At the same time, in response to the appeals of the international community for greater efforts to train civilian and military personnel on gender issues, this year once again the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and the Ministry of Defence of my country, in collaboration with their counterparts in the Netherlands, held the third iteration of the International Course on Gender-Integrated Approach in Operations.

We remain conscious of the fact that women and children are the most vulnerable members of society. They suffer disproportionately from conflict and State incapacity. Their experience of conflict, violence and repression, and their particular needs in such contexts usually differ from those of men. Unfortunately, women tend to be sidelined from formal conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes.

We are supportive of the efforts undertaken by the Council to ensure that more systematic attention is given in all its work to the implementation of commitments in the area of women, peace and security. The integration of appropriate gender perspectives into the mandates of the relevant peacekeeping missions and in other thematic areas related to peace and security would positively advance efforts in that regard.

Post-conflict recovery and reconstruction programmes often overlook women's security needs, which ultimately compromises the inclusiveness and sustainability of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts. Access to justice for women in post-conflict States through deliberate policies of inclusion is essential to building fair, equitable and equal societies.

My delegation notes that much work still needs to be done to strengthen the role of women in preventive diplomacy, formal peace processes and mediation. We therefore remain fully committed to working, in cooperation with the United Nations system and Member States, towards the removal of barriers impeding the full and effective implementation of the resolution.

Equally, we urge the Secretary-General to give specific attention to the appointment of women to senior positions, including chief mediators and heads of political, peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions. We maintain that greater effort needs to be expended towards the deployment of greater numbers of female military and police personnel to United Nations peacekeeping operations.

South Africa is pleased to note the valuable contribution that gender advisers in post-conflict settings continue to make through the provision of training to and awareness-raising of peacekeepers and assisting in the capacity-building activities of national Governments and of civil society. However, we remain concerned at the slow deployment of women protection advisers to peacekeeping missions.

We welcome this year's focus on the role of women's civil society organizations in contributing to the prevention and resolution of armed conflict and to peacebuilding.

There are many persistent obstacles to women's participation and representation in public decision-making processes. An important one is the lack of security. Sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence, as well as a lack of accountability and, consequently, impunity for such acts impede women from actively engaging in public life and decision-making.

The promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls was raised also by Slovene high- level representatives in various international forums. Slovenia has made progress in training civilian and military personnel to be deployed to international operations and missions on issues regarding women, peace and security.