Implementation

While welcoming the Council's continued dialogue and consultations with regional organizations, as well as joint actions on the ground, we would encourage an enhanced focus on issues of justice and accountability; tackling impunity for crimes against civilian populations, including sexual violence in conflict; and the effective implementation of Security Council resolutions on women and peace and security, and children and armed conflict.

I will soon come back to the Council with further elements for the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework, which will be built on three critical pillars: political and security, humanitarian and development.

Moreover, upon the initiative of the President of the Republic, national consultations are to begin in August. Their purpose is to endeavour together to find ways and means to enhance national unity in order to better cope with all of the challenges facing the Congolese nation.

To the contrary, the resolutions of the Security Council affirm that this crime, when committed systematically and used as a tool of war, is a fundamental threat to the maintenance of international peace and security, and as such requires an operational, security and justice response. That paradigm shift requires a new approach to attack the scourge of war-time rape.

The United Nations Team of Experts plays an important role in that regard, serving as a ready resource for national authorities in their efforts to strengthen the rule-of-law response to sexual violence. That is proving to be an innovative and valuable tool for Governments, and should be further reinforced.

The draft resolution to be adopted by the Council today consolidates that approach.

Over the course of five years, we have seen significant progress at the political level, advances led largely by the Security Council.

I cannot overemphasize that the commitment of the United Nations system, however great it may be, can never substitute for the political will and action of national actors. The United Nations, through the United Nations Action Network of 13 entities, stands ready to support local efforts.

Crucially, the draft resolution calls on all parties to a conflict to make specific commitments to prevent sexual violence, and challenges the United Nations to engage with parties to illicit such commitments. Such an engagement-based approach has already begun to yield results, with several formal agreements between the United Nations and affected countries to address conflict-related sexual violence.

The women's protection advisers are a new cadre of specialists combining political and security expertise, human rights monitoring and gender analysis. Their principal role is to catalyse the implementation of the key operational aspects of the Council's resolutions on sexual violence in conflict.