Participation

We find it encouraging that in 2014, women were part of every mediation effort by the United Nations, as well as the majority of national delegations, in nine of the 12 peace processes involving the United Nations. The number of peace agreements containing specialized provisions pertaining to women has increased significantly.

I would like to conclude by noting that this landmark year of the triple review of United Nations peacekeeping and peacebuilding together with the high- level review of resolution 1325 (2000) will continue spur action worldwide in fulfilling the imperative to better protect women, especially in conflict and post- conflict situations.

We voted in favour of resolution 2242 (2015), which was prepared by Spain and the United Kingdom and was designed to take stock of the 15 years of implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) and to set out the main guidelines for further efforts by Member States and the United Nations system as a whole in the important task of ensuring the participation of women in conflict prevention and resolution.

In that regard, and to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), Portugal commits to promoting increased participation by women in international missions for the strengthening and maintenance of peace and security, and for humanitarian aid and crisis management; to continuing to actively promote the women and peace and security agenda in the main multilateral forums to which Portugal is a party, such as the Unit

From the outset, Portugal has been a strong and consistent supporter of the women and peace and security agenda in order to address the disproportionate impact of armed conflict on women and girls and enhance their participation in peace processes. We were therefore very pleased to co-sponsor resolution 2242 (2015), adopted by the Council yesterday.

In the Philippines, we are now striving to accomplish both. Our current endeavours draw their context from long decades of an internal armed conflict involving various armed fronts, and our current peace agenda involves five peace tables.

History has not failed to remind us about the scars and wounds of war, deeply etched in humankind’s soul, with war’s trail of blood that always leads to a bleeding woman’s doorstep and a weeping child’s nightmare. The time has come for all Governments to ensure that women are given a greater role in preventing armed conflict or, once it has broken out, in resolving it and ensuring its enduring and inclusive peace dividends.