Implementation

The European Union warmly welcomes the adoption yesterday of resolution 1960 (2010) on sexual violence in situations in armed conflict. We urge the Security Council to build on its strong commitment to that issue and to ensure the full implementation of that and all other relevant resolutions.

The European Union supports the United Nations in its efforts to combat violence against women, including the work of the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström.

The European Union has recently conducted the first-ever lessons-learned exercise on mainstreaming human rights and gender within its Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations. It has just adopted standard training modules on human rights, child protection and gender to be used as a baseline reference by all 27 EU member States.

The EU calls on the Security Council and all States Members of the United Nations to redouble their efforts, notably in the fight against impunity. Often, amnesty is given in the name of peace to combatants who have used sexual torture or sexual violence as a tactic of war. But there can be no sustainable peace without prosecution of perpetrators and justice for victims.

Perpetrators should be held accountable. Data collection and follow-up on the prosecution of sexual offenders requires urgent strengthening.

In October of this year, the European Union and the African Union organized a joint civil society seminar on women, peace and security in Addis Ababa.

I would now like to briefly elaborate on some recent European Union activities undertaken in response to resolutions 1820 (2008) and 1888 (2009), and complementing individual actions by EU member States. Fighting all forms of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls, including in armed conflict but not excluding other situations of concern, is among the key objectives of the EU's human rights policy in external relations.

EU crisis management missions, 13 of which are currently ongoing, all have advisers or focal points on gender, and many carry out specific actions in the fight against sexual and gender-based violence.

Continuing evidence of daily sexual violence in armed conflict and fragile countries underscores the need to intensify our efforts to prevent and combat such violence. Although attention has been focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo, alarming reports have also been coming from other countries, including countries that are not on the Council's current agenda.

At the Security Council's open debate on the subject held on 26 October, the European Union reiterated its firm call for the reinforcement of global monitoring of situations pertaining to sexual violence in armed conflict. The recommendations of the Secretary-General in the current report provide concrete suggestions in that regard, and the European Union fully endorses those recommendations.