptably small number of three or four per cent, compared to up to 25 per cent of women
officers in an acceptable police organization,” said Mr. Kroeker, himself a former Los Angeles police officer for over
30 years.
“It enhances our access to vulnerable populations by having women in UN missions and also sends a message to the
post-conflict societies where we work that women officers can have any position and play any role in a police
organization, including that of commissioner, or deputy-commissioner or chief of regions or whatever.”
The all-female Indian unit will join other FPUs currently serving in Liberia, where the concept was first tried out
although its success there and in other operations has led to calls for increasing deployment.
UN officials also highlight that FPUs are cheaper to deploy than regular military units, noting that it costs around $5
million to set up a specialized police formation while a military battalion can cost up $30 million. In addition, the
deployment of FPUs sends a message to the populations of post-conflict countries that the UN is demilitarizing, while
maintaining a credible force that at the same time is helping build local police capacity.
Ends