Most recently, the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women adopted the agreed conclusions on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. That document was widely hailed by Governments, United Nations officials and civil society as a huge step forward and a historic global agreement in the ongoing efforts to protect women and girls from violence.

Let me conclude by stressing ASEAN's readiness and commitment to join efforts with the international community to ensure the elimination of sexual violence in armed conflict and to implement effective measures of accountability and redress in the field of women and peace and security.

First, the fundamental causes of sexual violence in armed conflict should be tackled at their root. A preventive mechanism that addresses the root causes of armed conflict should be implemented. ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, which aims to promote perpetual peace, everlasting amity and cooperation among its people, is a regional framework that we have put in place to that end.

At the national and regional levels, ASEAN member States have been establishing legal and policy frameworks and implementing mechanisms to further enhance the status and welfare of women and girls and to eliminate all forms of violence against women, including sexual violence.

ASEAN member States wish to reiterate their strong commitment to working closely with the international community and the United Nations in ending sexual violence, wherever it occurs. Our States have been supportive of efforts to eliminate and prevent all acts of violence against women.

Also, the Association established the ASEAN Committee on Women, in 2002, and the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children, in 2009. All those bodies aim to uphold, promote, protect and ensure respect for and the fulfilment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and children in the ASEAN area.

Thank you, Madam President, for organizing this event and for your presence today. Let me also thank you for the expressions of sympathy to the American people. I'd also like to thank Secretary-General Ban, Special Representative Bangura for their briefings, and Madame Keita for helping us better understand how women in Mali are combating sexual violence.

For UN missions, better prevention involves equipping peacekeepers and civilian staff with the guidance and expertise to respond to early information about threats of large-scale abuses.

At the community level, improving prevention of sexual violence requires better understanding of existing protection mechanisms and leveraging grassroots networks that can provide local information to inform prevention efforts. There is progress in this area, for example, the Community Policing Centers run by displaced persons in camps in Darfur and the enlistment of imams as advocates for sexual violence prevention in South Darfur.

We must also build reformed national justice sectors and local institutions that can hold accountable those responsible for sexual violence while international criminal justice mechanisms continue to play their important role in ending impunity for these crimes.