China took an active part in the consultations on drafting today's resolution on sexual violence in armed conflict (resolution 2106 (2013)), and has just voted in favour of it. We believe that the Special Representatives and United Nations missions should implement it in strict observance of the Council's mandate.

We wish to express concern, however, about the fact that in several areas it is still difficult to investigate and judge crimes of sexual violence committed against women and children because the national courts lack skills and expertise. That continues to make it difficult to bring perpetrators of such crimes to trial. For that reason, we emphasize the support needed from the United Nations as regards capacity-building in that area.

We also wish to highlight the work of the International Criminal Court. Its Rome Statute includes within the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity crimes involving acts of sexual violence against women and children. We emphasize the contribution made in that connection by the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, with their valuable rulings on the subject.

We agree with the Secretary-General's March report on sexual violence in conflict (S/2013/149) that national courts remain primarily responsible for investigating and judging crimes of sexual violence in conflicts, and we value the important complementary role played by the international tribunals in combating crimes of that kind.

The subject of women and peace and security and sexual violence poses many challenges and covers a number of areas. I refer in particular to the existence of and access to compensation and justice mechanisms for women and girls, especially in situations of armed conflict; the operation and supervision of compensation systems; and combating impunity for those responsible for crimes.

In that connection, Chile's national plan provides expanded training in peacekeeping operations for soldiers and for members of the forces of law and order and security in the pre- and post-deployment stages. It also places greater emphasis on the distribution of information on the international instruments concerning gender, security and peace, and we are promoting gender mainstreaming in the institutions performing these roles.

In recent years, efforts have been made to modernize Chilean institutions to conform to the human rights and gender focus of resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions on the subject in a forward-looking approach reflecting our national and regional reality.

For that reason, my delegation would like to conclude by expressing our satisfaction with the adoption of resolution 2106 (2013) this morning, which Chile co-sponsored.

Chile attaches great importance to the prevention of sexual violence in conflicts and to the care, protection and compensation of victims of sexual violence in conflict. On earlier occasions we have drawn attention, inter alia, to the progress made by our national legislation on the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).

Although that action concerns the national sphere, we also attach great importance to the enhancement of the international humanitarian response capacity and to the role of international cooperation in achieving those goals, particularly in the context of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.