Implementation

In Bangladesh, through our experience of nation- building and women's empowerment, we have embraced that view and developed what our Prime Minister, Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina, calls a peace model.

In Bangladesh, women occupy the top political leadership posts in the country. The Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees the equality of men and women within the broad framework of non-discrimination on the grounds of religion, race or gender. The Government has adopted a national policy for women's advancement and a national plan of action.

Eleven years ago, the Security Council adopted the landmark resolution 1325 (2000) on women and peace and security. Thereafter, several resolutions, such as resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009) and 1960 (2010), have been adopted to buttress the process initiated in resolution 1325 (2000). We are, however, disappointed to note that violence against women and girls continues, as detailed in various reports.

In conclusion, I would reiterate that we in Bangladesh have been making our best efforts to ensure women's empowerment and participation in all spheres of life, as we believe that educating a boy means educating a person, while in contrast, educating a girl means educating a family.

The United Nations and its Member States need to further increase the number of women in peacekeeping operations and political missions in order to ensure gender expertise in the planning of missions and in all mediation efforts, and to enhance the appointment of women to senior leadership positions.

In order to be able to guide and track the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) by the United Nations system over the next 10 years, Austria very much welcomes the strategic framework contained in the latest report of the Secretary-General (S/2011/598*). The formulation of concrete medium and long-term targets is an important step.

Austria has almost finished the revision of its national action plan on the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000), which will be approved by the Council of Ministers by the end of this year. As for the first national action plan of 2007, civil society has been closely involved in these efforts.

We also encourage the United Nations to include relevant elements of the women and peace and security agenda in all country- and mandate-specific reports to be considered by the Security Council.

The United Nations Development Programme network of peace advocates, N-PEACE, is also undertaking important work in Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Nepal. Earlier this month, N-PEACE launched an interactive internet portal to connect peace advocates within and across countries with experts in the field.

Recent years have seen several institutional developments to better integrate these matters into the work of the Security Council and the United Nations. The establishment of UN-Women was a landmark development. We welcome its initial work to take forward the implementation of all the resolutions on women and peace and security. But more can be done.