Secondly, women's participation at all stages of the peace process needs to be enhanced. The exclusion of women and the lack of gender expertise in negotiations may lead to irreversible setbacks for women's rights, leaving crucial issues such women's engagement in post-conflict governance neglected in peace accords. Efforts to increase women's participation in decision-making bodies need to be sustained.
My Government believes that the newly established UN-Women has a central role to play in coordinating the activities of the United Nations and in implementing resolution 1325 (2000).
First, eliminating impunity is critical to preventing gender-based crimes. We commend the Council's continued efforts to fight impunity and uphold accountability for serious crimes against women and girls.
Indeed, while acknowledging that important progress has been accomplished in the implementation of resolution 1325 and the subsequent resolutions on Women Peace and Security, we need to recognize that significant challenges still remain: women are still underrepresented at the several levels of peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts as they are inadequately represented in formal peace negotiations.
Women have indeed a crucial role to play in rebuilding war torn societies and in reserving social cohesion. They did it in Europe during and after two World Wars, they did it in South America and they did it in Africa in countries divided by civilian strive. They still do it on a daily basis in several countries tormented by conflict.
Women are indispensable actors of change and development. The Arab Spring is a stage for the active participation of women in political processes. Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan women have, today, higher and legitimate expectations than in the past regarding their role in the shaping of their countries' future.
To conclude, Madam President, Portugal has been striving to support the promotion and protection of the human rights of women but also women's political participation in situations in the agenda of the Council like in Libya, Somalia, South Sudan or in Afghanistan among others. This Council cannot afford to exclude the skills and talents of half of the world's population in the pursuit of peace.
This Council has also a key role to play in monitoring women's participation in political processes and I would take this opportunity to highlight once again the importance of inviting Michelle Bachelet to brief the Council on women's political participation in concrete situations in the agenda of the Council to complement the briefings that the Council receives from other parts of the Secretariat.
The decision of the Nobel Prize Committee to award the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize to three women in recognition "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work" is a much deserved recognition of women's significant contribution to peacebuilding and democracy.
In this regard, we welcome UN Women's efforts to give technical support to women's organizations and we recognize that much has been done with success at local and regional level to strengthen women's civil society groups. We also welcome every effort by Member States to promote women's political participation and to eliminate discriminatory or constitutional barriers against women.
