Implementation

Spain welcomes the Secretary-General's report (S/2012/732) and supports its observations and recommendations, in particular the attention that the role of women's organizations deserves in the context of the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peacebuilding.

Spain has devoted significant efforts to the promotion of the role of women and the gender perspective in conflict situations. In that regard, I would like to recall that my country drafted an action plan on women, peace and security in 2007, which has been updated several times since; in fact, the third monitoring report was presented during the second half of 2012.

Spain has also been promoting a number of initiatives in the field of foreign policy, cooperation for development and defence policy to ensure the proper implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).

My country also wishes to acknowledge the work done in this area by UN-Women and its Executive Director, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, and to convey our appreciation and gratitude for the recent publication of the sourcebook on women, peace and security, which is a very practical contribution to the full implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).

At the same time, in response to the appeals of the international community for greater efforts to train civilian and military personnel on gender issues, this year once again the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and the Ministry of Defence of my country, in collaboration with their counterparts in the Netherlands, held the third iteration of the International Course on Gender-Integrated Approach in Operations.

We are supportive of the efforts undertaken by the Council to ensure that more systematic attention is given in all its work to the implementation of commitments in the area of women, peace and security. The integration of appropriate gender perspectives into the mandates of the relevant peacekeeping missions and in other thematic areas related to peace and security would positively advance efforts in that regard.

My delegation notes that much work still needs to be done to strengthen the role of women in preventive diplomacy, formal peace processes and mediation. We therefore remain fully committed to working, in cooperation with the United Nations system and Member States, towards the removal of barriers impeding the full and effective implementation of the resolution.

We welcome this year's focus on the role of women's civil society organizations in contributing to the prevention and resolution of armed conflict and to peacebuilding.

The promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls was raised also by Slovene high- level representatives in various international forums. Slovenia has made progress in training civilian and military personnel to be deployed to international operations and missions on issues regarding women, peace and security.

Let me highlight the importance of addressing the challenges to women's and girls' participation and representation. We welcome the increased number of women on the roster of mediation experts and among the Secretary-General's Special Representatives and Deputy Representatives. We consider that in some situations, women mediators or representatives facilitate interactions with local women and civil society organizations.