Justice, Rule of Law and Security Sector Reform

The European Union supports the work aimed at increasing the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peacebuilding, promoting women's equal participation in all efforts for the promotion of peace and security and providing an integrated approach to prevent and punish acts of sexual violence, as well as to bring justice, services and reparation to its victims.

In that regard, we acknowledge the important contribution of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to expanding the scope of gender and sexual-based violence. We encourage States that have not yet done so to ratify the Statute, enact domestic criminal legislation of those atrocious crimes and to routinely and systematically prosecute them as the primary means of ensuring accountability.

Justice for victims of atrocity crimes, however, entails more than just punishing perpetrators. The Rome Statute further empowers victims by its broad victim- participation scheme and underlines its commitment to victims by its reparations provisions. Likewise, the ICC Trust Fund for Victims has been doing important work to alleviate the suffering of victims in the countries where the Court is conducting investigations.

Estonia welcomes the call by the Security Council in today's resolution to Member States to comply with their relevant obligations to end impunity and to thoroughly investigate and prosecute persons responsible for atrocity crimes.

Estonia was honoured to join the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict during the General Assembly's opening week. We were also glad to see how much interest there was in the topic of enhancing accountability for sexual violence in conflict, discussed at a side event during that week that focused on the role of the ICC and that was hosted by the Estonian Mission to the United Nations.

Estonia is dedicated to protecting and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms, both nationally and internationally. As a member of the Human Rights Council, our particular focus is on the rights of women and children, gender perspective in conflict settlements and the fight against impunity.

Additionally, as stated in the Secretary-General's report (S/2013/525), women's representation in the justice sector plays a significant role in increasing the reporting of crimes and enhancing public trust in the rule of law institutions. The importance of prevention must likewise be stressed. By enabling women to fully participate in judicial systems, we can better tackle the root causes of impunity for violence against women.

Secondly, Egypt is deeply concerned about the increasing rates and patterns of violence against women and girls around the world, particularly sexual violence in armed conflicts and post-conflict situations.

The Czech Republic fully endorses the relevant rules of international criminal law regarding “rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, enforced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity”.

It is our conviction that the international community should put particular focus on preventive efforts, namely in the case of those violations of international law that belong to the core crimes included under the concept of the responsibility to protect. The rich jurisprudence of the international criminal tribunals has recognized rape as a powerful tool of war used to intimidate, persecute and terrorize the enemy.