Regional Overview

In 2010, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on UN member states to adopt local action plans and ensure that women and girls are more systematically and sustainably integrated into peace and security processes. At the time, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia were among the pioneers in translating the UN women, peace and security agenda to the local level. Croatia and Northern Macedonia followed suit and adopted their first action plans in 2011/2012. By 2020, most countries had adopted their second generation of action plans, except Albania, which was the last country in region to adopt its first action plan in 2018. NATO membership prompted Montenegro to adopt its first plan in 2017, while North Macedonia adopted the second action plan after it joined NATO in 2020. Despite not being a NATO member, Bosnia and Herzegovina took a proactive approach in developing action plans and is the only country that has the third such plan.

Croatia and North Macedonia are the only two countries whose actions plans will be valid beyond 2022. Those of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro will expire this year, while the Albanian and Serbian expired two years ago and there seems to be no political will to draft new ones.

This did not stop the changes at the level of the defence system; however, it does indicate lack of commitment and political will to invest in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, which is the ultimate goal of Resolution 1325. This is currently more important than ever, because the war in Ukraine and its impact on women and men, boys and girls is a crucial reminder for countries in the region of the need to reaffirm the importance of including women and gender perspectives in conflict prevention, peace-building and governance.

Although countries are at different stages of UNSCR 1325 implementation, what they have in common is that they are not fully transparent in reporting on the results of the implementation of NAP 1325, and that gender-disaggregated data remain a challenge for all. The evident lack of gender statistics in defence and different research methodologies make it difficult to compare countries and assess their individual progress. In most countries, the current implementation of the Resolution 1325 is understood and limited to the participation of women in state institutions.

There are, however, exceptions because the BiH action plan has a strong human security dimension and attaches great importance to regional and international networking. North Macedonia’s new plan is forward-looking and focused on leadership in government and the civil sector. In the second Serbian action plan, policymakers envision a greater focus on conflict prevention, dealing with the past, and localising NAP 1325. However, this has yet to be met in the future.

Participation of women in MoDs and the Armed Forces

Women make up between 6.96 and 14.6 per cent of the armed forces in the Western Balkans. Albania and Croatia are the only two countries that will soon meet the NATO standard of 15 per cent of women as members of uniformed armed forces personnel. However, Albania is the only one with the quota for women in the army (15 per cent) that can affect further admission of women. When it comes to the share of uniformed women among officers, non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and soldiers, Albania and Croatia have the highest percentage of female officers and NCOs, while Serbia is the country with the greatest participation of women among professional soldiers.

Statistically, women perform civilian jobs in the defence system, as they make up almost half of civil servants. Montenegro stands out because two thirds of civil servants employed in its MoD are women.
Data on women’s representation in command and leadership positions show that women are slowly but surely climbing the ladder to the top positions in the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces. The ministries of defence in all countries except Serbia were in fact headed by women.
North Macedonia is an example of good practice because currently has the largest share of women in command and leadership position in the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces. There are still not enough women of a higher rank at certain command posts in the armed forces across the region. Nevertheless, the highest rank held by a woman in the Albanian Armed Forces and Croatian Armed Forces is that of General.

Participation of women in peacekeeping operations

In the last few years, the ministries of defence in the region have actively been recruiting, training and deploying women in peacekeeping operations. Women’s inclusion in peacekeeping operations has been recognised as an effective means of improving the country’s image internationally and/or fulfilling partnership obligations. With 15 per cent of women in peacekeeping missions in 2021, Serbia is the leader in the region and among the top ten contributors to UN operations. However, Serbia’s participation is limited to UN missions. According to the official report, in the observed period Montenegro significantly increased the percentage of women in NATO operations, from two percent in 2019 to 11.76 per cent in 2022. Albania has almost doubled the representation of women in NATO operations in 2018-2019, from four to 7 per cent. Representation of women from the Croatian Armed Forces in the international (UN, NATO and the EU-led) missions and operations was 5.83 per cent (54 women) in 2020, showing a slight decline compared to 2019. Regardless, in December 2020 Croatia informed NATO that it had achieved the gender balance target in its peacekeeping operations.1 According to the 2021 UNDP SEESAC report,2 in 2019 Bosnia and Herzegovina had 8.6 percent of women among the military personnel that was engaged in peacekeeping missions, while in the same year North Macedonia deployed 8 per cent of uniformed women to peacekeeping operations. Although data gathered for this study are inconsistent, they indicate a trend of increasing the number of women in peacekeeping operations. However, it should be borne in mind that the presented share of women in military missions is based only on a one-year situation overview, and that annual fluctuations can be significant.