Participation

The Nordic countries promote women's participation at all stages of conflict prevention, peace negotiations and peacebuilding processes. Sexual violence should always be addressed in peace and ceasefire agreements, and no amnesty should be granted for such abuses.

The Security Council should also reaffirm its commitment to integrating the gender equality dimension and the protection of civilians from sexual and gender-based violence into the mandates of peacekeeping operations. The connections between violence against women and the ability of women to participate in conflict prevention and management, as well as in peacebuilding and development, must be better understood.

Women's full enjoyment of all human rights has been a priority of the Human Security Network since its inception. While it is crucial to this agenda that we maintain momentum in the fight against sexual violence, we also underline the importance of women's empowerment as part of the solution.

Strengthening the role and capacity of women, as well as justice and the enforcement of their rights, is of utmost importance for the Government of Colombia. In that effort, the contribution of the United Nations system and the international community is essential.

Resolution 1888 (2009) includes provisions for increasing the participation of women in peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts. We agree that their participation in that regard contributes to creating an atmosphere of trust in which women and children can expose the abuses to which they are subjected.

Allow me first to emphasize the importance of the role of the United Nations in promoting the participation of women in achieving peace, security and development, as well as in the initiatives undertaken in response to the problem of sexual violence in conflicts.

I conclude by thanking the presidency of the Council for this month, the United States, for having convened this debate, and by calling on the Council to engage decisively in the implementation of the resolutions, which Chile supported together with the mother resolution 1325 (2000), for which we already have a national plan.

Canada welcomes today's presentation by Special Representative of the Secretary-General Wallström, and strongly supports her efforts to provide strategic leadership and strengthen United Nations coordination mechanisms in order to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence.

We reiterate the need for adequate capabilities and clear and appropriate guidelines to enable peacekeeping missions to carry out their mandated tasks, including preventing and responding to sexual violence. Recruiting women in civil, military and police components of peacekeeping missions can encourage local women to report incidents of sexual violence.

United Nations peacekeeping missions must also strengthen their prevention and protection capacities. We welcome efforts under way to develop scenariobased training materials, such as curricula based on the publication entitled “Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: An Analytical Inventory of Peacekeeping Practice”.