Annah Chota: Zimbabwean policewoman receives International Female Police Peacekeeper Award 2017

Zimbabwe’s Assistant Inspector of Police Annah Chota received the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award for her service and achievements in the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

Chota is the head of the Gender and Children Affairs unit in the police component of UNISFA. The award recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of female police officers serving the United Nations and is bestowed annually since 2011.

In a press statement by the United Nations (UN), it says Chota contributed to a shift in how communities deal with rape, domestic violence, child marriages and forced marriages, by recognising rape of a wife by a husband as an offence.

Assistant Inspector of Police Annah Chota poses with her award, the International Female Police Peacekeeper Award. Photo: Facebook/AnnahChota

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Chota is the first police officer from Zimbabwe to receive the award. She helped establish a women’s network and organized training workshops and campaigns in Abyei. The workshops and campaigns led to more women reporting gender-based violence.

United Nations Police Adviser, Police Commissioner Stefan Feller said, “Assistant Inspector of Police Annah Chota made a key contribution towards restoring trust of the public in the police and encouraging children, women and men in Abyei to become partners in preventing and detecting crime.”

Assistant Inspector of Police Annah Chota with the UN flag and other peacekeepers. Photo: Facebook/AnnahChota

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The award was given at the International Women and Law Enforcement Conference in Cairns, Australia. The UN aims to reach and attract more police women to join the 1,098 female police officers from 69 countries, serving as United Nations police officers in UN Peacekeeping Missions. The United Nations Global Effort initiative, together with Member States, seeks to reach 20 percent women in UN police by 2020. For UN delegation members, the conference is followed by a training workshop on how to strengthen the host State police capacity to prevent sexual and gender-based violence.

Zimbabwe provides 85 police officers to UN operations in South Sudan (UNMISS), Sudan (UNAMID), and Abyei (UNISFA) and Guinea Bissau (UNIOGBIS), 31 percent of which are women.