Commitments Database: A 1325 Call to Action Statement Hungary

Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I warmly welcome the initiative that this high-level meeting should commemorate the 10th anniversary of the adoption of Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security which has set a milestone on the road towards achieving a genuine gender equality. Let me express our thanks to the Government of Canada and Your Excellency, Ms. Mary Robinson for having organized today's discussion, which provides us an excellent opportunity to review the results, obstacles and perspectives of the implementation of the resolution on women, peace and security.

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Hungary I would like to congratulate Her Excellency, Mrs Michelle Bachelet Jeria on her nomination as head of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. We entirely hope that the new entity under your leadership will be able to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls in this field.

We firmly believe that today's challenges make it necessary to involve women in all aspects of international cooperation. We pay much lip service to the so-called gender-based approach but, unfortunately, we face numerous obstacles when trying to put it into everyday practice. Let me also suggest that we still need to achieve a real gender-based paradigm upon which we can reconsider the effective participation of women in the decision-making process at both national and international levels.

This meeting provides us a unique opportunity to make a comprehensive overview of the gender specific aspects of peace and
security at present. We share the opinion that we should spare no efforts to promote full and effective implementation of the above mentioned resolution and the subsequent resolutions 1820, 1888 and 1889. All these documents set out as objectives to secure the involvement of women in pre-conflict and post-conflict processes as well as to protect them and also the girls against any kind of discrimination, sexual violence and rape in armed conflicts and post-conflict situations. Achieving those objectives should be a prerequisite for any lasting peace and security.

I firmly believe that systematic sexual violence, used as a tactic of war by deliberately targeting civilians, in particular women and girls, significantly aggravates the situation during an armed conflict. Moreover, its lasting negative impact may seriously impede the recovery and reconciliation processes as well. We should therefore resolve ourselves to take effective steps in order to put an end to such acts. In this context let me express my sincere gratitude to Margot Wallström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict – and former Vice-President of the European Commission –, for her highly valuable and devoted activity carried out in this field.

The use of sexual violence against women and girls during conflict of course raises the question: how can a lasting and sustainable peace be reached if such a phenomenon remains vastly under-addressed due to weak international mechanisms for protection and inadequate responses.

I would like to draw your attention to the importance of establishing the Budapest Centre for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. It is our hope that the Centre will institutionalize and empower the “preventive” aspect of the Genocide Convention by bridging the gap between early warning and action. I am convinced that Security Council resolution 1325 remains timely, and we still need more concrete actions to achieve an adequate level of empowerment of women at both national and international levels. To this end we support a comprehensive overview of the implementation of all relevant UN decisions and resolutions on the promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women and the issues of peace and security in relation to the rights of women.

Thank you for your attention.