Indonesia - Indonesia’s half-million strong national police force (INP) will train thousands of female officers (polwan) in the second phase of its latest collaboration with IOM, launched this week in Lampung province on the island of Sumatra.

“This training is the realization of the national police’s cooperation with IOM which will provide outputs and outcomes in the form of understanding, insight and skills for participants in handling and resolving cases of violence against women and children, trafficking in persons and people smuggling,” National Police Chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti told more than 200 junior female officers.

“The seven months of education you received at the police academy did not touch on the sort of specific technical aspects of the training you will receive from IOM so you may better perform duties like handling cases of violence against women and children.”

The INP reacted to past criticism it has not more aggressively recruited women into the ranks of the fifth largest police agency in the world by hiring 7,000 female officers in 2014 alone, increasing representation on the force by one-third to 21,000 officers nationally. These new policewomen are the focus of the latest round of IOM training.

“There have been female officers in the INP since 1948, and we are pleased to be able to contribute to the professional development of the young women who joined the force in 2014,” said IOM Indonesia Chief of Mission Mark Getchell.

“Indonesia’s polwan perform a job that is rife with risk and danger with determination, perseverance, integrity and selflessness. I congratulate you all on your appointments and commend you for helping to make your communities better, safer places to live,” he added.

The second training in this latest collaboration was held for 165 polwan in Riau province on Thursday.

IOM has been involved in human rights and community police training in Indonesia for more than a decade. The new phase of the polwan training comes on the heels of a two-year project that trained 3,173 policewomen in 32 provinces around the country in the protection for women and children, trafficking in persons and people smuggling, as well as proactive and preventive policing. 

The latest phase of training also includes a social communications component to help officers break down barriers between communities and the national force.

For further information please contact Paul Dillon at IOM Indonesia, Tel. +62 811 944 4612, Email: pdillon@iom.int