The joint meeting of the Forum for Security Co-operation and the OSCE Permanent Council chaired by Ukraine and Albania, which took place on 20 May 2020 in online format, was dedicated to the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) "Women, Peace and Security".

Ms Tetyana Kovalchuk,  Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine took part in the meeting. She highlighted the main elements of national policy  in ensuring equal rights for women and men in the security and defence sectors, and stressed the challenges that our country is facing as a result of the ongoing aggression by the Russian Federation. Since 2014, Ukrainian women have been playing an extremely important role in the defence of our country, and their participation in the Armed Forces and security structures of Ukraine is growing every year.

During the discussions special emphasis was placed on the issue of combating violations of the fundamental rights and freedoms of women in the occupied territories of the OSCE participating States and to the lack of effective tools of preventing and bringing to justice those responsible for these crimes. The delegations stressed the need for governmental and non-governmental organizations to further monitor the human rights violations in these areas.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the delegations of the OSCE participating States summed up the contribution of the OSCE and further possible ways to strengthen the Organization's involvement to the implementation of the objectives of this document. They exchanged best practices and identified existing gaps in the implementation of Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Following the meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation with the participation of the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Deputy Foreign Minister Yehor Bozhok noted: “The Ukrainian chairmanship has brought special attention to gender issues in the work of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation. This topic was chosen for a good reason - this year we mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 "Women, Peace, Security", which was co-authored by Ukraine as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council back in 2000. Today, women together with men are active participants in security processes. We promote this positive experience in our country and will share it with OSCE partners as well".