Monrovia - On 28 February 2018, a graduation ceremony of a three month Advanced Course on Women, Peace and Security supported by UNMIL was convened at the University of Liberia (UL) Auditorium in Monrovia.
The ceremony gathered around 120 participants from the Liberia security sector institutions, government ministries, public agencies and non-state security institutions, as well as US and Sweden Embassies, UN Women and UNMIL.
At her opening remarks, the President of the University of Liberia, Dr. Ophelia Weeks recognized UNMIL’s support and stressed the importance of the course for building capacity of the security sector actors to critically analyze the situation of women in Liberia.
The UNMIL Security Sector Adviser, Mr. Michael Page commended the Ministries of Justice, Defense, and Gender for proving leadership to the organization of this course through the Gender and Security Sector National Taskforce and the SSR Think Tank.
The Security Sector Reform National Coordinator urged the leadership of the security sector institutions to work towards changing the predominant mindset and encourage women to join the armed forces.
The Swedish Ambassador Ingrid Wetterqvist congratulated students and professors noting that the courses like this are key to advance the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. Through this course, UNMIL successfully supported the Gender and Security Sector National Taskforce to build the capacity of the 68 gender coordinators of the security sector institutions to promote gender equality and to adapt the security services to the needs and capacities of women, men, boys and girls in the Liberian society.
The participants, who are also members of the Security Sector Reform Think Tank, produced a series of studies on the situation of women in the security sector that will contribute to generation of collective knowledge in the field of Women, Peace and Security.