Implementation

Fourthly, I should say that in my professional life I have always been concerned with the grave problem of violence against women in general and on the impact it has on every aspect of economic and social development.

Thirdly, appropriate medical and psychosocial support for survivors of sexual violence, including access to sexual reproductive health services, as well as access to justice and reparations, are fundamental prerequisites for the effective reintegration of women into their respective societies.

Secondly, when sexual violence constitutes a crime against humanity, a war crime or even genocide, it has to be subject to punishment and has to be excluded from amnesty provisions.

Let me end by stressing that the Security Council has a role to play in monitoring the commitments made by parties to conflicts. In this regard, it can and should do more to hold perpetrators accountable.

Lastly, our full support is needed by those who are essential to the fight against the scourge of sexual violence, such as human rights defenders, doctors and journalists, who are themselves at special risk.

We live in a world today where rape is used as a weapon of physical, psychological and social destruction, a world where in some places where women's bodies have become a real battleground. Such sexual violence committed in conflict should in no way be forgotten or go unpunished, and that is what we have come here to say today.

Those four actions consist of, first, strengthening protection on the ground. Women's protection advisers play a key role. France wishes to see their deployment in peacekeeping and political missions extended beyond the missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Mali, and, above all, that they be provided with appropriate resources to carry out their work.

Thirdly, we must take to the fight against impunity with earnest; stigma and shame must switch sides so that the victims are no longer those who suffer the consequences of the crimes. That task falls above all to Governments, which have the responsibility to prosecute and punish. However, as has been said, if the State is unable to so act, the International Criminal Court, which is universal, must and should play its role

Significant progress has been made since then, above all political progress, due in particular to the efforts of the Special Representative of the Secretary- General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. I would like once again to commend her commitment, as it has strengthened international awareness on the subject.

In Mali, the President of the Republic has underscored that the French intervention was in fact also based on the need to defend the rights of female victims of violence. The deployment of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, the political process currently under way and the elections to come will, we hope, assist in re-establishing peace and stability in the country.