Justice, Rule of Law and Security Sector Reform

The Council needs to be consistent in its decisions and reinforce the message that impunity is simply not acceptable, sexual violence is simply not tolerable and there can be no genuine security without women's security.

The six-point priority agenda of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General is a good way to address impunity, empower women to seek redress, strengthen the international political response and foster national ownership.

The Council has set a good example by sending strong signals that sexual and gender-based violence is unacceptable. We should give due credit to the Security Council for transforming the protection of women in armed conflict situations from a soft to a hard issue.

Thirdly, we call on the Security Council to continue to combat impunity for crimes of sexual violence and to use its unique power to increase the pressure through targeted sanctions against perpetrators of sexual violence.

The rehabilitation of victims will not be possible unless they have access to comprehensive services. That includes access to health, justice and reparations. As long as survivors have little or nothing to gain from reporting sexual violence and coming forward, under- reporting will continue and impunity will prevail.

Security threats against women are often dismissed as belonging to the private sphere or are written off as cultural issues. But let us be clear, conflict-related sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, and, in the most extreme cases, an act of genocide. We must respond with the same sense of urgency as we do to other threats against peace and security.

As long as the permanent members of the Security Council remain divided, gross human rights violations are allowed to continue with impunity. In his report, the Secretary-General makes a number of important recommendations to the Security Council on combating impunity.

Fourthly, we favour strengthening the role of the International Criminal Court as the ultimate resort in fighting impunity against the most serious crimes.

In many countries, developing codes of conduct for security and police forces is very important to providing comprehensive protection from sexual violence.

Committing to combating impunity, implementing cooperation programmes with the judiciary to try perpetrators, and providing reparations to victims of sexual violence constitute the necessary safeguards to ensure that such crimes will not recur. Commitments in that regard must be implemented on the ground; that is a fundamental element in preventing the crimes.