The responsibility to implement relevant Security Council resolutions with a view to enhancing women's participation in peace processes, including the protection of women from all forms of sexual violence, rests primarily with their respective Governments. At the national level, stress has been placed on national ownership of the peacebuilding process. Indonesia fully agrees with this.
Predeployment gender-related training for peacekeepers is also significant in contributing to a more enhanced understanding of the protection of women and children by United Nations peacekeepers. The gender training workshop for peacekeepers that will be held in Indonesia next April is part of such efforts.
At the international level, the emergence of a universal working definition to facilitate data collection should advocate timely, reliable and verified information and proper analysis of data on the
It is also important that the role of women not be minimized in any way at this level. Their inputs are integral to enhancing civilian capacity, especially in the most affected developing countries. Indonesia believes that dialogue, partnership and cooperation within the framework of the global South are of critical importance to the peacebuilding capacities of developing countries.
The Secretary-General, in his report, referred to efforts to establish a framework of early warning indicators specific to conflict-related sexual violence. The United Nations has also developed a set of indicators as global markers of progress in the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). We have taken note of those efforts.
On the part of the United Nations, there has been modest progress in areas such as gender mainstreaming in peacekeeping operations and training of peacekeeping personnel on gender perspectives. In that context, we commend Special Representative Wallström for having brought a new synergy in addressing the issue of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict.
India will continue to contribute positively to United Nations efforts in protecting vulnerable sectors of the population, particularly women and children, in conflict and post-conflict societies. I would also like to emphasize that the international community needs to enhance cooperation by providing new and additional financial resources, sharing experiences and building capacity in the areas of justice and the rule of law.
It is a matter of deep regret that the international community must repeatedly debate the issue of sexual and other forms of violence against women and girls in situations of armed conflict. That abhorrent behaviour, whether perpetrated by the parties to the armed conflict or by others, must be unequivocally, unambiguously and resolutely condemned. There should be no tolerance for gender-based violence.
We recognize that we have also made some progress over the years. As examples, one can cite the creation of a platform in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the operational coordination of resources dedicated to providing specific services to combat sexual violence in conflicts; or the request for assistance to revitalize the national strategy on sexual violence based on gender in Cote d'Ivoire.
We applaud some of the conceptual advances contained in the Secretary-General's Report, in proposing a more detailed characterization on the scope of conflict-related sexual violence, based on the analysis and trends of some twenty situations on the ground.
