The seminar was opened by the Minister of Defence, Dr ArtisPabriks and the main topic was how we see upon the Code of Conduct today and if it should be opened for new improvements and amendments. Participants were from the nations in the Baltic Sea region who exchanged experiences and thoughts about the seminar topics.
Two specific areas that were covered during the seminar were Cyber Defence and UN Security Resolution 1325 and its relationship with Code of Conduct.
Commander of the Nordic Centre for Gender in Military Operations (NCGM), Jan Dunmurray, participated in the panel and under the head line “Using a gender perspective in military operations will increase the operational effect as well as strengthen human rights” he spoke about the benefits to incorporate a gender perspective in all military activities. Even if several nations today have their UNSCR 1325 National Action Plans in place it is still a lot of work to be done before we can say that 1325 is truly implemented in the Defence systems.
A positive sign is that the UNSCR 1325 and related gender issues 13th July 2011, 30 out of OSCE 56 nations (who all have signed the Code of Conduct) voluntarily decided to add the issue of gender as an integral part of the yearly questionnaire of the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security.