Implementation

In addition to this new funding, our second step will be to develop our own National Action Plan to accelerate the implementation of Resolution 1325 across our government and with our partners in civil society. And to measure progress on our plan, we will adopt the indicators laid out in the Secretary General's report.

I would like to thank Secretary General Ban for his leadership. He has defined a vision for women's empowerment and protection that is guiding this organization, and he is helping to build the institutions that can advance our collective mission.

From Nepal to Guatemala to Uganda, our development agency, USAID, is promoting women's roles in politics, supporting their participation in local peace committees, and helping develop plans to implement 1325. In fact, in the future, every USAID project to prevent or manage conflict will study its effect on women and will include them in the planning and implementation.

Fourteen million dollars will also go to nongovernmental organizations working to make clean water more available in conflict zones, because in these areas, when women and girls go looking for water they are at higher risk of being attacked.

But the United States and none of the member states can do this work alone. We need the international community.

And finally, I would like to honor our colleagues in civil society, many of whom are on the frontlines – literally on the battle lines – in the fight for gender equality in conflict zones around the world. Thanks in particular to Bineta Diop and Mary Robinson, co-chairs of the UN Civil Society Advisory Group for Women, Peace and Security, who have been tireless advocates for peace and for women's inclusion.

And we are very fortunate to have with us today the UN Under-Secretary-General Michelle Bachelet, the first head of UN Women. I am delighted by her appointment and very grateful for her commitment and the excellent presentation that she has already delivered.

We thank the Secretary-General for his report (S/2010/498). The set of indicators annexed to the report provides a good and objective basis for monitoring the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). It is our hope that the Council will endorse those indicators.

We have to make concerted efforts to support and strengthen the capacities of women and their networks to actively participate in all processes of conflict prevention and management, as well as in peacebuilding and peace consolidation.

Thirdly, women's political and economic empowerment and the promotion and protection of women's and girls' rights are critical for promoting women's participation in conflict prevention, post-conflict activities and gender mainstreaming in post-conflict strategies.