Participation

During our deliberations on this issue last year, Indonesia recognized the need to facilitate the full and effective participation of women in all stages of peace processes and peacebuilding. Indonesia supports more women playing key roles in peacekeeping missions, including as military and police personnel.

Thirdly, there was a strong call to the United Nations system and Member States to use the tenth anniversary as an impetus to get serious about implementation. The Secretary-General should insist on accountability for the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) by the United Nations system.

In particular, Iceland has supported the extraordinary work of the International Women's Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian- Israeli Peace. This is an organization where women from opposite sides of the conflict, together with a group of women from the international community, have managed to find viable ways to promote peace and peaceful alternatives to conflict

Women are not only victims of conflicts but powerful agents for peace and security. Therefore, the empowerment of women to fulfil this potential is of the utmost importance. The system of granting microcredits to women has proved successful within the context of development cooperation. Empowering women would also help in security sector reform as well as disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes.

What can Member States do? I will give the Council just a few examples. Germany has advocated the inclusion of gender advisers in all European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) missions. The mission of the European Union-led peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had, for the first time, such an adviser among its personnel. During Germany's presidency, gender advisers were part of all ESDP missions.

We urge the United Nations to lead by example. We commend the Secretary-General for his efforts to increase the number of women in senior leadership positions, and we encourage him to break even more ground in the years to come. We welcome the call, in the resolution just adopted, to the Secretary-General to develop a strategy to that end.

We do not only need to make sure that we have women present at the table at all levels of decision- making. We should consider working towards agreeing on international standards regarding participation of women and men in peace and post-conflict processes. We also need to make sure that women can fully use their potential, skills and leadership to foster quick and sustainable recovery and peacebuilding.

The recent adoption of resolution 1888 (2009) and its request for the appointment of a special representative of the Secretary-General to provide leadership and improve coherence and coordination of United Nations action against sexual violence in conflict was a major step forward.

Nine years ago, the Security Council adopted resolution 1325 (2000) for the protection of women, for their participation and for the promotion of their rights in conflict and post-conflict situations. Last year, the Council adopted resolution 1820 (2008), condemning sexual violence as a tactic of war, and last week it adopted resolution 1888 (2009) to further strengthen the United Nations response to sexual violence in conflict.

Next year will mark the tenth anniversary of resolution 1325 (2000). There has been progress in its implementation, but a lot of work remains to be done before our commitments are fulfilled. The unanimous decision by the General Assembly, in its resolution 63/311, to create a new gender entity was long awaited worldwide. Now we must set up the ambitious goal of having the new entity up and running by mid-2010.