Participation

First, we urgently need to increase the active participation and representation of women in all political, justice and peace processes. Indeed, many studies have shown that women’s participation increases the effectiveness of humanitarian aid, the credibility and quality of peacekeeping operations, the speed of economic recovery in post-conflict situations and the sustainability of peace agreements.

Bangladesh welcomes the adoption of the gender strategy by the Peacebuilding Commission, and has been particularly supportive of further strengthening women’s participation and leadership in this year’s resolutions on peacebuilding architecture and mediation. We are relieved to learn about the mediated release and rescue of a number of women and girls held hostage by certain international and regional terrorist groups.

As part of our contribution to United Nations peacekeeping, we remain committed to enhancing the role and participation of women, including in our national contingents. So far, Bangladesh has had 1,047 women peacekeepers participating in various missions, including 774 police personnel. We are currently in the process of detailing two female military observers, and look forward to deploying women contingent commanders in the near future.

By harnessing the expertise of civil society organizations on the ground we can be more effective in our efforts to remove barriers and create meaningful opportunities for women to engage equally in all stages of peace processes. Civil society groups represent those whose lived experience is most relevant. In most instances, they existed before the conflict and they will exist after it.

Sustaining peace will be achieved only if we increase the participation of women as actors in all stages of the peace process, including in particular in peacekeeping operations. We wish to underscore that 15 per cent of Argentine personnel participating in peacekeeping operations or in special political missions are women, according to the latest data. That is higher than the general average of 4.22 per cent.

We further share the Secretary-General’s view on the need to strengthen women’s particiaption and leadership in peace and security endeavours and on United Nations progress towards achieving a gender balance in its staff at all levels by emphasizing the essential link between women’s involvement in conflict prevention and resolution and post-conflict reconstruction in order to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of these processes.

The first entails establishing a network of African women mediators to contribute to the search for a peaceful resolution of conflicts on the continent and to support communities in their peacebuilding efforts.