Implementation

As noted in the Secretary-General's report, we are encouraged by the fact that the number of countries that have articulated their priorities on women and peace and security through national action plans has continued to grow.

When we talk about the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000), we see the presence of women's civil society organizations at the grass-roots level. They can help implement peace agreements, ensuring the protection of women's human rights defenders in conflict and post-conflict settings and integrating women's and girl's security into the priorities set during transitions, such as drawdowns of United Nations missions.

There have been some developments in women, peace and security, such as the steps taken to implement the seven-point action plan on gender-responsive peacebuilding, the adoption of the United Nations strategic results framework on women and peace and security and the civilian capacity review. Prevention also gained an increased focus with the inclusion of the protection of civilians in the mandates of 8 out of 16 peacekeeping missions.

The core message of resolution 1325 (2000) was to ensure women's equal participation at all decision-making levels. In the United Nations context, women's participation should be ensured through achieving a 50/50 gender balance, with a special emphasis on the recruitment of women at higher levels. In general, more female military and police personnel need to be deployed to United Nations peacekeeping operations.

In Bangladesh, from our experience of nation- building, we have embraced a perspective of women's empowerment and developed a model that our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina calls a “peace model”. The central message conveyed in the model is the empowerment of people, including women and vulnerable groups, through a focus on seven interlinked issues.

The Secretary-General and I welcome the Presidential Statement on women, peace and security issued on 31 October. In this statement, the Council pledged to advance women's participation in all aspects of conflict resolution, including transitional justice.

Through the evolution of the women, peace and security agenda over the past 12 years, through country-specific decisions and mission mandates, the Security Council has demonstrated that decisions made around this table can tangibly improve the lives of women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations. We must however, ensure that, those issues are not addressed just once a year, on the anniversary of resolution 1325.

The United Nations system is strongly committed to strengthen the rule of law. This goes particularly for women's access to justice during and after conflict -- precisely when it is most needed but is least accessible. We are reviewing the United Nations' programming in order to galvanize a stronger and more effective impact in this area.

The role of women's organizations across the world in preventing violence, resolving conflict and building the foundations for peace is well known. Our challenge is to become more systematic in supporting and scaling up these initiatives and making the necessary links to formal peace processes.

I would like to begin with a warm expression of appreciation to both India and Guatemala, who during their Security Council Presidencies have focused our attention on the important contributions by women and women's civil society organizations to prevent to resolve armed conflict and to carry out peacebuilding.