My delegation thanks the Secretary-General and the Executive Director of UN Women, Ms. Mlambo- Ngcuka; the representative of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, Ms. Balipou; and Ms. Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, for their contributions to this debate.
Indeed, improving the legal framework and the rules of procedure to ensure women better access to justice at both the national and the international levels is one of the aims of the second national action plan for the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) that my country recently finalized for the period 2013-2016.
In conclusion, I take this opportunity to welcome the publication by the Democratic Republic of the Congo of a report on sexual violence in that country. The report demonstrates the importance of the Human Rights Council's decision to convene at its twenty- fifth session a high-level dialogue on the lessons learned and the remaining challenges in the campaign against sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Belgium welcomes the theme chosen for today's debate. We also sponsored resolution 2122 (2013), adopted today. The rule of law and transitional justice in relation to gender have not yet received sufficient attention, despite the fact that they are key to the promotion and protection of women's rights in post- conflict situations.
Belgium continues to give political and operational priority to the fight against all forms of violence against civilians during and after armed conflict, with particular focus on sexual violence. In that regard, my country encourages States to include the fight against sexual violence in their transitional justice mechanisms and penal law, and to consider the fight against sexual violence as their responsibility.
We pay tribute to reasonable initiatives to strengthen international support to combat sexual violence in conflict. Belarus calls for us not to replace real partnerships with unity that is merely on paper, and to avoid hasty and irresponsible actions that may devalue the noble idea of combatting this scourge.
We believe that a thorough investigation of all acts of sexual violence and the immediate punishment of perpetrators are crucial in combatting this scourge. That violence can be eliminated only through coherent collective efforts by the international community — Member States, international organizations and civil society.
We are grateful to the Secretary-General and his Special Representative on Sexual Violence for their personal commitment and leadership in the fight against violence against women. We also believe that UN Women and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights should play an important role in combating violence against women and protecting women's rights.
We also consider it inadmissible that members of the international community that have done a great deal, including specifically in combatting violence against women and children, have been placed in an artificially created situation and forced to justify themselves for failing to appear on a list of countries who combat sexual violence.
