Challenges for the inclusion of the gender perspective in citizen security

Violence against Women and Girls is a pandemic that requires an urgent response. It is a threat to human rights, public health, citizen security and the physical, political and economic autonomy of women and girls around the world. Central America and the Dominican Republic are not immune to this pandemic. Even though there has been progress, direct and indirect violence remains a persistent menace for women and girls in the sub-region, and its eradication requires integrated efforts.

The UNDP InfoSegura Regional Project is implementing an innovative approach to citizen security work, incorporating gender as a cross-cutting theme. It provides rights-based responses that take into account multiculturalism, and ecological, intersectional and life-cycle based approaches. These approaches are used in the public policy data-collecting cycle, in gender-sensitive information analysis and in dissemination. Civil society and academia make key contributions to these ongoing efforts and filling the information gaps that still persist. Research on the issue of violence against women and girls, approaches to masculinity, information on violence affecting the LGBTIQ+ population and other matters that affect the comprehensive development of women and girls must be made visible and lines of research must be generated.

This paper was presented at the Fifth Regional Forum of the CONOSE Network in the city of Antigua Guatemala on June 23 and 24, 2022.