Israel believes that women's rights are integral to building a just society in which all citizens live free of violence and their human rights are respected and protected. Israel is proud to sponsor resolution 2106 (2013) as we have with all previous resolutions on women and peace and security.

In Syria, under Bashar Al-Assad's brutal regime, the death toll has surpassed 93,000, and more than one-third of the population requires humanitarian assistance. The Syrian army and its State-sponsored militia, known as the Shabbiha, have employed sexual violence as devastating weapons in a ruthless campaign of intimidation.

In certain States, thousands of women are victims of so-called honour killings. Owing to weak and indifferent justice systems, perpetrators who claim to have preserved family honour are rarely prosecuted, or if they are, they receive light sentences. In those instances, women are victimized twice — first by the perpetrator of the crime and then by an indifferent justice system.

As a family of nations, our responsibility to one another stems from our common humanity. Our moral imperative supersedes whatever politics, religion or geography may divide us. There can be zero tolerance for sexual violence. We must tirelessly persist until the day when women are the agents of peace rather than the victims of war.

While there has been a welcome shift towards acknowledging conflict-related sexual violence as an issue of peace and security, rather than viewing it simply as a women's issue, it is undeniable that sexual violence touches women and affects women far more profoundly than men. It is therefore appropriate that women take the lead in driving the necessary national political change.

While the greatest potential for change lies at the national level, we must all assume more responsibility and do so with a keener sense of urgency. For our part, Ireland recently published an independent mid-term progress report on implementation of our national action plan, based on resolution 1325 (2000).

The Secretary-General's most recent report (S/2013/335) makes a series of further useful recommendations, but we are disappointed to see little evidence of progress regarding the very first recommendation, that is, that the Security Council should identify ways to target suspected perpetrators with sanctions and other measures in countries where no sanctions regime applies.

The Secretary-General and Special Representative Bangura have long emphasized that a radical challenge to impunity can only be delivered at the national level. The real imperative in that regard is the assumption by national political leaders of ownership of this agenda.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region, which might be considered the cockpit of conflict-related sexual violence, is a case in point. On 4 June, the Permanent Mission of Ireland convened a high-level panel discussion on women and peacebuilding in the Great Lakes region. A report on the event is available on our website.

In support of Mary Robinson, Lina Zedriga and women's leaders like her from the region intend to join forces to change the national political calculus. They aim to encourage and pressure national political leaders to take ownership of the issue of sexual violence and to implement the full range of commitments they have made under the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework.