Croatia, as a Troop and Police Contributing Country, is fully aware of the ongoing efforts aimed at improving the implementation of the resolution 1325 and the necessity of increasing the deployment of more women in peacekeeping missions. Croatia also uses sex-disaggregated data in order to better monitor and track progress in its reports on levels of military deployments to peacekeeping operations.

Although many women were victims in the wars that took place in South East Europe, they also had an active role in opposing armed conflict and building understanding and peace amongst the national groups of our region.

We must expand the role of women in negotiation, mediation, dialogue, constitution drafting, elections, reconstruction and justice. The report of the Secretary-General (S/2008/622) gives us various examples of success stories around the world, where the effective participation of women has borne fruit.

The exclusion of women from the processes of conflict resolution and peacebuilding has an excessively high cost that we cannot afford. That exclusion not only weakens the effectiveness of conflict-prevention mechanisms, but also drastically reduces the opportunities for peacebuilding.

Negotiation of peace agreements and postconflict reconstruction are nothing new for women, who are catalysts for national econciliation. They strengthen development efforts and are fundamental factors in the restoration of stability in societies that have suffered the ravages of war.

However, we still lack sufficient political will and resources to promote the systematic participation of women in United Nations peacekeeping operations. The report of the Secretary- General disturbingly highlights the fact that only 2.2 per cent of military personnel in United Nations peacekeeping operations and 7.6 per cent of civilian police personnel are women.

Costa Rica does not want to idealize or to overburden women by exaggerating their capacities in those functions. However, because of the characteristic qualities of women, we are convinced that policies of gender equality and the inclusion of women constitute very important contributions in our efforts to avoid conflicts and to resolve them when they do occur.

Costa Rica considers that incorporation of the gender perspective is an indispensable tool for dealing with the terrible effects of conflict and is helpful too in conflict prevention. Women have the capacity to bring peace to all factions and to every home.

As Simone de Beauvoir said, one is not born a woman, but becomes one. But in order to change this, we must give explicit support to the participation of women, in particular in decision-making, so as to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment.

The adoption of resolution 1325 (2000) represents an important stage in the collective will of the international community to promote the rights and interests of women. However, it should not be regarded as an end in itself. In other words, we should not be satisfied by simple egular reviews. Only genuine political will coupled with concrete commitment to peace will make possible the achievement of the objectives of resolution 1325 (2000).