With regard to the issue of women and girls and the justice sector, Slovenia is supporting a project aimed at improving the status of juvenile offenders, particularly girls, and strengthening the juvenile justice sector in the Afghan province of Herat.
We also consider it important that the topic under discussion today be addressed by regional organizations as well, as important stakeholders in the task of ensuring peace and security.
The role of international criminal courts and tribunals, in particular the International Criminal Court (ICC), remains crucial to the establishment of the rule of law, especially in cases where States are unable or unwilling to pursue accountability for serious crimes.
The primary responsibility for the prosecution of conflict-related crimes, including violations of women's rights, belongs to States. However, while the principle of complementarity enhances national capabilities to prosecute such crimes effectively, more efforts must be made to improve criminal justice at the national level. The international legal framework for judicial assistance to countries should be strengthened.
Rebuilding justice and the rule of law is critical to any post-conflict transitional process burdened by the legacies of mass atrocities, serious human-rights violations and a weakened judicial infrastructure. A gender perspective, as well as the participation of women, should be injected into those processes. Transitional justice processes should address the full range of conflict-related violations of women's rights.
Addressing abhorrent violations by ensuring access to justice, formal and informal, as well as full rights of redress, is essential to the process of reconciliation and lasting peace. Importantly, preventing impunity for the perpetrators of such crimes decreases the chance that they will recur in the future. Furthermore, the representation of women should be ensured in the justice sector.
Rwandans have come to understand first hand the importance of strengthening internal justice mechanisms and building institutions that enhance accessibility to justice. We believe that the fight against impunity is primarily the responsibility of States.
Our Government considers violence against women and girls as an assault on human dignity. Over the years, we have created a favourable environment for gender equality, women's empowerment and children's rights.
My delegation welcomes the adoption of resolution 2122 (2013) and hopes that it will help speed up the implementation of the women and peace and security agenda articulated in resolution 1325 (2000).
