Participation

In addition, a number of administrative units have been established to review the position of women and improve the gender balance within the various Government sectors and ministries at the national and provincial levels. Those units continue to form focial points and to guide plans and strategies for the empowerment of women and to promote their participation in society.

Spain wishes to express its gratitude for the opportunity to participate in today's Security Council debate and to discuss the specific measures that need to be promoted in order to ensure the full participation of women and girls in peace processes.

Spain has devoted significant efforts to the promotion of the role of women and the gender perspective in conflict situations. In that regard, I would like to recall that my country drafted an action plan on women, peace and security in 2007, which has been updated several times since; in fact, the third monitoring report was presented during the second half of 2012.

We remain conscious of the fact that women and children are the most vulnerable members of society. They suffer disproportionately from conflict and State incapacity. Their experience of conflict, violence and repression, and their particular needs in such contexts usually differ from those of men. Unfortunately, women tend to be sidelined from formal conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes.

Equally, we urge the Secretary-General to give specific attention to the appointment of women to senior positions, including chief mediators and heads of political, peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions. We maintain that greater effort needs to be expended towards the deployment of greater numbers of female military and police personnel to United Nations peacekeeping operations.

There are many persistent obstacles to women's participation and representation in public decision-making processes. An important one is the lack of security. Sexual violence and other forms of gender-based violence, as well as a lack of accountability and, consequently, impunity for such acts impede women from actively engaging in public life and decision-making.

The promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls was raised also by Slovene high- level representatives in various international forums. Slovenia has made progress in training civilian and military personnel to be deployed to international operations and missions on issues regarding women, peace and security.

Let me highlight the importance of addressing the challenges to women's and girls' participation and representation. We welcome the increased number of women on the roster of mediation experts and among the Secretary-General's Special Representatives and Deputy Representatives. We consider that in some situations, women mediators or representatives facilitate interactions with local women and civil society organizations.

Women are not only victims of armed conflicts; they make a significant contribution to preventing and settling them. The direct involvement of women in conflict prevention and settlement is, in our view, an important precondition for overcoming violence against them.

Russia is convinced that there exists a significant and positive potential for women to participate in various aspects of armed conflict settlement and postconflict recovery. The Council and relevant agencies and mechanisms of the United Nations system must pay more attention to ways to involve women in such processes, as required under resolution 1325 (2000).