Reconstruction and Peacebuilding

As we all clearly acknowledge today, women are decisive actors in every stage of long-term peacebuilding processes, which is why we concur with the Secretary-General on the need to encourage women's participation as an integral part of efforts to establish, maintain and build peace.

Nigeria is also committed to fulfilling its obligations under the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights on the rights of women in Africa. As Ms. Bachelet has often said, the obstacles to women's political participation, which I believe have a direct bearing on their capacity to play an active role in preventive diplomacy and conflict prevention, are indeed enormous.

Although Ms. Bachelet aptly highlighted the modest progress made by Member States and the United Nations in advancing the agenda of resolution 1325 (2000), we must heed her warning that we are very far from sufficiently and systematically integrating women into the process of conflict prevention and peacebuilding. We believe that this is an auspicious moment in the history of the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).

Accordingly, it is not surprising that the Netherlands continues to emphasize that the local men, and especially women, living the daily reality of a conflict are the key stakeholders in any intervention. Individual local women and men, women's organizations and women's movements are the real drivers of durable change. Concretely, this means that the second resolution 1325 (2000) national action plan emanates from a demand-driven approach.

Resolution 1325 (2000) brought to the fore the importance of women as peacemakers and peacebuilders. The resolution was a historic shift from the traditional perspective, which saw women as passive recipients of the suffering produced by conflict. It rightly stressed the role of women as active participants with important and indispensable parts to play in peacemaking and peacebuilding.

We welcome in particular the establishment of UN-Women, the agency that lies at the heart of the gender architecture of the Organization, as it coordinates all efforts undertaken in this field. We welcome also the inclusion of specific indicators in the reports of the Secretary-General, as is the case in the report before us today (S/2011/598*), as well as the seven-point action plan.

We are also concerned about the low level of participation by women in peace negotiations. The exclusion of women and the lack of experts in gender matters in negotiations perpetuate inequality. As is indicated in the current report of the Secretary-General, issues related to women tend to be addressed at the later stages of conflict prevention and mediation.

Through the adoption by the Security Council of resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions, the United Nations has been able to develop, integrate and fine-tune the tools available to it to address a gender perspective in a multidimensional manner, by recognizing the importance of women's active participation in the various stages of conflict prevention and resolution, as well as in peacekeeping, reconstruction and peacebuilding.

Maldives has expressed support for Libya's National Transitional Council. With its current transition from conflict to creating a stable Government, we urge the National Transitional Council to stay mindful of the specific needs of women and its obligations towards them. That includes everything from disarmament and reconciliation to women's participation and representation.

Although women's participation in Tunisia's recent elections has not lived up to all expectations, we are confident that Tunisian women will be able to assume, at all levels and in all political and economic institutions, their responsibilities in the work of building their country, and that they will thereby set an example for other countries in the region and around the world.