Jacqueline Feinting has blazed the trail for women peacekeepers ever since she deployed as one of the first Cameroonian women corrections officers to her first peacekeeping mission in 2014.
Today, she serves with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), where she harnesses synergies across the Malian penal chain to improve detainees‘ access to justice. She also has the key role to advise the Malian prison administration in Gao on prison security, prison management and the treatment of detainees in accordance with human rights norms.
In the Gao region, large violent extremist and terrorist groups are present. MINUSMA and national forces have been repeatedly attacked in the past, making this a very insecure and challenging duty station for peacekeepers. When Jacqueline first arrived to MINUSMA, she was the only woman corrections officer in Gao. She made it her goal to demonstrate how women can meaningfully contribute to the MINUSMA mandate and initiated a project with the Regional Director of the Penitentiary Administration and United Nations Police to promote women’s meaningful participation in the Malian prison administration.
Government-Provided Personnel
GPP are individuals like Jacqueline who are nominated by their governments to serve with United Nations peace operations. Justice and corrections GPPprovide expertise that is generally only found in national government services, such as national prison services, the judiciary and prosecution authorities among others. In the MINUSMA Corrections Unit, a total of 12 corrections GPP provide strategic planning, advisory and capacity-building support to the Malian prison administration.
United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilized Mission in Mali
MINUSMA is one of the twelve UN peacekeeping operations. Established by the Security Council in April 2013, the mission was mandated to support the political transition process and help stabilize Mali.
The Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation is slowly being implemented, while there is still much work to be done. The human rights situation continues to be precarious, mostly in the centre and in the north of the country, because extremist armed groups continue to harass and attack local population and security forces. According to the 2022 Report of the Secretary-General, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance raised to 7.5 million in 2022.
MINUSMA has increased its efforts to protect civilians and assist the Malian defence and security institutions by training and providing capacity-building to personnel.
United Nations Trailblazer Award for Women Justice and Corrections Officers
The first United Nations Trailblazer Award for Women Justice and Corrections Officers recognizes the outstanding contributions of government-provided personnel in UN peace operations by highlighting women who blaze the trail in areas and roles traditionally reserved for men.
You can follow the entire campaign on the United Nations Office of Rule of Law Facebook page or the Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law Alexandre Zouev’s Twitter page.
To learn more about the award, click here.