Implementation

Pakistan is also grateful to Madam Bachelet for an insightful presentation. We commend the valuable role UN Women plays in promoting the wider goal of gender equality in general and Women Peace and Security in particular. Pakistan will continue to play its part in strengthening UN Women.

We believe that more needs to be done to create an enabling environment for the participation of women in all stages of the peace process. Such efforts to create the right conditions for ensuring women's full participation should include increasing their participation and representation in preventive diplomacy and in conflict resolution and peacebuilding initiatives.

Today's discussion affords us the distinct opportunity to reflect on our achievements so far, but more importantly to make an assessment of outstanding requirements to realize those objectives. As the Council strives to ensure that the provisions of the women and peace and security agenda are integrated into its work, it stands to benefit from the unique grass-roots perspectives that women's civil society organizations could provide.

The Council adopted resolution 1325 (2000), which was a milestone achievement towards the recognition of the importance of women's equal participation and full involvement in the maintenance of peace and security, including conflict management, peacekeeping and post-conflict peacebuilding. It is particularly significant that this debate is breaking new ground by focusing on the specific role layed

Promoting women's equality and empowerment is, in our view, one of the best ways to address the root causes of conflicts and thereby prevent them. We recognize the relevance of and relationship between the Council's preventive diplomacy initiatives and its women and peace and security agenda.

Nigeria recognizes the central role of UN-Women, working in close partnership and collaboration with the Special Representatives of the Secretary- General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and for Children and Armed Conflict, respectively. The gaps and challenges hindering the full implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) are indeed substantial. National, regional and international actors must rededicate themselves to addressing them.

In compliance with those principles and the provisions of the various gender frameworks, and as a means to confront the challenges of meeting gender equality and women's empowerment, Nigeria, under the leadership of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has for the first time attained 33 per cent representation for women in the decision-making process, appointing, for instance, 13 women ministers in the federal Cabinet.

As a signatory to the Dakar Declaration of the Economic Community of West African States, Nigeria has committed itself to accelerating the national and regional implementation of that important resolution. Nigeria is also committed to fulfilling its obligations under the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights on the rights of women in Africa.

We particularly note the important role played by women's organizations in our own region. They were vital components of peace processes in Bougainville in Papua New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands. And we anticipate that Papua New Guinea will speak on that in some detail shortly. As Luxembourg highlighted in its statement to the Council, that was also the case in Timor-Leste.

We also welcome the Secretary-General's report on women and peace and security (S/2012/732) and draw attention to several points. First, in planning for the transition phase in peacekeeping missions, we must ensure that we do not lose gender expertise and the United Nations-led advances for women, peace and security.