Phyllis Ama Tebuah Osei received the highest honour given by the United Nations to its female police officers deployed on peacekeeping duties, this Monday, November 19. She was given the UN Female Police Officer of the Year 2018 award in a ceremony co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN and the UN Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
Osei, a Superintendent of Police from the Ghana Police Service, assumed her peacekeeping duties to the United Nations Somalia in February 2018. Since then, she has made a remarkable impact on the people and host state police of Jubaland in Southern Somalia. Osei managed to initiate an adult literacy program for forty-nine female police officers in Jubaland to increase their chances of getting promoted. She also built a Female Peacekeeping Network (FPN) with the United Nations Somalia (UNSOM) and the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM).
The Jury for the award comprises policing and peacekeeping experts who are responsible for evaluating the achievements of nominees from around the world deployed in UN peacekeeping missions. The UN statement this year highlighted the policewoman’s contribution in ensuring the protection of women, as well as her initiatives to promote women’s rights in the host state police, all of which embodied the spirit of the award and embraced the values of international policing.
