10/10/2016
Congratulations to Yvette Boni of Burkina Faso for winning the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award today!
The International Female Police Peacekeeper Award is a competitive award given to an outstanding female police peacekeeper serving in a UN peace operation.
Superintendent Zombre is the first police officer from Burkina Faso to receive the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award.
The award has been bestowed annually since 2011 to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of a female police officer serving the United Nations.
Throughout times of crisis in Bangui, she worked as training officer with the national police and gendarmerie to develop their capacity in criminal investigations.
As president of the female network of police peacekeepers with 122 members in the mission, she took up several initiatives to improve the situation of women. Along with other female police officers in the network, she helped set up shelters for victims of Sexual and Gender-based Violence run by the national police.
To raise awareness, empower women and help build trust in the society, the female police peacekeepers also organized a gathering of over thousand women in Bangui with the theme: “Say No to violence and Yes to peace” earlier in the year.
At a time when allegations of misconduct involving peacekeeping personnel persisted in MINUSCA, she assisted the Office of Internal Oversight with interviewing victims of alleged sexual exploitation and abuse in support of investigations into the allegations.
Today, 1,251 female police officers from 65 countries serve as United Nations police. This is the result of a Global Effort initiative with member states that commenced in 2009 to recruit more women into the United Nations police. As a result, the number of female officers increased from about 900 in 2009 to 1,291 officers in 2016. Yet more remains to be done.
The United Nations Police Division continues to work with member states, advocating for states to contribute more female police officers. This week, 70 female police officers from 26 countries and peacekeeping operations around the world are participating in the International Association of Women Police Conference.
Read more on the award: http://bit.ly/2d0hhn8