A multilateral dimension requires that United Nations peacekeeping activities should effectively respond to arising conflicts, new political challenges and threats to peace. Today, we can definitely say that the potential of United Nations peacekeeping activities has significantly increased in both quantitative and qualitative terms.
The fourth point concerns gender. There is a crucial element common to peacekeeping and peacebuilding that is conspicuous by its absence in the concept note for today's debate (S/2013/4, annex). Perhaps the single most transformative step towards ensuring the success of peacekeepers as early peacebuilders would be the deployment of more women on missions.
Women are one of the principal pivots in the transformation of a society. It is therefore vital to enhance their participation in decision-making. The integration of women into the police and the army will make it possible to enhance the fight against sexual violence and to promote human rights within those institutions.
Clear and detailed planning is required to ensure that the peacekeeping-peacebuilding transition is seamless in order to avoid any regression into conflict. That requires the involvement of local communities in trust-building exercises and the involvement of women at all levels of society in remaking their communities.
In our delegation's view, the time has come to consider peacekeeping operations from a broad- based, holistic angle that from the outset includes the traditional components of peacekeeping operations, but that is combined with a strategic mandate that makes it possible to involve, insofar as the situation on the ground allows, the components of peacebuilding and sustainable development, including the gender perspective and the empowerment of w
Finally, let me conclude by seconding the call that we have heard so many times today for the adequate participation of women at all stages of peacebuilding efforts and for their full inclusion in decision-making processes.
We recognize the role played by women in preventing and resolving conflicts, and appreciate the inclusion of the gender dimension in mandates. Further work is necessary in that regard to ensure women's full participation in peacekeeping, peacebuilding and security issues. In that context, we also draw attention to the potential role of regional entities, given their successful past experiences in Africa.
This debate provides us with yet another opportunity to look into an important tool in the architecture for the maintenance of international peace and security: peacekeeping operations. Those operations, in a changing international situation that is increasingly complex, have had to adapt and now function in a different way to how they were originally conceived.
Thirdly, women represent almost 50 per cent of our total population. Their rights and roles in preventing conflict and rebuilding society cannot be overemphasized. They deserve equal rights in the context of the peace process and nation-building. Unfortunately, they become the principal victims of conflict and, in the recovery process, they are often neglected.
