Implementation

While welcoming the zero tolerance policy on sexual violence of the Secretary-General, we must, in addition, insist on the need to bolster the role of women in conflict-prevention and resolution. Nevertheless, the poor results in that area have undoubtedly been due to the continuing low participation of women in the drafting of implementation strategies.

My country has allocated a significant part of its budget to education and health, and on 14 May 2010, it adopted a law to establish full parity in all partially or fully elected bodies. In that manner, Senegal intends to ensure the effective participation of women in decision-making processes. To follow up on that law, a national gender-parity monitoring body was set up and will be officially inaugurated on 16 November.

It is certain that those significant national and regional level initiatives are welcome. However, they will achieve the desired success only if linked with an international dynamic inspired by the Security Council and based on coordinated efforts on the part of UN-Women and all of the other relevant bodies.

We have carefully studied the report of the Secretary-General (S/2011/598*) prepared for this meeting. We suggest that it would be proper to ensure that future reports reflect the multifaceted nature of violence against women, as is required by resolution 1325 (2000) itself.

We also suggest that artificially linking gender issues in all their ramifications exclusively to the Security Council contradicts its mandate and leads to imbalances in terms of system-wide coordination. Let us not forget also that this issue is dealt with not only by the Security Council but also by the General Assembly, the Peacebuilding Commission, the Human Rights Council and the Committee on the Status of Women.

The history of resolution 1325 (2000), more than ten years of it, has clearly confirmed in practice the key role and significance of this instrument for advancing the role of women in conflict prevention and resolution and in post-conflict reconstruction and also in protecting women during conflicts.

Nor are we convinced that it would be proper to establish a specialized mechanism under the Security Council to oversee the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). Clearly, what is needed is increasing the effectiveness of existing mechanisms within the system by improving their coordination and accountability under the leadership of UN-Women. We welcome the efforts, led by Ms.

In terms of the Security Council's Charter-based functions, its attention should be given only to those situations that represent a threat to international peace and security. Issues ofviolence against women should be considered in the Council only as they relate to themes of maintaining peace and security and in strict relation to those situations that are on the Council's agenda.

If required, we are ready to come back to this theme and provide details on what we actually mean by this. In this context, with regard to the first part of the report, with the indicators of the effective implementation of resolution 1325 (2000), we wish to stress that there are still open questions about the suitability and relevance of individual indicators and their scope and use.