General Women, Peace and Security

I would also commend the support and cooperation that Papua New Guinea continues to receive from our bilateral development partners, including Australia, the United States, New Zealand, the European Union and others, on mainstreaming gender issues that contribute to peace, security and national development.

At the regional level, the launch of the 2012-2015 Pacific Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, in 2012, has provided a strong framework from which national and regional actions can be better and more effectively developed and coordinated.

Apart from the United Nations, we continue to have strong support from our development partners — Australia and New Zealand, along with other partners such as the European Union — which are prioritizing gender empowerment and equality by providing capacity-building programmes for our women and girls in the area of peace and security.

The six-point priority agenda of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General is a good way to address impunity, empower women to seek redress, strengthen the international political response and foster national ownership.

Such mechanisms and measures have provided relief and justice to the affected populations, but it is a long haul. In that context, we support Special Representative Bangura's call to all parties to conflicts to immediately put an end to violence against women and make specific, time-bound commitments to ensure the non-recurrence of such acts, under the appropriate monitoring mechanisms.

Resolution 1325 (2000) recognized that disproportionate impact on women and introduced remedial measures. Member States have resolved to collectively oppose and fight the unconscionable practices of rape, sexual slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced pregnancies, enforced sterilization and other forms of sexual violence.

Over the years, the Security Council has paid close attention to the cause of protecting the human rights of vulnerable groups in situations of armed conflict. The issue of women and peace and security has been integrated into the Council's country-specific resolutions.

Sustainable peace cannot be achieved without inclusive processes in which women's agency and contributions are fully recognized. We strongly commend the tireless work of civil society organizations in continuing to advance women's participation and bringing their voices from the ground to the fore of international peace and security.

Secondly, we must ensure that the resolutions on women and peace and security are not only part of Security Council's debates but also have real impact on the ground and that commitments are followed up.

Even better news is the assessment that there seems to be an emerging trend, when new problems emerge, as recently they did in Mali and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to have explicit women peace and security language incorporated into mandates at the outset of a mission. We urge that that trend continue.