Statement of UN Women at the 2016 WPS Debate
Implementation
Last year’s open debate (see S/PV.7533) had the highest number of participating speakers in the entire history of the Security Council. More than 180 political, financial and institutional commitments were made in the course of the high-level review of resolution 1325 (2000), and the new resolution 2242 (2015) was adopted. Such commitments are important and can make a difference. They must therefore not simply be plans on paper; we must turn them into action. Last year’s global study on women and peace and security was also welcomed as a guide that can keep our work in moving ahead. Today, therefore, we urge Member States, regional organizations and the United Nations to do more to take the study’s recommendations forward and turn the commitments that were made into concrete action. The Council is well positioned to ensure we have greater accountability to one another for our commitments.
UN-Women is already responding to many of the findings and recommendations of the global study and the appeal issued in resolution 2242 (2015). We are serving as the secretariat for key new mechanisms, such as the Council’s new Informal Expert Group on Women and Peace and Security and the Global Acceleration Instrument for Women and Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action. We are pleased to announce that we will also perform a secretariat function in support of the new network of national focal points.
Peacebuilding
We are contributing to the implementation of the peace operations review, in collaboration with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Political Affairs. We are collaborating closely with the Peacebuilding Support Office and other partners in order to ensure that gender is fully reflected in the agendas on sustaining peace and on youth and peace and security. I congratulate the Peacebuilding Commission on adopting a gender strategy, a first among our intergovernmental bodies. We are also working hard to ensure that the United Nations approach to preventing and countering violent extremism engages women’s leadership, and that it respects and promotes women’s rights.
Participation
In countries in conflict and post-conflict that have no quotas, women occupied a mere 11 per cent of seats in parliament, and their political participation has not improved significantly over the past five years. In the 12 months since resolution 2242 (2015) urged that women in civil society be asked to present briefings during the Security Council’s country-specific deliberations, that commitment has not materialized.
Since the transition ended in the Central African Republic, women’s representation in national institutions has again dropped, to 8 per cent of members of parliament. In Afghanistan, the international community’s huge investment in the security sector could offer women much more. Women make up less than 1 per cent of the country’s armed forces and less than 2 per cent of its national police.
In many of those contexts the United Nations itself shows a similarly poor representation of women. In the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, women account for only 13 per cent of staff overall and 11 per cent of leadership positions. Such stark deficits in our own gender balance cannot continue. We need an intervention that can turn the tide. We pay a daily price for this issue in our reputation and effectiveness in the areas where we provide services. It is a challenge that the incoming Secretary-General will have to face in order to build on what has been started. We welcome his commitment to taking concrete measures to achieve gender parity within the United Nations. That would be a breakthrough that could result in a much more formidable United Nations by building on achievements so far.
Disarmament
The percentage of women beneficiaries of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes has declined markedly, decreasing to 12 per cent.
SGBV
In Guatemala, a national court prosecuted and convicted people on charges of sexual slavery during armed conflict, a first for a domestic court anywhere. In the past year, the International
Criminal Court secured its first conviction for sexual and gender-based crimes. And in Senegal, the trial of Hissène Habré saw the first conviction of a former Head of State for personally committing rape as an international crime.
There have also been extensive reports of abuses committed against Iraqi and Syrian women and girls trapped between Da’esh and the military operations against it, including in the current situation in Mosul. Elsewhere, South Sudanese women and girls are being raped by armed actors with total impunity, as we will no doubt hear this morning from Ms. Lopidia.
In addition to such examples of extreme violence against women, we have countless examples of women’s extreme political marginalization in public life and decision-making, which must also be of concern to the Council, in view of its considerable power.