Implementation

China is ready to continue to play, with the international community, an active role in fighting sexual violence in armed conflict.

Secondly, the Security Council has an active role to play in fighting sexual violence in armed conflict, in the light of its own mandate and strengths. However, it is different from the Human Rights Council and it is also different from the Commission on the Status of Women. When addressing sexual violence, the Council must not encroach upon the responsibilities of other United Nations bodies.

First, combating sexual violence in conflict must be done with full respect for national sovereignty, and should rely primarily on national efforts. National Governments bear the primary responsibility for protecting women's rights in their country; it is they, first and foremost, that should carry out the task of implementing the Council's resolutions and fighting sexual violence in conflict.

China took an active part in the consultations on drafting today's resolution on sexual violence in armed conflict (resolution 2106 (2013)), and has just voted in favour of it. We believe that the Special Representatives and United Nations missions should implement it in strict observance of the Council's mandate.

We wish to express concern, however, about the fact that in several areas it is still difficult to investigate and judge crimes of sexual violence committed against women and children because the national courts lack skills and expertise. That continues to make it difficult to bring perpetrators of such crimes to trial. For that reason, we emphasize the support needed from the United Nations as regards capacity-building in that area.

We agree with the Secretary-General's March report on sexual violence in conflict (S/2013/149) that national courts remain primarily responsible for investigating and judging crimes of sexual violence in conflicts, and we value the important complementary role played by the international tribunals in combating crimes of that kind.

In recent years, efforts have been made to modernize Chilean institutions to conform to the human rights and gender focus of resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions on the subject in a forward-looking approach reflecting our national and regional reality.

Chile attaches great importance to the prevention of sexual violence in conflicts and to the care, protection and compensation of victims of sexual violence in conflict. On earlier occasions we have drawn attention, inter alia, to the progress made by our national legislation on the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).

Although that action concerns the national sphere, we also attach great importance to the enhancement of the international humanitarian response capacity and to the role of international cooperation in achieving those goals, particularly in the context of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

The Security Council and the United Nations system should act systematically and comprehensively to address gaps and challenges in its work on women, peace and security, as well as to monitor the commitments by parties to conflict to prevent and address conflict-related sexual violence.