The United Nations is seeking more female police officers for its peacekeeping missions to address more easily cases of sexual and gender-based crimes in war-torn countries.

UN Police Advisor Andrew Hughes said the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) aims to significantly increase the number of female police officers serving in UN peacekeeping missions from the current eight percent of the 11,000 officers working in 17 missions around the world.

He said the world body is mandated to have 15,000 law enforcement officers.

“We need more French speakers in Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in Chad and in Côte d’Ivoire,” Hughes said.

“We need more qualified police, we need more qualified female police and we need them as soon as we can get them,” he stressed.

UN Deputy Police Advisor Ann Marie Orler said the equal participation of female police officers in UN peacekeeping missions “empowers the female population in reporting cases of sexual and gender-based crimes.”

“The UN strongly encourages police contributing countries to establish a policy that sets the percentage of the contribution of female police officers at par with the national police gender ratio,” she added.

Orler disclosed that most of the abuses in war-torn countries were reportedly perpetrated by men in uniform.

“How can you expect women, the victims of abuse, to ask for help from uniformed personnel when they are men?” she asked.

The Department of Foreign Affairs earlier said the Philippine government is eyeing to send more Filipino women to UN peacekeeping missions this year.

The Philippines is currently the 30th largest contributor of peacekeepers to UN peacekeeping missions, serving in eight UN missions in Afghanistan, Cote d’ Ivoire, Georgia, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan and Timor Leste.