Security Council Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict, April 2014

Despite all of the efforts of the international community and the establishment of legal and normative frameworks, including seven Security Council resolutions, conflict-related sexual violence is on the rise. It is getting more complex. It is used to displace civilian populations, to seize land and property and to illicitly extract natural resources. Children are sexually assaulted and suffer from stigma when born out of rape. Young girls are trafficked, forced to marry rebels and used as messengers. Boys and men are subjected to sexualized violence. Sexual violence has become a tactic and weapon of war and impunity prevails. The only way to effectively address this scourge is a comprehensive and integrated approach which entails prevention, early warning, justice, accountability, the participation of women in political processes and economic empowerment.

The inclusion of provisions on sexual violence in the Arms Trade Treaty is just one of the recent encouraging examples of action in that regard. In its turn the Security Council, in resolution 2106 (2013) — the fourth resolution focused on conflict-related sexual violence — has reaffirmed the centrality of gender equality and women's political, social and economic empowerment to preventing sexual violence and further developed the operational framework on conflict-related sexual violence. Among other operational provisions, it calls for the further deployment of women protection advisers and gender advisers to the relevant United Nations peacekeeping and political missions, as well as humanitarian operations.

The Security Council has also recognized the need for more systematic monitoring and more timely, objective, accurate and reliable information as a basis for prevention and response. The Security Council's support of the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence has contributed to a better understanding of the scope and roots of the problem and facilitated a more proactive stance of United Nations teams on the ground. Having more robust monitoring and reporting mechanisms, the Security Council could also consider developing a procedure that would ensure systematic monitoring of the implementation of its decisions and commitments taken up by parties to conflict.

At the same time, the lack of adequate national capacity and expertise to prevent, investigate and prosecute violence remain among the main impediments in combating sexual violence and ensuring accountability. We are encouraged by the United Nations efforts to assist the strengthening of national capacities. We welcome the extremely important work of the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, which is being rapidly deployed in situations of particular concern with respect to sexual violence in armed conflict to assist national authorities in strengthening the rule of law.

Another concrete and laudable example is the joint UN-Women/Justice Rapid Response training, roster management, and deployment mechanism established upon a request of the Secretary-General to ensure that each commission of inquiry is provided with expertise on investigations of sexual and gender-based violence.

It is also of paramount importance that peacekeepers continue to be trained to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence, and that special training materials be prepared, preferably in the native languages of peacekeepers. Peacekeeping forces must ensure that internally displaced persons camps are free of alleged perpetrators. The United Nations Blue Helmets themselves must strictly follow the rules of conduct.

Lithuania strongly supports the Group of Eight declaration on preventing sexual violence in conflict, and we are glad to learn that over 140 States have already endorsed the declaration of commitment that was introduced in New York in September 2013. Lithuania looks forward to the global summit in London in June this year, where specific actions are to be identified and agreed.

We note with appreciation that women, peace and security issues are included in the Secretary-General's country-specific reports under a separate heading. The Security Council could also consistently include the women, peace and security agenda in the terms of reference of its visiting missions. As the Council continues to horizontally integrate the issues of sexual violence into its work, including in the drafting or renewing mandates of United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions, relevant sanctions committees must review their listing and de-listing guidelines, add sexual violence to their lists of criteria, harmonize designation criteria for listed individuals by including any relevant charges from international justice mechanisms, consider sanctioning parties identified by the Secretary-General and his Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. The Council at its disposal has and should actively consider other means to ensure accountability, such as referrals to the International Criminal Court, special tribunals and commissions of inquiry.

The International Commission of Inquiry on the Central African Republic should provide all relevant information to the Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) in order to list the perpetrators and send a strong signal that all offenders will be held accountable. The capacity of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic to monitor and report human rights violations, including sexual violence, must also be enhanced.

The sexual violence in Syria against women and men, including in Government detention facilities; non-State armed groups targeting female family members of Government forces; and more than 300 cases of gender-based violence in three health clinics in Damascus and Rural Damascus alone are clear violations of international humanitarian law and resolution 2139 (2014). We support referral of the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Only by using all available tools at our hands will we be able to prevent further violence and end this vicious cycle of impunity. The experience in combating conflict-related sexual violence in the Central African Republic, Syria and many other countries, as reported by the Secretary-General, shows that the United Nations has to find meaningful ways to engage non-State actors.

Finally, let me touch upon the issue of survivors. Care for and protection of survivors of sexual violence are another vital issue to address in order to fight stigmatization and reprisals and prevent violence and impunity in the future. We believe that reparations could significantly contribute to restoring justice, especially when other means are not feasible. Twenty years after the end of the Balkan War, an estimated 20,000 survivors of crimes of sexual violence have not seen justice. The alleged perpetrators enjoy positions of influence while victims and their children born of rape are left to suffer stigmatization and shame. Women were excluded from the peace negotiations, even though women's organizations were the first to initiate meetings with people from the other side, trying to find common ground and ways to stop the violence. That is the probable reason why the Dayton peace accords did not include the provisions recommended in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action. Indeed, our toolbox is full of useful instruments but it is now time to take matters into our own hands, consolidate our actions on the ground and deliver together and in close cooperation with all humanitarian, diplomatic, justice, security and civil society actors.

We have seen some significant steps forward since the Council last convened an open debate to consider this issue in 2013 (see S/PV.7044), including the adoption of resolution 2106 (2013). Over the past year, we have also welcomed specific commitments made by a number of countries to combat sexual violence in armed conflict.

The Secretary-General's report (S/2014/181) on conflict-related sexual violence is sobering; it illustrates the scale and severity of the challenges that remain. It is clear that political commitments need to translate into concrete actions on the ground. The international community must address the use of sexual violence to intimidate and maintain social control, reprisals against those who report crimes, the targeting of children and the lack of access to justice, as well as many other difficult challenges.

New Zealand is one of the 144 countries that endorsed the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, an initiative of the United Kingdom. The Declaration demonstrated that the political will exists to tackle conflict-related sexual violence. The upcoming Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, to be held in London in June, provides an important opportunity to grow the political will and identify practical actions while reflecting on some of the concerns raised in the Council today.

My delegation acknowledges the significant gains recorded in the past decade towards building political momentum in the fight against the scourge of sexual violence in conflict. Undoubtedly, that has contributed to a more focused, coherent and integrated approach across the United Nations system in addressing this complex and persistent challenge.

The recent report of the Secretary-General warrants serious consideration, given the overwhelming evidence that sexual violence in situations of armed conflict and post-conflict remains systemic and widespread in many parts of the world. We are conscious that the consequences of those egregious crimes are devastating for affected communities.

While the report of the Secretary-General strongly underscores the need for a comprehensive, multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional framework approach to address the prevention of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings, we concur with the Secretary-General's observation that national ownership, leadership and responsibility are key in the prevention of sexual violence. Ultimately, Member States bear the primary legal and moral responsibility for preventing and addressing such crimes.

We recognize the valuable contribution of the five-point priority agenda of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict as a strategy to address sexual violence in conflict. However, as highlighted in the report of the Secretary-General, we believe that priority must be given to fostering national ownership, leadership and responsibility to ensure sustainability.

In conclusion, every effort must be made to end impunity by perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict. My delegation therefore affirms its support for the inclusion of sexual violence in the definition of acts prohibited during ceasefires, including the exclusion of perpetrators of sexual violence from amnesty provisions.

In times of conflict and post-conflict situations, attention should be paid to all forms of violence against civilians, but especially to sexual violence. Conflict often creates family dislocations, shattered livelihoods and sole breadwinners, with the resulting negative consequences. Single mothers are often the product of conflict, and, in some cases, that increases vulnerability to sexual harassment, exploitation and violence.

In the post-conflict period, from May 2009 to May 2012, 10 security forces personnel were reported to have been involved in six incidents of sexual violence in Northern Province. That is out of a total of 307 persons accused in 256 incidents for the entire Northern Province. The involvement of security forces personnel as a percentage of the total accused stands at 5.6 per cent in the conflict period and 3.3 per cent in the post-conflict period.

It is interesting to note that the involvement of security forces personnel as a percentage of the total incidents of sexual violence is quite low, both in the conflict and post-conflict periods. In a majority of the aforementioned cases, the perpetrators have been close relatives or neighbours of the victim. Against that backdrop, the Sri Lankan authorities reject the inferences by certain organizations and reports that the presence of the military contributes to the insecurity of women and girls in the former conflict-affected areas.

Certain organizations are involved in propagating false reports against the Sri Lankan military of sexual violence. A recent report was authored by Ms. Yasmin Sooka. That report made accusations, often with disturbing details, without providing sufficient details, such as to the time, place and the identity of victims, to enable investigations and prosecutions.

Those accusations were subsequently repeated in further publications of various organizations, thereby contributing to forming an opinion that is propagated without evidence. None of those allegations have been substantiated by verifiable data in any of the documents.

Significantly, no credible evidence has been directly brought to the attention of Government authorities by any of the parties. The Government has not been provided the evidence — which is claimed to be in the possession of the authors of these reports — in order to investigate and respond.

The Government has given special consideration to uplifting the social and economic status of war widows. Bilateral assistance has already been obtained to initiate a self-employment programme for war widows in Batticaloa in collaboration with the Self Employed Women's Association, based in India. A local non-governmental organization, the Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action and Association of War-Affected Women, educates soldiers, youth and community leaders about international standards relating to war and promotes the economic and social development of women across conflict lines.

We note that this year report of the Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence (S/2014/181) contains references to the Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka (A/HRC/25/L.1/Rev.1), accountability and a comprehensive truth and reconciliation commission. We are disappointed that such issues, which have no relevance to that before us, have been dragged into this report. The contents of the Human Rights Council resolution have been rejected and disputed by the Government. We would like to respectfully point out that the Government established an internal mechanism for dealing with the causes of conflict and to make recommendations. The report of that body— the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission — offers detailed observations and recommendations based on the principles of international humanitarian law. The national action plan developed on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission is now being implemented.

My delegation hopes that international discussion of issues of this nature will facilitate broader appreciation of the inherent challenges and practical outcomes based on realities on the ground. States should be consulted on all aspects of international actions to combat sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations, including the provision of assistance. In that process, respect must be maintained for the fundamental principles of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States.

In conclusion, let me reiterate that Sri Lanka will proactively continue with its efforts to enhance and develop protection mechanisms with regard to the protection of women and children.

In the majority of the situations that have been observed, sexual violence is perpetrated as much by Government forces as by armed opposition groups. Our response to that must be firm: there shall be no impunity for the perpetrators of those crimes, and we will not rest until justice is done. In that regard, we would like to emphasize the recommendations of the Secretary-General on the need for countries to foster national ownership, leadership and responsibility and to strengthen the capacity of their civilian and military justice systems.

We welcome the programmes for training and consciousness-raising as well as the monitoring measures such as those being pursued within the framework of human rights due diligence policy of the African Union Mission in Somalia. Regular reports on sexual and gender-based violence along with a zero-tolerance policy vis-à-vis the perpetrators of such crimes are indispensable.

Last March, the Human Rights Council in Geneva hosted a panel on sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which again brought to our attention the massive character of violence against women in that context. Armed conflicts and the weakness of State institutions, especially the judiciary and the security forces, are the primary destabilizing factors. The high incidence of sexual violence, especially rape, is a source of grave concern, all the more so because systematic impunity creates a context that encourages such violations.

It is also crucial, in the early stages of a peace process, to adopt gender-sensitive policies and measures to protect women and girls from sexual exploitation, early marriage, human trafficking and rape. What other options do we have for action? While there may be no ready-made solutions, I would like to explore three areas that are addressed in the report.

Finally, we share the Secretary-General's concern about the lack of official data on sexual violence. We need reliable data to effectively combat violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in situations of armed conflict and internal disturbances. With the goal of improving data collection, Switzerland supports the Harvard University Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, which focuses on the development of systematic methodological guidance that can be applied to monitoring, reporting and fact-finding efforts. We continue to believe that such instruments are essential for improving the prevention of crimes of sexual violence.

In conclusion, we commend Special Representative Zainab Bangura, who has played an outstanding role in drawing up joint strategies with Governments to combat sexual violence. Switzerland congratulates her for the progress made in the implementation of the frameworks and looks forward to hosting the next donor conference of the United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict.

They can be taught natural ways of living, and thereby learn how emotions work and how to listen to each other. They can be taught how, in situations of conflict, to evoke calm in themselves and through their surroundings while practicing good communication methods.

As our consciousness continues to grow and the world evolves, we must take a united stand and say “never more” to violence against women. We must hope that those involved in conflict will one day understand why they go to war and why half of the world does not participate in their argument or in the spoils of war. Yet that half always plays a part in the healing and the return from conflict to peace and security once again.

While there is much to say on this subject, for the sake of brevity I would like to start by pointing out that at the present stage of its history, the human race has enormously strengthened its physical, emotional and intellectual capacities. That is not a bad thing unless we give such strengths free rein to indulge in selfish exploitation and consumption and to focus solely on greed for self-enrichment in a way that enables a creed of individualism and predatory behaviour to dominate. This is an inborn tendency of humankind, from which spring our separations, divisions, oppositions, conflicts and so forth, resulting, inevitably, in wars.

To put a stop to such myopic, vicious selfdestructiveness, we need a strong and decisive force capable of inserting itself into this physical, emotional and intellectual contest. What we need today is to be energized by a new force, that of spirituality and conscience. It is no coincidence that many have called this the era of the awakening of our conscience, although clearly it is not something that will happen easily.

The reality is that this process is opposed by various powerful lobbies that exert their political, financial, economic and mass-communications influence to control Governments, directly or indirectly. But despite their opposition, the awakening of our collective conscience is still a reality.

Let us consider some major changes that have occurred in recent history — the rise of a culture of ecology; the growth of a preservationist culture aimed at protecting animal species at risk of extinction; an increase in volunteering activities and human generosity to others, rather than confining efforts to family members and people we know in closed circles or groups; personal inner growth, creating greater awareness and thus greater feelings of responsibility towards society at large; and, last but not least, the embrace of a wider, more holistic culture and vision of life. All of these are signs that the awakening of our conscience exists and is a genuine movement.

What about women, then? Why, in spite of such an awakening of our conscience, do women today still continue to see their rights abused, whether as citizens of the world or as people? It is shocking that in today's advanced world we still have to talk about the rights of women and children as if it were a special concession.
Rather than commenting on such an absurdity, repeating once again words that have been said over and over since time immemorial, or speculating intellectually on this issue, I would like to give it more constructive consideration.

Unfortunately, the system by which humankind operates is based on a structure of contradiction, so that whatever may be promoted on the one hand is nullified on the other. We do not take this factor of inherent contradiction into serious consideration, and because it is underestimated, this virus is free to worm its way into our human apparatus and to negatively affect the logic of our behaviour, to the point of affecting the social and intellectual frameworks on which we human beings have constructed the rules for our coexistence.
In fact, society in general has based its standards on corrupt values that while supposed to be genuine turn out not to be genuine at all. That is why our society stands for poverty, degradation, corruption, depravity, perversion, the abuse of power, conspiracy, genocide and thousands of other miseries. Since our whole social system has been based on unnatural, subverted values, it has become clear that the system on which we base our way of life is consequently vicious and crushing.

What is needed is a new leadership, based on holistic scientific and educational models that can encourage leaders to observe both themselves and their actions, something that is a precondition for establishing a culture where conscience dominates. In that regard, I should reiterate that it is vital that we find science-based solutions to these issues, and thus that we ensure that scientific programmes are part of the educational and training systems whereby human beings can be taught according to a holistic vision of life that can overturn the sterile philosophies and frameworks that govern us.

We strongly advocate further support for the agenda on women and peace and security at all levels, national, regional and global, and today's debate is a good and valuable step in that direction. As indicated in the Secretary-General's latest report (S/2014/181), sexual violence in conflict is one of the greatest and most persistent injustices in the world today. It is also one of the most neglected.

Viewed in the broader context, sexual violence is one of the symptoms of a distorted social order characterized by conflict, injustice and insecurity. Sexual violence adds to ethnic and other divisions, reinforcing insecurity and instability, and leaves its victims with terrible physical and psychological wounds, pain and humiliation. There is no doubt whatever that the use of rape and sexual violence exacerbates conflicts and perpetuates them long after active hostilities are over. Crimes of sexual violence in conflict inflict lasting scars on individuals, families and societies, making reconciliation and peacebuilding much more difficult. Peace and reconciliation require a firm and consistent process and a lot of determination and patience in order to ascertain the truth, something that is particularly difficult when rape is used as a tool of war against women, children and men.

A book entitled — which means “sunny” in English —published in Croatia in 2011, contains the testimonies of imprisoned women against whom the crime of rape was committed during the war in Croatia. Sunny has also become a strong civil movement in Croatia during recent years, with courageous women finally breaking the social and intimacy barriers that occur in cases of war-time rape. Based on the book, the movie Sunny was filmed, with the support of the Croatian Ministry for Veterans Affairs, and was recently premiered in Zagreb. It is the first documentary film in which the victims of sexual violence in war, including male victims, have come out to speak of their suffering.

As a member of the group of global champions of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, Croatia will spare no effort to take a more prominent role in preventing and combating sexual violence in war and conflict and to continue to give its firm support to all areas of the women and peace and security agenda.

Sexual violence has increasingly become a grave concern and has proliferated in conflict and post-conflict situations. Women and girls are raped, forced into prostitution and sexual slavery, and subjected to various sexual acts that leave them with severe physical, psychological and emotional trauma. Their lives are shattered, their hopes are destroyed and they are left with permanent stigma.

The report (S/2014/181) before us clearly indicates that the prevalence of sexual violence during periods of conflicts often leaves lasting legacies, with acute consequences for the security of women and children in the post-conflict era and beyond. That is demonstrated by high levels of rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated against women and children in some post-conflict settings, which ultimately has a direct impact on the durability of peace and prospects for sustainable development.

The elimination of conflict-related sexual violence would not be possible without addressing the root causes of gender inequality and changing the mindset of the perpetrators, victims and society at large. Victims should be encouraged to speak out and report violence. In most cases victims, especially women, prefer to remain silent to avoid the stigma of being ostracized from their communities, cast out by their husbands and families, and left destitute with their children. Women's empowerment and mainstreaming gender equality in peacekeeping processes and ceasefire agreements are crucial in fighting the scourge. Furthermore, survivors and their families should be provided with sufficient medical, psychological and legal support and rehabilitation programmes.

Capacity-building and technical support from the international community are relevant in helping national Governments deal with sexual violence matters. Governments lack adequate national capacities to investigate sexual violence cases and prosecute sexual violence offenders, and that, regrettably, impedes on accountability. Sufficient resources must be devoted to women-led civil society organizations, particularly those providing services to survivors and those that enable women to access justice and participate in decision-making.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that Namibia condemns all forms of violence against women in armed conflict and calls for the full implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions. We also urge the parties to conflicts to abide by international legal instruments to protect women and other disadvantaged groups.

While we applaud the evolvement of a global normative framework on sexual violence in armed conflict, not least through the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, resolution 1325 (2000) and others, it is a tragic fact that citizens, particularly women, in large numbers continue to be victimized in conflicts. Being softer targets, women and children are particularly exploited as tactics in combat, becoming casualties too many times with impunity. With its multifold health, social, cultural and economic impact armed-conflict-related sexual violence not only affects the victims, but imposes long-lasting disarray on their families, communities and societies at large.

Sexual violence, rape, molestation and different forms of sexual abuse committed by individuals or groups are egregious and reprehensible crimes. Sexual violence has been systematically used as an instrument of war in many parts of the world, as testimonies this morning demonstrated. Sexual predators target vulnerable women and girls, men and boys. Their criminal acts inflict deep trauma, leave lasting scars, cause serious moral harm and impose huge social and economic costs on communities. Sexual violence remains one of the major causes of people's fleeing from their homes and of the resultant displacement. Those crimes constitute a threat to international peace and security.

The United Nations has done a lot, but needs to do more. As the report of the Secretary-General (S/2014/181) notes, the situation has actually worsened in certain parts of the world. Our collective efforts should therefore focus on converting commitments into concrete action-oriented preventive measures. We should collectively create a culture of zero tolerance for sexual violence. In that context, I would like to highlight the following points.

Slovenia traditionally pays special attention to the empowerment of women and the protection and promotion of their rights. As has been recalled many times, the protection and advancement of women's rights is of key importance for stability, sustainable peace and prosperity at all levels.

Furthermore, sexual violence is used in conflict as a weapon of war to humiliate and injure victims, their families and entire communities, and often continues after the conflict has ended. Victims, not just women and girls but also men and boys, are traumatized and stigmatized forever. Those heinous acts remain vivid in the recollections of whole communities for generations, as we are reminded by the legacy of conflict in the Western Balkans and Rwanda. Such acts should not be repeated and must be stopped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Syria, Mali and Somalia and in other situations of concern at the present time.

Although the commitment to accountability and the fight against impunity regarding sexual violence in conflict has been reiterated many times — again in today's discussion — and enshrined in Council resolution 2106 (2013), there are many obstacles to ensuring perpetrators' accountability and access to justice for victims of sexual crimes in conflict.

All of the issues mentioned were also raised at the third seminar of the Initiative on Mediation in the Mediterranean Region, held in Slovenia last month on the topic of promoting a culture of mediation and prevention in the Mediterranean, where the need to put the issue of sexual violence in conflict at the top of the agenda was highlighted.

I am going to take a different angle in relation to referring to how much we have done. I am going to focus not only on what how much we still have to do, but also to add a hint of optimism. First, the international governmental community has agreed that sexual and gender-based violence inarmed conflict constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity. It is worth mentioning it when we in the international community agree to say things in the same way and to work to the same end — in this instance towards the eradication of a problem.

I am going to take a different angle in relation to referring to how much we have done. I am going to focus not only on what how much we still have to do, but also to add a hint of optimism. First, the international governmental community has agreed that sexual and gender-based violence inarmed conflict constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity. It is worth mentioning it when we in the international community agree to say things in the same way and to work to the same end — in this instance towards the eradication of a problem.

Secondly, there is also reason for optimism owing to the international tribunals, such as those for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Today, the International Criminal Court and those tribunals have been building a clear definition of sexual violence as a war crime and as a crime against humanity. Certain countries in my region of Latin America and the Caribbean are also doing so. In my country, 1,083 persons have been prosecuted and 443 have been convicted for crimes against humanity, with a gender perspective and the aspect of women's human rights having been incorporated in all the cases.

Sexual crimes reported by victims in their testimony were not subject to punitive action until Rwanda, Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, until the initiatives undertaken in our own countries, because they remained invisible. They were part of war, the spoils that came with vengeance and hate that targeted women's bodies. But while gender-based violence, and sexual violence aimed at women and girls in particular, is not a new phenomenon in history, the adoption of measures to investigate and prosecute it nationally and internationally is very recent. For that reason, we had to continue to work patiently but collaboratively. As my dear Jordanian colleague said, gender-based crimes used to be considered collateral damage in war; their investigation in many cases was peripheral and often resulted in impunity for the perpetrators.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says that acts of sexual violence against women are crimes against humanity when they are used as weapons to inspire terror. It has defined sexual violence as any physical or mental abuse committed as an act of violence and also characterizes it as a crime of torture. Sexual crimes against women are now internationally codified. There is no statute of limitations, which we should recall here in the Security Council. Crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations.

The Belém do Pará Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women says that it is not only an offence to human dignity but also a violation of human rights. Let me speak not just about what the justice system has said, the words I have just read out. Justice in fact now says that because the victims had begun to be heard. In one horrible case, a woman named Susana was raped in the hospital after just having been operated on. To this day I can hear her crying and saying that she had been a virgin. That was a crime against nature. For a woman, rape is an act of the worst possible humiliation. Another woman, Monica, said: “I asked them, when the Red Cross came to see us, I asked, ‘As a woman, how is it possible that I did not become pregnant after being raped so many times?' They explained to me that women's periods tended to stop. They said that in concentration camps, like here, we did not become pregnant, we were afraid to getting pregnant. We did not menstruate. We did not want to end up pregnant by a rapist.” Estela said: “They did not allow us to bathe. It was very hard not to be able to wash after being raped and to have to remain soiled. They would give me stale bread. I was able to wash in a bathroom only a couple of times. I have images in my mind of being raped in the bathroom. By the final rapes I was fainting; I do not have a recollection of those. They would blindfold me. I heard a girl screaming, ‘Mama, mama, mama'. We were in the same camp, and she was being raped.” A man named David said: “They would give us electric shocks to our gums, under our lips, to our genitals. In my case, I had an abscess on my penis the size of a peach. They also placed things in my rectum that would conduct electricity. We were humiliated. I could not bear the agony. How could we go back — to say that a boy had been raped?”

I hope that all the victims will be heard, as those victims were heard and it was possible to do justice and combat impunity. We hope we will be able to work not just to eradicate this crime against humanity in conflict situations, but also to build equality for women in times of peace. Our friend Ms. Bangura has said it. “We will go out to find them”, the children and grandchildren of the State terrorism that took place in Argentina call out in the streets. “As with the Nazis, we will find them, no matter where they are.” They call out in the streets for the sake of the memory of their mothers and for the sake of truth, justice and reparation. “We seek them without weapons, without hate or vengeance. We seek them for the sake of truth, memory, justice, reparation and peace.”

The international prohibition on sexual violence in conflict is long-standing, but our plan for combating it has not previously been laid out. That is why the advances last year were so important. Those include the adoption of resolution 2106 (2013), setting out a comprehensive prevention framework, and the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, signed now by over 140 nations. We congratulate the United Kingdom and Foreign Secretary Hague on their efforts on the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, in which Australia's Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, is an active champion.Our challenge, now as always, is implementation—turning the resolutions into solutions, as Ms. Bangura has just said. Fundamental to that is timely and comprehensive information. Unhindered humanitarian access is essential, as are measures to fight the stigma and threats of reprisal against survivors, which impede its reporting. Increasing the numbers of women in peacekeeping missions and police units can help, and we must address barriers to their recruitment, deployment and retention. We must ensure the early deployment of women protection advisers in United Nations missions. Commitments on the part of Governments and parties to conflict to combating sexual violence are crucial to change on the ground. We commend Special Representative Bangura for securing new commitments with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Reaching armed groups is hard, but we must try. Ceasefire agreements should always include sexual violence as a prohibited act.

Specific actions to prevent sexual violence must be included in security sector reform, rule of law initiatives and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes. As resolution 2117 (2013) recognized, the misuse of small arms and light weapons exacerbates sexual violence, and we call on all States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty. There must be situation-specific training for all peacekeeping personnel, including military and police, that addresses the full range of sexual violence crimes, including abductions, forced marriage and sexual slavery. Particular attention must also be given to the needs of the most vulnerable populations, including the marginalized, children, older persons, indigenous communities, people with disabilities and displaced persons. The needs of men and boy survivors must also be considered.

As Ms. Misaka reminded the Council this morning, it is crucial that survivors have quick access to comprehensive services, including sexual and reproductive health services and psychosocial, legal and livelihood support. We must confront the issue of pregnancy as a result of rape, particularly where abortion services are illegal and the health consequences of unsafe abortion and a lack of maternity care are dire. Civil society and women's organizations providing services and giving political voice to women affected by conflict must also be adequately resourced.

Australian Foreign Minister Bishop announced in Jordan this week a $20-million contribution to the United Nations “No lost generation” initiative to support Syrian refugee children, including child survivors of sexual violence. Sexual violence is a persistent and deliberate feature of the conflict in Syria, brutalizing civilians and displacing populations, and is a constant threat in the refugee camps, themselves. Decisively, we must move beyond just the immediate or short-term provision of support, vital though it is.

Empowering survivors with their own economic future can be a transformative way to reconstruct their lives. Obviously, accountability is centrally important. States must accept their primary obligation to investigate and prosecute sexual violence crimes, provide support for survivors and protect witnesses who testify. Teams of experts working to support local justice mechanisms can have lasting impacts. As part of the regional peacebuilding mission to Solomon Islands, Australia has mentored female Solomon Islands police to take victim statements, compile evidence and support survivors throughout court processes. Such models are naturally being applied elsewhere and should have broad application.

Where national jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to prosecute perpetrators, the Council should consider referrals to the International Criminal Court. Targeted Council sanctions have a clear role to play — to expose and circumscribe the perpetrators and create a powerful deterrent to others. The current events in South Sudan encapsulate the challenges we face in that regard. In consultations two days ago, the Security Council was told the exact times and the content of the media broadcasts inciting rape and the names of the individuals who made them. We must ensure that they are held to account.

To conclude, the Security Council's debate on sexual violence may only take place once a year, but our work to end that barbaric practice — that crime — must be a daily commitment and attract our serious attention across the whole of our agenda. The Council must take every opportunity available and use every tool it has to end that abhorrent crime and provide survivors the justice and services they need to rebuild their lives.

We would like to highlight the priority that the Secretary-General has accorded this subject since the publication in 2006 of his report on the “In-depth study on all forms of violence against women” (A/61/122/Add.1), which addressed sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations. In the eight years since then, we have adopted resolutions 1820 (2008), 888 (2009), 1960 (2010) and 2106 (2013), all sponsored by Chile, and whose implementation will contribute to the Secretary- General's recommendations in the report before us today (S/2014/181). That comprehensive, multisectoral and multidimensional report, and its preventive and protective framework, will enable us to establish early-warning mechanisms and appropriate responses. We commend the field visits the Special Representative has conducted and the commitments made by national and regional authorities to the United Nations system, which have been reflected in resolutions renewing mandates. We would also like to highlight the Special Representative's recent visit to the Central African Republic, during which President Samba-Panza renewed the commitment expressed in the 2012 joint communiqué. Such efforts must be backed up by holding perpetrators of sexual violence to account and combating their impunity. The International Criminal Court is an important complement to the work of national courts and hybrid tribunals in this area, as we saw in the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba and the voluntary surrender and subsequent arrest of Bosco Ntaganda. The proliferation of arms has helped to create an environment conducive to this type of violence. Chile, aware of the problems associated with that proliferation, has signed the Arms Trade Treaty and urges other States to support it.

Chile welcomes the policy and operational recommendations for preventing and eradicating this type of violence, and stresses that primary responsibility in this area belongs to the States concerned. In that regard, we would like to emphasize the importance of multidisciplinary, timely and non-discriminatory assistance to survivors of sexual violence, including children born of such violence, of ensuring targeted and appropriate services for children and adults and of promoting survivors' empowerment and reintegration. We call on all parties to conflicts who are responsible for, or suspected of, committing acts of sexual violence, including those listed in the report, to put a stop to such violations and make concrete and time-bound commitments to protect. Mediators and envoys involved in mediation, ceasefire, peace and preventive diplomacy processes must be properly trained in this area and ensure that peace agreements contain concrete provisions concerning them, including ensuring adequate preservation of the evidence of such crimes.

Preventive measures should be explicitly reflected in the processes of security sector reform, of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, and of justice reform initiatives in areas such as capacity and policing. We reiterate the important role of reporting, prevention, protection and reintegration played by civil society, including women's organizations, community leaders, religious leaders, the media and human rights activists, and we support the efforts of the system to build the capacity of these groups. The situation of internally displaced persons and refugees — who are particularly vulnerable to this type of violence, which is often used as a tactic to induce displacement — is of concern to the Council. Chile is organizing, together with Australia and with the support of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, an Arria formula meeting on the protection of internally displaced persons on 30 May.

Chile supports the systematic inclusion of the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence and its follow-up in the relevant country-specific resolutions and in the mandates of special political and peacekeeping missions. These missions, commissions of inquiry and other related mechanisms should consider including women protection advisers. We also look forward to the possibility of including this issue in the work of the monitoring bodies of the relevant Security Council sanctions.

As the Secretary-General recommends, we urge the consideration of the links between conflict-related sexual violence and the illicit trade in natural resources, as well as such illegal activities as the illicit drugs trade and the traffic in persons covered by the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, its protocols and relevant legal instruments. We stress the importance of deepening the exchange of information among the system's actors and strengthening the training of all peacekeeping personnel using innovative tools, among others, those of the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict and the corresponding United Nations initiative. We encourage the international community and donors to support the prevention and eradication of the scourge through the United Nations Action Multi-Partner Trust Fund.

At the regional level, in July 2013 Chile's Joint Peacekeeping Operations Centre, together with the United States Naval Postgraduate School, organized a seminar in Santiago on theme “Women, peace and security: new challenges to implementation of resolution 1325 (2000)”, with the participation of regional professionals. It included training in gender-based sexual violence and resolution 2106 (2013), inter alia. At the national level, the Centre's 2014 curriculum addresses resolution 1325 (2000) and related resolutions and the prevention of abuse and sexual exploitation, with a focus on the norms expected of peacekeeping personnel.

Sexual violence continues to be used to humiliate opponents in conflict, as a form of torture, to inflict injury, to extract information, to stigmatize, degrade and intimidate, to destroy communities, to displace communities and groups from their land, and to intentionally spread HIV or reward fighters. We cannot continue to ignore the scourge and reiterate our firm determination to implement resolution 1325 (2000) and related resolutions on such violence, while supporting efforts towards its prompt eradication and the healing and reintegration of victims and survivors.

In Myanmar, sexual violence is a crime strongly abhorred by our traditional values and strictly forbidden by law and by our culture. As such, severe legal action is taken against the perpetrators of any reported case, whether by civilians or the members of security forces. The existing penal code strongly prescribes a severe penalty for those who have committed acts of sexual violence.

I would like to highlight the importance of the issue before us — sexual violence — which particularly affects women in conflict situations and is an issue that gravely affects human rights. In that respect, this debate should directly involve the General Assembly. It is also necessary to stress the importance of combating the root causes of war and conflict, namely, the influence of the arms trade and violent actions by the powerful. The current world conflict scenario has become even more complicated due to economic dynamics. Countries in crisis view the arms trade and war as ways to strengthen their economy. But truly nothing will undermine human rights and women's rights more than strengthening the economy through the arms industry. The total world military expenditure in 2013 was $1.747 billion. The 15 countries with the highest military expenditure together represent four-fifths of all military spending in the world.

Moreover, it is a paradox of our time that, although the growing technological sophistication has not resolved the basic problems of a large part of the world population in achieving sustainable development, it has provided weapons of mass destruction. And there is still no end to poverty and inequality. Ecuador is convinced that, to deal with the fundamental causes of conflict and violence, genuine commitment is needed to curb the current arms race and new forms of war and conflict, such as so-called preventive war, cyber espionage and the involvement of outside actors in fomenting conflict within countries in support or defence of their own interests.

It must be acknowledged that armed conflict and violence are often generated by inequality among States that themselves have been generally affected by an unjust international economic system, various forms of social exclusion, religious intolerance and ethnic and gender discrimination. In that regard, we must call upon States to avoid wars of aggression and the use of force based on alleged threats out of respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples. With those considerations, we do not see that the problems of sexual violence in conflict have diminished, due to the persistence of a social permissiveness with respect to violence against women and girls, which, unfortunately, in many areas of society, has come to seem almost natural.

In the case of Ecuador, our armed forces are considered to be an institution that protect the rights, freedoms and guarantees of all our citizens — men and women. We therefore look at defence as a public good that integrates human rights, international humanitarian law, gender equity and multiculturalism in a cross-cutting manner. This takes concrete form in the implementation of our gender policy in the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, which has been in force since March 2013. The gender policy fosters a change in the cultural patterns that cause gender-based violence, through which related subjects are incorporated into training for all military personnel and the promotion of educational programmes designed to prevent sexual violence that are tailored specifically for the training of troops. The policy has also brought improvements to military infrastructure so that adequate conditions are in place for military personnel, female and male alike.

We must also say that in some regions of the world we continue to undertake peaceful means of conflict resolution, building a culture of peace and new forms of coexistence, as well as a clear position for achieving global disarmament. As members of the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, we are contributing to the creation of a true region of peace. But those efforts undertaken at the national or regional levels can be strengthened only by the effective actions of international bodies such as the International Criminal Court, which brings the timely prosecution of crimes against humanity, especially those related to discrimination and violence against women.

Lastly, Ecuador again insists upon the need to come up with multilateral and global strategies that fight the underlying causes of war and conflict and bring to light warmongering policies, adopting measures that bring an end to them and subjecting them to international law. We remain committed to building a true culture of peace through social justice, the fight against impunity, dignity and equality of women and the good living of our peoples.

We must all strive to be as innovative as we can in motivating national leaders to adopt the agenda of women and peace and security as their own. We must be more ambitious in addressing the root causes of sexual violence in conflict — women's second-class status and the culture of impunity. And we must seek to promote women's political and economic empowerment as crucial to the long-term prevention of sexual violence. Only national political ownership in the countries concerned can lead to decisive action to end this scourge. We — the United Nations family, donors and Member States, and civil society — must do all we can to encourage such ownership.

Last September's Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict was endorsed by 145 countries, and the United Kingdom will continue its leadership on the issue with a global summit to be convened in June. The Secretary-General has rightly concluded that at the global level there is now unprecedented commitment and momentum for decisively addressing the scourge of sexual violence in combat. And yet the critical question remains as to how we can translate that normative progress into more widespread change on the ground.

The Secretary-General's report (S/2014/181) makes for grim reading, and very clearly there is much we, the Member States concerned, need to do. And in that context, when it comes to the presence of Syrian refugees in Jordan and their vulnerabilities, as alluded to in the report, even though we note that the principal refugee camp for Syrians falls under the supervision of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Jordanian Government accepts full responsibility for whatever may happen on its territory and is committed to ensuring the security of all refugees, especially women and children. Naturally, we condemn any attempt by any individual or individuals to exploit them. We also need help — much more help — and perhaps we will soon reach a stage at which other countries with real capacities may consider sharing the burden and accepting greater numbers of Syrian refugees than is presently the case.

Turning to the Secretary-General's recommendations, I join others in stating that it is pointless discussing accountability for sexual crimes perpetrated against women, girls and boys unless we do two things. The first is our need to properly understand the extent to which functioning courts are second only in importance to the provision of security and on an equal footing with humanitarian considerations when it comes to the United Nations involvement in conflict or post-conflict environments. Without a properly resourced single vehicle for the delivery of legal and judicial support, the United Nations will continue to fall short in delivering what it should to distressed communities. Secondly, the International Criminal Court needs to be supported by the Council to the hilt, and no serious discussion on combating the worst forms of sexual violence can be obtained from a Council unwilling to do that.

Finally, I ask once again the painful question of whether we as a collective membership, bound together in this Organization by its Charter, actually have the credibility to offer strong opinions on this subject matter? Do we have the credibility when all of us have refused to undertake the complete range of actions necessary to ensure that sexual exploitation and abuse by our own peacekeepers — United Nations peacekeepers — is reduced to zero? Can we not be accused by others of hypocrisy when in this Chamber we rightly condemn all expressions of conflict-related sexual violence committed against women, girls and boys, and speak of them as criminal and intolerable — as we have done for 14 years now — while down the hall, only a few metres from here in the Sixth Committee, we do next to nothing, year in year out, on the draft convention on criminal accountability of United Nations officials and experts on mission — a draft that has been on the agenda of the Sixth Committee since 2007.

Let us be clear about what it is we are saying by our inaction. We are saying that it is okay by us when a United Nations civilian staff member commits rape in a United Nations peacekeeping mission, where the host country has no functioning judiciary and when the country of nationality cannot exercise its criminal jurisdiction extraterritorially over the accused because it has no law allowing it to do so. Is that our view? Rapes perpetrated by United Nations civilian staff members in that context can go unpunished? That is precisely what it is we are saying, year after year. Please do not think those crimes have not happened, because they have. Do we have any credibility when we also insist that the United Nations has no business in relation to the conduct of investigations for alleged crimes committed by our own United Nations uniformed peacekeepers, knowing that in the past we, the Member States, were not reliable enough in guaranteeing that justice be done in respect of the victims? Are we credible when in the last reporting period of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) we still had 42 cases of sexual exploitation and abuse involving United Nations peacekeepers being investigated by that Office? By now, some nine years after we identified both the challenge and the plan needed to eliminate this odious phenomenon, there should be practically no cases at all.

I do not wish to be misunderstood: if we had done everything we should have done over the past nine years to ensure the total elimination of this abominable practice by our own peacekeepers, and they still occurred, then we could accept that there was little more we can do. But we, as Member States, have not done everything, and so we cannot make that claim. The United Nations is required to set an example before our publics as an Organization that will without question pay special attention to the most vulnerable and defenceless of protected persons in war, with first a guaranteed protection provided by ourselves, from ourselves, and then from others. What must we therefore do? We must adopt the convention on criminal accountability as soon as possible. We must make the United Nations a co-examiner of the facts, even when the allegations involve United Nations military personnel. We must be more transparent with regard to the severity and nature of the crimes being committed by United Nations peacekeepers. We believe that the OIOS takes too long in establishing the facts, which then must be prepared by the criminal jurisdiction concerned in order for them to become admissible in courts of law. Perhaps, as it was originally suggested, another slim but effective investigative capacity needs to be considered.

We must do better on matters relating to paternity. In situ courts martial for military offenders must be the rule, and not the exception, for sexual offenses. And we must consider again the proposal that all United Nations personnel destined for field service submit a sample of their DNA to the United Nations before they deploy, both to serve as a deterrent to the commission of crimes and for the sake of possible subsequent investigations, including establishing paternity. Finally, we, the Member States, need to report to the United Nations clearly and at the earliest possible time what judicial steps were undertaken by our authorities with respect to alleged crimes. If we are serious about confronting the odious phenomenon of conflict-related sexual violence generally, and we are not to be hypocrites, we must think about these issues more seriously.

That is all part of a broader effort to strengthen institutional safeguards against impunity for conflict-related sexual violence. Donors should be encouraged to ensure sustainable funding for this valuable resource for the countries concerned. Nigeria shares the Secretary-General's view that the lack of capacity remains one of the major impediments to ensuring accountability, which leads to widespread impunity. In turn, that has a detrimental impact on access to justice and the security and safety of survivors. It is evident that survivors' access to justice can be hindered by restrictions on physical access and inadequate legislation, or, indeed, by the financial and social costs associated with reporting and pursuing justice for crimes of sexual violence. Regrettably, many countries lack legal aid services and protocols for the protection of victims and witnesses, and an already weakened criminal justice system amplifies the lack of access to justice. We are pleased to note that United Nations actors, including the Team of Experts, continue to support national authorities in that regard.

At the global level there is now unprecedented commitment and momentum on the application of all the relevant Security Council resolutions. The international community must sustain that momentum. As part of those accomplishments, we believe that a great deal more needs to be done to implement commitments on women and peace and security. For example, there is a need for increased sex-disaggregated data on security threats in order to contribute to greater security for women. My country welcomes the Secretary-General's recommendations that outline critical elements for the prevention of sexual violence in conflict, specific actions required at political and operational levels and the need for national ownership, leadership and responsibility.

The determination to tackle sexual violence in conflict is not confined to the United Nations. At the regional level, under the auspices of the African Union, the African Solidarity Initiative held a high-level meeting in October 2013 on preventing and responding to sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict countries and beyond. That consultation was organized under key international policy and action frameworks, particularly resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008), the 2005 World Summit Outcome (General Assembly resolution 60/1), the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, the protocol on the prevention and suppression of sexual violence against women and children and the 2009 African Union gender policy. The meeting was aimed at significantly reducing and eliminating sexual violence and accelerating the implementation of agreed responses, especially those related to prevention and protection and victims' access to care and justice.

At the subregional level in West Africa, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has also put in place strong mechanisms with regard to the role of women in conflict prevention and management. Those include the protocol on conflict prevention, management, resolution, peacekeeping and security and the supplementary protocol on democracy and good governance. Those mechanisms form the basis of the ECOWAS conflict-prevention framework. The women and peace and security component of the framework is aimed at consolidating women's role, participation and impact at all stages of conflict management, including humanitarian provisions, while reinforcing various national and regional mechanisms on their protection and promotion. Other regional initiatives of that nature include the women's network for peace and security in the ECOWAS region; the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding; the Movement against Small Arms and Light Weapons in West Africa; and the Alliance of African Initiatives for peace and stability in West Africa. At national level, through the Law Reform Commission and the Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigeria has initiated reforms in the criminal justice system to ensure the delivery of gender justice in law and practice. Bills on addressing gender equality and all forms of violence against women and girls have been sponsored at both the federal and state level. Strident steps have been taken at the national level to ensure the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). In the same vein, Nigeria stresses the importance of compliance with resolution 1820 (2008), on ending acts of sexual violence against women in conflict.

Nigeria fully embraces the adoption of political commitments to prevent sexual violence in conflict, namely, the historic declarations adopted by the Group of Eight countries in April 2013 and the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which has been signed by more than 140 nations. We believe that Member States should implement those commitments as a matter of high priority. Member States that have yet to sign that important Declaration should be encouraged to do so before the October deadline — about six months from now. It is critical for States to focus collectively on converting the political commitments into concrete preventive action, particularly at national level. It is in that spirit that Nigeria today, in this forum, declares its intention to sign on to that laudable initiative as a means of demonstrating its unwavering commitment to the fight against sexual violence and all its ramifications.

Sexual violence is a violation of fundamental human rights and, in particular, the human rights of women. International humanitarian law and international criminal law are dedicated to protecting women from sexual violence. However, we do not see the indices of violence against women diminishing this year. As we have said before, it is the responsibility of all States to put an end not only to that form of violence, but also to impunity for war crimes, including war crimes related to sexual violence, for example, such horrors as forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization and other types of sexual violence.

A few years ago, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda established that rape and other forms of sexual violence were used as a weapon of war during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Although no one can tell the true number of the victims of rape during the genocide, it is reported that between 100,000 and 250,000 women were raped. Some of those women survived with scars, some with incurable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS. The consequence of those heinous crimes is beyond description. Nevertheless, the perpetrators of those crimes in Rwanda, now acting under the umbrella of the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, continued their mayhem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they terrorized communities and committed rape against women and girls.

Sexual violence is also a reality in Syria, the Central African Republic and many other conflict areas. In South Sudan, the radio is even used to call for the rape of women based on their ethnicity. We totally agree with Ms. Bangura that sexual violence in conflict needs to be treated as a war crime, not as an unfortunate collateral damage of war. It is therefore up to us as Member States to end this scourge. It must be made clear that sexual violence is not only a United Nations issue but an issue that requires the leadership, national ownership and responsibility of States. National ownership is imperative because it is at the national level that Governments create a platform for awareness and outreach against those crimes. Governments, whether in conflict or at peace, have a primary responsibility to prevent any acts of sexual violence against women, children and men, and to ensure accountability for such crimes. That responsibility is transferred to non-State actors under whose control civilians are.

We call on the established United Nations Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict to continue supporting national institutions to strengthen their response in addressing sexual violence. Ending impunity for those who commit sexual violence during conflict should be our collective effort and goal. Along the same lines, the Council should ensure that all country reports and mandate renewals evaluate the level of protection and promotion of women's human rights, as set out in several Security Council resolutions. In that regard, I totally agreed with what our colleague Prince Zeid that rapes perpetrated by United Nations civilian staff while on a peacekeeping mission cannot and should not go unpunished.

As the Council discusses options for the United Nations engagement in several conflict-stricken countries where the situation continues to worsen, with women bearing the brunt of the conflict and with human rights violations increasing, the United Nations presence should have a robust mandate to protect civilians. Protecting those in need should be given priority by ensuring that we take full measures, in particular to provide more effective protection to the civilian population at risk, to create the conditions for humanitarian assistance and to allow the investigation of violations and abuses. All peacekeepers should be trained on gender issues and ways to support victims of rape before deploying to peace operations.

On our part, Rwanda has adopted predeployment courses for all our troops that include lessons related to sexual and gender-based violence. In the same vein, we call for the deployment of gender advisers, women protection advisers and child protection advisers in all United Nations peacekeeping missions to focus on violations and abuses committed against women and children, including all forms of sexual violence in armed conflicts. Needless to say, the fight against impunity and accountability is key to eradicate the scourge of sexual violence in conflict. The Security Council should reinforce its efforts to ensure that investigations and prosecutions are carried out through the national justice systems when possible, or through various international justice mechanisms. Regardless of any debate we may have, our main objective is to ensure that justice is done for the victims, which can also serve as a deterrent for all belligerents.

In conclusion, allow me to restate our understanding that sexual violence in conflict, like any other growing violent trend, is a criminal practice that we can eradicate if we have the political will. We strongly believe that our joint efforts can yield tangible results and create a changed environment on the ground for those affected by that terrible scourge. My delegation will continue to support and work closely with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict in the implementation of its mandate.

This month, we have begun to implement our 10-year action plan to help promote human rights, in particular women's rights. That has been commended by the independent expert, and we would have liked to see that reflected in the report (S/2014/181), especially our efforts in the area of sexual violence against women.

Despite the progress made, paragraph 50 of the report under consideration refers to the situation in Darfur and mentions an increase in reports of conflict-related sexual violence. In these types of discussions, we are used to the date of issuance and publication of the report being mentioned. We want to know about such reports. When we talk about different reports, we want to know which reports we are talking about. That is why we are asking for a clear procedure to ensure the veracity of information and its sources. In several passages, the report talks about constraints imposed by the Government on the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). That is a reference to some activities of the security apparatus of UNAMID's military component.

Apparently, UNAMID is being asked not to go to certain areas. However, when it talks about UNAMID's civilian component, which has a unit for protecting women against sexual violence in armed conflict, it does have permission. Therefore, we did provide access. In that regard, I think we are talking about erroneous information in the report.

The report also states that armed men in military uniforms attacked women and were responsible for sexual violence. That is not true. I think that we should ensure the veracity of the information and check sources before it is put into the report. We did not prevent the investigator from gaining access. We have a clear procedure in place when it comes to impunity and violence against women, which I have already talked about.We underscore the need to protect women against violence, and against sexual violence in particular. My Government would like to reiterate its readiness to continue cooperating with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. We have sought to coordinate her visit but we have not been able to do so. Despite that, the Special Representative is very welcome. She can come see what is taking place and check that the information is true.This is a very sensitive matter. Once again, I would like to underscore that the principle of protecting women during armed conflict is a noble principle and it should not be politicized.

Sexual violence continues to be used to humiliate opponents in conflict, as a form of torture, to inflict injury, to extract information, to stigmatize, degrade and intimidate, to destroy communities, to displace communities and groups from their land, and to intentionally spread HIV or reward fighters. We cannot continue to ignore the scourge and reiterate our firm determination to implement resolution 1325 (2000) and related resolutions on such violence, while supporting efforts towards its prompt eradication and the healing and reintegration of victims and survivors.

Women are routinely subjected, to different degrees in various societies, to physical, sexual and psychological violence, and are even further victimized in situations of conflict to all sorts of brutal aggression. Despite several years of intensive action on the part of the international community, whose commitment and determination to fight sexual violence I welcome, women unfortunately continue to be victims of such violence the world over, wherever conflicts occur. The number of countries cited in the report of the Secretary-General is tangible proof of this.

States must uphold their obligations to prosecute those who perpetrate such violence and ensure that the victims of sexual violence enjoy equal protection under the law and access to justice. There can be no place for impunity within frameworks seeking to achieve lasting peace, justice, and national truth and reconciliation. When national judicial systems fail, the perpetrators of sexual violence should be subject to prosecution under international criminal justice, the jurisprudence of which when it comes to such violence represents a major step forward. Chad believes that all States are obligated to implement the principle of zero tolerance when it comes to sexual violence against women and girls. In this regard, we would like to welcome the stringent zero-tolerance policy applied by the United Nations regarding cases of sexual violence perpetrated by members of peacekeeping contingents.

The repercussions of sexual violence for women and their loved ones are enormous, and the victims are changed for life by what they have suffered. Not only do they often find themselves left alone with no medical or psychosocial assistance, but they are obliged to remain silent in the face of threats against them and any witnesses. The fight against sexual violence in conflict requires victims and witnesses to be protected so as to allow them to report the perpetrators of these crimes. Likewise, efforts should incorporate information, training and awareness-raising to enhance the prevention of sexual violence through capacity-building for States and other relevant stakeholders. In this regard, Chad welcomes the crucial role played by the United Nations and civil society, and encourages them to strengthen their warning systems and their cooperation with regional and subregional organizations with a view to fine-tuning a comprehensive response to issues related to sexual violence.

The wake-up calls issued by the adoption of the various resolutions of sexual violence marked significant progress that must be further strengthened by the effective implementation of all of the measures they provide for. Chad recognizes the central role women can play in efforts towards peace and security in situations of conflict. Their active participation at all levels of decision-making and in the prevention and settlement of conflicts, in brokering peace and in post-conflict peacebuilding is of great importance.

Since our last open debate on sexual violence in June 2013 (see S/PV.6984), new conflicts have broken out and others have intensified. The magnitude of the phenomenon has intensified proportionately, showing, unfortunately, that sexual violence goes hand in hand with conflict. I refer to the conflict in Darfur, which continues to deteriorate, and to that in South Sudan, where, as Ms. Misak has just outlined, the fighting that erupted since 15 December 2013 has led to serious violations of human rights, including a great number of cases of sexual violence. I refer, too, to the Central African Republic, where sexual violence has been the main feature of the attacks carried out against the civilian population since March 2013.

In Syria, sexual violence has been a constant since the beginning of the conflict. The independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic gathered information showing that Government forces and affiliated militias have committed sexual violence, including rape, in detention centres and prisons across the country, often during interrogations conducted by intelligence services. We also know that certain armed groups in Syria have also committed such violence. All of these conflicts and the other situations addressed in the annual report of the Secretary-General lead us to the conclusion that the Security Council must remain mobilized in the face of these despicable practices that deliberately target civilian populations and destroy the social fabric of entire communities. Last year's open debate focused on the fight against impunity. That topic remains relevant. It is at the heart of our efforts to end sexual violence. Condemning the perpetrators of sexual violence does not mean only punishing the guilty parties but also preventing future violence, righting wrongs and doing justice by victims and survivors. The international community must step up its efforts to support national authorities to assume their responsibility in the fight against impunity.

The partnership between Justice Rapid Response, UN-Women and the Institute for International Criminal Investigations is a good example of what can be done. Luxembourg supports that partnership, which has made it possible to establish a list of specialized experts who can be rapidly deployed to lead and participate in investigations and to provide assistance to the victims of acts of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict settings. Along with strengthening national capacities, there must be continued support for international criminal justice so it can play its role in cases where States either fail to live up to their obligations or lack the will to do so. I would like to reiterate the importance that Luxembourg attaches to the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Security Council is responsible for considering all of the means at its disposal to combat sexual violence, including referral to the ICC.

In recent years, the information available to us on cases of sexual violence has increased in both quantity and quality. Procedures for the monitoring, analysis and communication of information on sexual violence have begun to be implemented following the adoption of resolution 1960 (2010). It would be advisable to accelerate the implementation of those procedures, as envisaged in resolution 2106 (2013). It is also critical that advisors on the protection of women continue to be deployed in a systematic way. The Security Council should also ensure that it systematically takes into account the prevention of sexual violence in framing country-specific resolutions and in considering the renewal of the mandates of peacekeeping missions and special policy missions.

We commend applaud the efforts of the United Nations campaign against sexual violence conflict, headed by Ms. Bangura, in particular the preparation of early warning indicators for cases of conflict-related sexual violence addressed by United Nations missions in Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. The struggle against sexual violence can succeed only if the States concerned, the United Nations and all its Member States mobilize and unify their efforts. In that context, we welcome the signature on the sidelines of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly of the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. That initiative, which has since been endorsed by more than 140 countries, shows the will of the international community to put an end to that scourge. We hope that the June follow-up Global Summit in London will lead to the adoption of further specific commitments.

We have made progress over the past several years in combatting conflict-related sexual violence. Since the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000) in particular, a gender perspective has been increasingly integrated into key United Nations mandates.

In spite of those institutional gains, sexual violence in conflict remains one of the most egregious forms of human rights violations. Its impact goes far beyond an individual victim's pain and stigma. Even more troubling is the fact that sexual violence is often used as a tactic of armed conflict. As noted in the report of the Secretary-General (S/2014/181), sexual violence is wielded to attack specific ethnic and religious groups, used to displace civilians and unleashed to encourage predatory behaviour. The international community must scale up its collective efforts to combat the scourge, especially in the three areas of prevention, protection and prosecution.

First, we must strengthen the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence, establishing legal frameworks, promoting improved governance and the rule of law and raising public awareness; those are just some examples of the concrete actions we need to take. In that way, we believe that the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, to be held in London in June, will provide an opportunity to mobilize political commitments and promote public awareness. In addition, the participation of women together with the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in conflict resolution and peace processes should be ensured. Women can and must play multiple roles during periods of armed conflicts, as they often demonstrate resilience and ingenuity in the face of extreme adversity.

Secondly, we should pay increased attention to the protection of women facing rape, sexual slavery and other forms sexual violence in conflict. Building the capacity of national institutions and promoting relevant legislation and resource allocation are prerequisites for providing sustainable assistance to victims and survivors. At the same time, we must enhance international frameworks and tangible measures to protect women suffering from sexual violence in conflict. In that regard, we recognize the crucial role of peacekeeping operations and women protection advisers.

Thirdly, the politics of impunity should be terminated through the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of sexual violence. We cannot eradicate conflict-related sexual violence completely without bringing those responsible to justice. We note the contributions of the Team of Experts-Rule of Law/Sexual Violence in Conflict in building national capacity and expanding expertise in addressing impunity. The international justice system, including the International Criminal Court, should also play a leading role in ensuring accountability.

The recent report of the Secretary-General (S/2014/181) once again illustrates the alarming increase in sexual violence, which is often used as a method of warfare. With the adoption of resolution 2106 (2013), the Council has provided us with important tools to end that abominable practice. Nevertheless, we continue to face a major gap in the actual implementation of those measures. A lack of prioritization, capacity, adequate training, services — and ultimately resources — are the main reasons.

Liechtenstein was therefore pleased to be among the 144 States that endorsed the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict initiated by the United Kingdom. The Declaration sends a clear message that we all must redouble our efforts in that regard. We sincerely hope that the upcoming summit in London in June will help bring about increased impetus and better implementation.

Through the extensive experience of war and post-conflict management that Croatia unfortunately gained on its own territory, we may be able to make a significant contribution to wider global efforts to prevent and combat sexual violence in war and conflict. In that regard, I am pleased to announce that an International Conference on Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict will be held in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, from 29 to 30 May, jointly organized by the Croatian Ministry of Veterans' Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme. The Conference will be titled “Delivering Justice for the Past, Preventing Abuse in the Future”, with its main purpose that of sharing lessons learned in addressing the rights of victims of sexual violence in Croatia and other countries of the former Yugoslavia, and of disseminating those lessons around the world through the United Nations and other systems. The Conference can also be seen as a building block for the upcoming Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, to be held in London.

Namibia wishes to re-emphasize the importance of the role of women in conflict prevention and post-conflict peacebuilding. As such, we fully support the inclusion of women in security systems, such as the armed forces, the police and peacekeeping operations and special political missions in support of various United Nations resolutions that recognize that important role. We remain convinced that for the achievement of comprehensive and sustainable peace, all efforts should be made to ensure the participation and contribution of women to peace negotiations and during the execution of post-conflict strategies and programmes.

We continue to advocate that one of the most important ways to combat conflict-related sexual violence lies in policies aimed at the prevention and peaceful resolution of armed conflicts. Preventative measures could prove instrumental to spare the human and psychological costs associated with sexual violence.

They involve, among other things, strengthening national capacities, changing how victims are perceived in their communities and protecting witnesses. They also encompass curbing the availability of weapons used to commit those atrocities, ensuring, through adequate predeployment training, that peacekeeping missions are increasingly instrumental in preventing conflict-related sexual violence, and promoting criminal accountability and due prosecution of sexual violence crimes.

They need a seat at the table at all levels of conflict prevention, peace negotiation, transitional justice and reconstruction. It is not enough to just let them be observers of decision-making processes. That is especially important not only at the local level but also in the national and international context. The United Nations needs to ensure that women are involved in all United Nations-led peace and reconciliation talks.

Finally, the best way to eliminate conflict-related sexual violence is to prevent and resolve conflicts and address the cross-cutting issues of governance, the rule of law and economic development. The issues of sexual violence and the overall objectives of protecting the rights of women and children need to be pursued by the Council and the United Nations system in a holistic manner within their respective mandates. That requires a comprehensive multisectoral and multidimensional approach, as suggested by the Secretary-General.

On the other hand, armed conflict and instability often disproportionately affect women. In times of instability, violence against women, including sexual violence, increases. It is therefore important to include women in conflict prevention and resolution efforts as well as post-conflict recovery and reconciliation.

Preventive measures should be explicitly reflected in the processes of security sector reform, of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, and of justice reform initiatives in areas such as capacity and policing. We reiterate the important role of reporting, prevention, protection and reintegration played by civil society, including women's organizations, community leaders, religious leaders, the media and human rights activists, and we support the efforts of the system to build the capacity of these groups. The situation of internally displaced persons and refugees — who are particularly vulnerable to this type of violence, which is often used as a tactic to induce displacement — is of concern to the Council. Chile is organizing, together with Australia and with the support of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, an Arria formula meeting on the protection of internally displaced persons on 30 May.

We believe that the prosecution of sexual violence crimes, as well as national ownership and responsibility in addressing the root causes of sexual violence in armed conflict, are central to the prevention of such acts in the future. Sexual violence in armed conflict cannot be accepted as a cultural phenomenon. It is not an inevitable consequence of war or a lesser crime.

As conflict naturally breeds violence, we recognize the importance of addressing the reported problems of sexual violence that may occur in conflicts. However, incidents committed by unruly individuals cannot be construed as the policy of a given institution. The most important point is to refuse to condone any act of sexual violence. In Myanmar, all criminal cases filed with authorities were properly investigated and the perpetrators were punished according to the law. There have been a number of cases where military personnel have been prosecuted for committing acts of sexual violence. The accusations that have been made in some quarters suggesting that the State Constitution grants immunity from prosecution to military personnel who commit criminal offences are therefore totally groundless and appear to be politically motivated. With the reformist Government now paying greater attention to promoting democratic values than ever before, members of the armed forces have been clearly instructed not to commit any crimes, including those of sexual violence. A series of capacity-building workshops has been held to educate them on human rights, and the curriculums in military training schools also include instruction on the laws relating to the prevention of sexual violence.

The Secretary-General's report (S/2014/181) is magnificent and lengthy. We have read it extremely carefully. I should like to emphasize six elements that I believe to be of vital importance. First is the importance of prevention, as we all know. Secondly, in post-conflict situations, which are perhaps the most serious and most traumatic of situations, we need to incorporate a specific provision for care for victims. Thirdly, we must never forget the victims themselves, whose situation is truly tragic and alarming. Fourthly, we must keep in mind in particular victims from vulnerable sectors, such as indigenous groups or the disabled. Fifthly, it is important to ensure appropriate training for armed forces because they can play a definitive role in conflict and post-conflict situations. Lastly, we need to combat helplessness.

In our own internal conflict, which ended more than 17 years ago, there remain victims and consequences of the atrocities committed, and that has helped us to produce legislation on violence against women and girls so that they can live in a stable and democratic society. Preventing violence against women is a priority for the Government of Guatemala, and in recent years legislation has been adopted and institutions and policies created to complete that mission.

Furthermore, it is important to ensure that sexual violence considerations are explicitly and consistently reflected in ceasefire and peace agreements, as well as in all security sector reform, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes that involve the United Nations. In that regard, the adoption by the General Assembly of the Arms Trade Treaty was of critical importance, as it is the first international legal instrument that explicitly includes a gender criterion in arms transfers if there is a possibility that such transfers, would be used to commit violence against women and children. We celebrated the first anniversary of the historic adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty on 2 April and we look forward to its entry into force.

They involve, among other things, strengthening national capacities, changing how victims are perceived in their communities and protecting witnesses. They also encompass curbing the availability of weapons used to commit those atrocities, ensuring, through adequate predeployment training, that peacekeeping missions are increasingly instrumental in preventing conflict-related sexual violence, and promoting criminal accountability and due prosecution of sexual violence crimes.

Conflict-related sexual violence needs to be explicitly addressed in security sector reform and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes. More has to be done to ensure that women are active participants in peace agreements and in the negotiation, design and implementation of post-conflict and peacebuilding arrangements.

Germany has recently ratified the Arms Trade Treaty, which has clear provisions related to serious acts of gender-based violence or serious acts of violence against women and children. We would like to call on all States to follow our example and sign and ratify the Treaty in a timely manner.

Fourthly, data collection is essential for our ability to prevent, protect and respond and is the precondition for any justice and accountability mechanism at the national and international levels. Women protection advisers therefore need to be deployed and monitoring and reporting arrangements should be established in all relevant peacekeeping and special political missions. We welcome the mandating of women protection advisers in the newly established Mission in the Central African Republic, which will face the challenges of integrating women protection issues into all disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and security sector reform processes, and of ensuring that the survivors of sexual violence have access to all psychosocial and medical services in order to protect their sexual and reproductive rights.

Thirdly, more human and financial resources should be invested in security sector reform and disarmament demobilization and reintegration efforts to erect barriers against sexual violence. In post-conflict situations, too, close attention should be given to punitive and retributive justice. In that context, capacity-building of the transitional criminal justice mechanisms, including increased prosecutorial capacity, should be accorded priority.

However, our group is concerned about elements in the report indicating the systematic and widespread use of sexual violence as a tool of intimidation and social control. In addition, the report highlights the continued use of sexual violence as a means of displacing populations, as well as the pregnancies resulting from sexual violence and the plight of children born of rape, which requires much more attention

I should like to mention that special programmes on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration have been particularly important in highlighting women's roles. Those have been carried out in coordination with the relevant bodies of the United Nations, including UN-Women. Furthermore, we are combating sexual violence, and have done so since 2005. To that end, we have set up a special unit affiliated with the Ministry of Justice to combat sexual violence against women and girls.

Furthermore, Belgium shares the Secretary-General's concerns regarding the link between sexual violence and the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combattant programmes and security sector reform (SSR) programmes. There is a real need to pay particular and additional attention to the gender dimension when planning, training for and developing DDR and SSR programmes.

The Secretary-General's report rightly underscores that the slowness of progress made in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, as well as the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of sexual violence, promote a high-risk environment for women and girls

At the same time, we should not forget that sexual violence in conflict is almost never reported as a result of the risks facing both survivors and witnesses, which complicates the creation of accurate records on the incidence of that crime. We need closer cooperation among States and greater coordination among United Nations bodies to set up a joint international strategy to combat the culture of impunity, enable the full inclusion of women as key actors in peace processes and ceasefires, and promote their participation in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration measures and in security sector reform

In that regard, Member States, and key United Nations bodies such as the Peacebuilding Commission, UN-Women and the United Nations Development Programme, working with United Nations country teams and peace missions, have a critical role to play in supporting and capacitating the development of civil society and women's organizations at community and local levels. The value of engaging women from different communities in identifying early conflict warning signs, mediating community conflicts, and leading campaigns to prevent sexual and gender-based violence is well documented.

While there is value in developing monitoring mechanisms by the Security Council to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the relevant resolutions, greater participation by women in negotiation and peacemaking processes will allow for greater inclusivity and incorporation of gender perspectives reflective of the interests and concerns of women, thereby contributing to the sustainability of peace efforts.

Finally, allow me to reiterate the importance of linking our efforts to protect and strengthen women's rights with our commitment to promote women's participation. Men, too, have everything to gain from such efforts. The development of a truly global society will be achieved only by insuring the equal participation of women and men in all aspects of the peacemaking, peacebuilding and reconstruction processes. Equal participation is a prerequisite for comprehensively addressing gender-based violence, as well as its causes and its consequences. Therefore, Switzerland would like to stress the importance of the latest resolutions on the issue, in particular resolution 2122 (2013). Furthermore, we call upon all actors to continue their efforts for the complete and cohesive implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).

Turning to the subject of women, research has shown that women have an advantage in negotiating because of two skills more often related to them. One is listening, which enables interest and awareness of the importance of truly listening to another person's point of view and processing it in the context of one's own point of view, instead of always thinking that one's point of view is the only one that is correct. The second quality and skill that women have that is helpful in the context of negotiations is that they tend to focus on cooperation more than on competition or control. Research has shown that a cooperation-oriented personality leads more often to situations of tolerance that, in my view, are eventually palliative and understanding that are crucial in reaching an agreement.

It is a well-respected fact that women, who comprise more than half of the world's population, help to keep and protect peace and security through their strong family ties and work in the home, as well as through their influence on the work place and policy in their professional and diplomatic lives. Just like that of the men of honour throughout the world, women's influence is critical to making and preserving the global village of peace and security that every family and community needs and wants.

A book entitled — which means “sunny” in English —published in Croatia in 2011, contains the testimonies of imprisoned women against whom the crime of rape was committed during the war in Croatia. Sunny has also become a strong civil movement in Croatia during recent years, with courageous women finally breaking the social and intimacy barriers that occur in cases of war-time rape. Based on the book, the movie Sunny was filmed, with the support of the Croatian Ministry for Veterans Affairs, and was recently premiered in Zagreb. It is the first documentary film in which the victims of sexual violence in war, including male victims, have come out to speak of their suffering.

Women are still underrepresented at the several levels of peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts, just as they are inadequately represented in formal peace negotiations

And we need to work with UN-Women and the United Nations country team partners to help countries to develop national action plans to coordinate the implementation of all women and peace and security resolutions.

What is essential is to guarantee that women are included in peace processes and to ensure that their perspectives, direct knowledge of the concrete situation and concerns are taken into account as important contributions to the reshaping of torn societies in post-conflict situations and in peacebuilding efforts.

During a recent trip to Guinea-Bissau, in my capacity as Chair of the Guinea-Bissau configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission, I was impressed by the contribution that women's organizations have made to forging a more inclusive political culture in the country.

First, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of the effective and meaningful participation of women, in the interest of promoting gender equality, which is the essence of resolution 1325 (2000), and of ending sexual violence. Women themselves know best what they and their children need in order to feel safe, to protect themselves and their families, and to rebuild their lives and their communities after a crisis.

They need a seat at the table at all levels of conflict prevention, peace negotiation, transitional justice and reconstruction. It is not enough to just let them be observers of decision-making processes. That is especially important not only at the local level but also in the national and international context. The United Nations needs to ensure that women are involved in all United Nations-led peace and reconciliation talks.

In efforts to achieve the active involvement of women, civil society organizations can play an important role. They can connect women's organizations and train women representatives and thereby empower women to take their rightful place in all decision-making processes.

History has proven their credentials in creating peace. The policies of the United Nations system and outside it should therefore promote extensive measures to ensure the greater participation of women at all stages from conflict prevention to resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Indonesia supports not only a larger number of women in United Nations peacekeeping missions, but a larger number of women in the leadership of peacekeeping missions as well as related offices in New York and elsewhere.

At this juncture, Indonesia has deployed female peacekeepers in several missions, including the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, and it is committed to increasing the number of its female peacekeepers. Our emphasis on preventing sexual violence in conflict is also evident in our having an adequate personnel capacity on the subject and in our protection of civilians in implementing mission mandates. We fully support the continuation of mandatory training on addressing sexual violence for all peacekeeping personnel. That is why the Indonesian Peacekeeping Centre has included training on the issue and will ensure the continuation of this exercise, based on the standards and materials provided by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

In conclusion, I want to underline the importance of the empowerment of women. Effective policies backed by action to accord them their due rights and equal opportunities will be critical to bolstering the overall work on preventing sexual violence against women and other citizens in conflict.

Fourthly, United Nations personnel operating in areas of armed conflict should be properly trained and equipped to provide services on the ground for victims of sexual violence. The inter-agency network Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict is a useful platform. The inclusion of women protection advisers in peacekeeping operations is making a difference on the ground.

Fifthly, multidimensional peacekeeping missions with relevant mandates play a key role in combating sexual violence. As a leading participant in peacekeeping, Pakistan has contributed to that effort. Gender sensitization has been a mandatory part of our training for peacekeepers and is a core cultural value. Pakistani women have also served as police officers, doctors and nurses in various missions in Asia, Africa and the Balkans. Our feedback about the work of police officers is positive. Women police officers instinctively and because of their training show empathy to women trapped in conflict situations who in turn relate instantly to those police officers.

Sixthly, women should participate in larger numbers in the decision-making processes on ceasefires, peace agreements and post-conflict peacebuilding.

On the other hand, armed conflict and instability often disproportionately affect women. In times of instability, violence against women, including sexual violence, increases. It is therefore important to include women in conflict prevention and resolution efforts as well as post-conflict recovery and reconciliation.

Involving women in conflict prevention and mediation and the deployment of women's protection advisers to United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions is crucial to building and reinforcing peace

I should like to reiterate the fact that among States that are particularly involved in protecting women in conflict and on the question of sexual violence in conflict much progress has been made in our country since 2005. The Sudan has implemented resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and security, and has established several specialized centres at the community level to step up the role of women and to hold women's consultations on equality.

We have made strides in addressing sexual violence in conflict, but we can and must do more to put an end to this scourge. Malaysia therefore reaffirms its strong commitment to efforts to address sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations. We will continue to work with others to advance the agenda and ensure the participation of women is mainstreamed in activities towards securing peace and security.

Fifthly, I should like to emphasize the active role of two women, plenipotentiaries of the Government of Colombia in the peace process. They represent a necessary complementary perspective in the decision-making process to put an end to conflict in my country.

Women must be sent to the field as peacekeepers and peacemakers in greater numbers. There must be more women in the United Nations system, also at the policy level. They must be the agents of positive change

There must be more women in the United Nations system, also at the policy level

Our top priorities are increasing the participation of women in decision-making processes, protecting women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence with a zero-tolerance policy and ending impunity

Canada continues to call for support for women's civil society organizations, particularly those assisting survivors of violence to ensure their health, safety and dignity, and those amplifying women's participation in decision-making processes.

I can assure the Council that Canada remains committed to women's political and economic empowerment as essential elements in efforts to address and prevent conflict-related sexual violence

Nevertheless, justice for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence continues to be the exception to the rule, and holding perpetrators accountable has proven to be exceedingly difficult. Generally speaking, it is crucial that evidence be professionally collected at the earliest possible stage. That process may be assisted, inter alia, by the Justice Rapid Response initiative. Survivors of sexual violence also only rarely receive reparations. In that context, we particularly commend the work of the ICC Trust Fund for Victims, which adopts a gender perspective across all its activities and assists survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Protection issues are crucial, but we need the same level of emphasis on participation. The Secretary-General reports that sexual violence is also specifically being used as a method of curtailing the participation of women and girls in public life. That is a very worrisome development. Indeed, the voices of survivors, especially of sexual violence, are rarely heard. We must do more to ensure that survivors and their representatives and organizations are at the table when we work towards ending sexual violence. We are convinced that such an approach will have a strong impact on the willingness of the relevant actors to bring about change.

Significant efforts have also been made by Member States, civil society and non-governmental organizations in preventing and fighting this crime. However, much more must be done in order to fully eliminate sexual violence in conflicts. My country believes that the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence is of the utmost importance. We support the efforts invested within the United Nations to engage with State and non-State parties and obtain commitments to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence. We also support the recommendation of the Secretary-General to include the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence in the mandates of peacekeeping and special political missions, as well as to continue with the deployment of women protection advisers in peacekeeping missions and the training of all United Nations peacekeeping personnel using the innovative tools developed by United Nations Action against Sexual Violence partners.

Significant efforts have also been made by Member States, civil society and non-governmental organizations in preventing and fighting this crime. However, much more must be done in order to fully eliminate sexual violence in conflicts. My country believes that the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence is of the utmost importance. We support the efforts invested within the United Nations to engage with State and non-State parties and obtain commitments to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence. We also support the recommendation of the Secretary-General to include the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence in the mandates of peacekeeping and special political missions, as well as to continue with the deployment of women protection advisers in peacekeeping missions and the training of all United Nations peacekeeping personnel using the innovative tools developed by United Nations Action against Sexual Violence partners.

In that regard, Member States, and key United Nations bodies such as the Peacebuilding Commission, UN-Women and the United Nations Development Programme, working with United Nations country teams and peace missions, have a critical role to play in supporting and capacitating the development of civil society and women's organizations at community and local levels. The value of engaging women from different communities in identifying early conflict warning signs, mediating community conflicts, and leading campaigns to prevent sexual and gender-based violence is well documented.

While there is value in developing monitoring mechanisms by the Security Council to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the relevant resolutions, greater participation by women in negotiation and peacemaking processes will allow for greater inclusivity and incorporation of gender perspectives reflective of the interests and concerns of women, thereby contributing to the sustainability of peace efforts.

They can be taught natural ways of living, and thereby learn how emotions work and how to listen to each other. They can be taught how, in situations of conflict, to evoke calm in themselves and through their surroundings while practicing good communication methods.

Turning to the subject of women, research has shown that women have an advantage in negotiating because of two skills more often related to them. One is listening, which enables interest and awareness of the importance of truly listening to another person's point of view and processing it in the context of one's own point of view, instead of always thinking that one's point of view is the only one that is correct. The second quality and skill that women have that is helpful in the context of negotiations is that they tend to focus on cooperation more than on competition or control. Research has shown that a cooperation-oriented personality leads more often to situations of tolerance that, in my view, are eventually palliative and understanding that are crucial in reaching an agreement.

Another point is that women having a voice in peace and security fulfills a proposed focus area of the post-2015 development agenda concerning gender equality and women's empowerment. It also overlaps the focus area of sustainable society because when women feel empowered due to a peaceful situation, they can create a peaceful family setting, as they are crucial in the raising of children. That peaceful family context then sets the stage for a more peaceful and sustainable society, and therefore a more peaceful world.

It is a well-respected fact that women, who comprise more than half of the world's population, help to keep and protect peace and security through their strong family ties and work in the home, as well as through their influence on the work place and policy in their professional and diplomatic lives. Just like that of the men of honour throughout the world, women's influence is critical to making and preserving the global village of peace and security that every family and community needs and wants.

Namibia wishes to re-emphasize the importance of the role of women in conflict prevention and post-conflict peacebuilding. As such, we fully support the inclusion of women in security systems, such as the armed forces, the police and peacekeeping operations and special political missions in support of various United Nations resolutions that recognize that important role. We remain convinced that for the achievement of comprehensive and sustainable peace, all efforts should be made to ensure the participation and contribution of women to peace negotiations and during the execution of post-conflict strategies and programmes.

Women are still underrepresented at the several levels of peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts, just as they are inadequately represented in formal peace negotiations

The exclusion of women from peace talks and peacebuilding efforts often means that insufficient attention is paid to addressing women's needs and concerns in the post-conflict phase, thereby reinforcing a circle of inequality and marginalization

What is essential is to guarantee that women are included in peace processes and to ensure that their perspectives, direct knowledge of the concrete situation and concerns are taken into account as important contributions to the reshaping of torn societies in post-conflict situations and in peacebuilding efforts.

They need a seat at the table at all levels of conflict prevention, peace negotiation, transitional justice and reconstruction. It is not enough to just let them be observers of decision-making processes. That is especially important not only at the local level but also in the national and international context. The United Nations needs to ensure that women are involved in all United Nations-led peace and reconciliation talks.

We believe that the development of the United Nations civilian capacities initiative, along with the advancement of other relevant United Nations and non-United Nations programmes, can enable greater capacity-building in the area of safeguarding women and their rights in conflict-affected countries. While taking such steps, it is also vital that women be seen not just as victims, but also as peace enablers in conflict.

History has proven their credentials in creating peace. The policies of the United Nations system and outside it should therefore promote extensive measures to ensure the greater participation of women at all stages from conflict prevention to resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Indonesia supports not only a larger number of women in United Nations peacekeeping missions, but a larger number of women in the leadership of peacekeeping missions as well as related offices in New York and elsewhere.

Sixthly, women should participate in larger numbers in the decision-making processes on ceasefires, peace agreements and post-conflict peacebuilding.

On the other hand, armed conflict and instability often disproportionately affect women. In times of instability, violence against women, including sexual violence, increases. It is therefore important to include women in conflict prevention and resolution efforts as well as post-conflict recovery and reconciliation.

Involving women in conflict prevention and mediation and the deployment of women's protection advisers to United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions is crucial to building and reinforcing peace

Myanmar is also making great progress in its strenuous peacemaking efforts to end its 60-year-long conflict, which have produced ceasefire agreements with almost all ethnic groups. The expected forthcoming signing of a nationwide ceasefire agreement will be a watershed in our peacebuilding process as it helps to create the conditions needed to end violence.

Fifthly, I should like to emphasize the active role of two women, plenipotentiaries of the Government of Colombia in the peace process. They represent a necessary complementary perspective in the decision-making process to put an end to conflict in my country.

Women must be sent to the field as peacekeepers and peacemakers in greater numbers. There must be more women in the United Nations system, also at the policy level. They must be the agents of positive change

Finally, let me touch upon the issue of survivors. Care for and protection of survivors of sexual violence are another vital issue to address in order to fight stigmatization and reprisals and prevent violence and impunity in the future. We believe that reparations could significantly contribute to restoring justice, especially when other means are not feasible. Twenty years after the end of the Balkan War, an estimated 20,000 survivors of crimes of sexual violence have not seen justice. The alleged perpetrators enjoy positions of influence while victims and their children born of rape are left to suffer stigmatization and shame. Women were excluded from the peace negotiations, even though women's organizations were the first to initiate meetings with people from the other side, trying to find common ground and ways to stop the violence. That is the probable reason why the Dayton peace accords did not include the provisions recommended in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action. Indeed, our toolbox is full of useful instruments but it is now time to take matters into our own hands, consolidate our actions on the ground and deliver together and in close cooperation with all humanitarian, diplomatic, justice, security and civil society actors.

Women's protection advisers play a critical role in prevention and response, and New Zealand calls for more advisers to be deployed to the relevant missions. Consideration should also be given to ensuring adequate deployment of child protection advisers, reflecting the fact that young people are often victims.

New Zealand strongly endorses the Secretary-General's and others' call for all parties to conflict responsible for acts of sexual violence to cease that horrendous conduct and to make protection commitments. We also call for the further strengthening and implementation of the protection framework while ensuring that protection is extended to those most vulnerable to conflict-related sexual violence.

I would like to also point out the other extensive measures the Government has taken to cater to women and girls to ensure that their well-being and security is protected. The Government has established women and children's police desks staffed by female police officers in police stations in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces. Specially trained police officers function at such desks which provide an enabling and protective environment for children, women and girls and their parents to report incidents of abuse and exploitation.

In conclusion, let me reiterate that Sri Lanka will proactively continue with its efforts to enhance and develop protection mechanisms with regard to the protection of women and children.

We welcome the programmes for training and consciousness-raising as well as the monitoring measures such as those being pursued within the framework of human rights due diligence policy of the African Union Mission in Somalia. Regular reports on sexual and gender-based violence along with a zero-tolerance policy vis-à-vis the perpetrators of such crimes are indispensable.

The United Nations, and in particular this body, have convened meetings to deliberate on mitigating factors that can be employed to prevent and or curb such a scourge. However, despite all efforts, the scourge still persists and continues to terrorize communities, thereby posing a serious security concern. That is so because perpetrators are left unpunished and the culture of impunity aggravates conflict cycles. Fighting sexual violence in conflict is a shared responsibility that requires a broad-based approach that involves the international community, regional and national Governments, civil societies and other stakeholders. National Governments should foster national programmes that take measures aimed at preventing and stopping the occurrence of sexual violence and prosecute perpetrators. In that regard, national stakeholders should be fully engaged in order to foster national ownership, leadership and responsibility. While recognizing that Governments bear the primary responsibility for the safety and rights of women and the protection of all citizens in their countries, the international community should support those efforts, while fully respecting national sovereignty and focusing on capacity-building and resolving funding and technical difficulties.

First, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of the effective and meaningful participation of women, in the interest of promoting gender equality, which is the essence of resolution 1325 (2000), and of ending sexual violence. Women themselves know best what they and their children need in order to feel safe, to protect themselves and their families, and to rebuild their lives and their communities after a crisis.

As a country that places high priority on providing conditions for its citizens in which they can live freely without fear and develop, Indonesia strongly believes that the first endeavour should be to build a culture of peace and tolerance and prevent armed conflict itself. For us, that means that the international community should also put a greater premium on the peaceful resolution of disputes while enhancing and sustaining support particularly to those countries that lack capacities and resources. But if the conflict erupts, there must be full adherence to the international humanitarian and human rights laws relating to citizens, and all vulnerable groups, including women and children, must be safeguarded effectively.

Since the primary responsibility falls on the nation State itself, there should be appropriate domestic law enforcement and justice mechanisms dealing with sexual violence in conflict with well-resourced and equipped institutions that can provide the needed care. There must be vigorous and continuous wholesome measures to build an environment and infrastructure in societies that strengthen the respect and protection of women and human life under all conditions.

Fourthly, United Nations personnel operating in areas of armed conflict should be properly trained and equipped to provide services on the ground for victims of sexual violence. The inter-agency network Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict is a useful platform. The inclusion of women protection advisers in peacekeeping operations is making a difference on the ground.

It is of utmost importance that peacekeepers continue to be trained to enhance their capacity to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence, that women protection advisers be deployed within peacekeeping and special political missions, and that ceasefire or peace agreements explicitly reflect sexual violence considerations Latvia and Estonia commend United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and the efforts of the United Nations system to establish the monitoring and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence, as mandated by resolution 1960 (2010).

We are fully committed to addressing all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence in conflict. The protection of women in conflict situations and ending impunity remain our utmost priorities

As conflict naturally breeds violence, we recognize the importance of addressing the reported problems of sexual violence that may occur in conflicts. However, incidents committed by unruly individuals cannot be construed as the policy of a given institution. The most important point is to refuse to condone any act of sexual violence. In Myanmar, all criminal cases filed with authorities were properly investigated and the perpetrators were punished according to the law. There have been a number of cases where military personnel have been prosecuted for committing acts of sexual violence. The accusations that have been made in some quarters suggesting that the State Constitution grants immunity from prosecution to military personnel who commit criminal offences are therefore totally groundless and appear to be politically motivated. With the reformist Government now paying greater attention to promoting democratic values than ever before, members of the armed forces have been clearly instructed not to commit any crimes, including those of sexual violence. A series of capacity-building workshops has been held to educate them on human rights, and the curriculums in military training schools also include instruction on the laws relating to the prevention of sexual violence.

As a State party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Myanmar has taken steps to eliminate discrimination and violence against women, in line with the Convention's provisions, and we are currently implementing a 10-year national strategic plan for the advancement of women. Myanmar's three-year-old democratic reforms have also created an environment more conducive to the protection of women and girls. Our new-found freedom of expression and of the media has emboldened everyone to file complaints about any wrongful acts without fear. Any abuse of rights can be reported to our national human-rights commission. The issue of the protection of women has also attracted the attention of the legislative body, and a law banning violence against women is being drafted with the assistance of the United Nations. That important legislation is expected to be finalized for enactment very soon.

The United Nations generally seeks to be as practical and operational as possible in its approach, and we welcome that. For example, there is an increasing focus on training national security-sector actors in confronting sexual violence in conflict. There is certainly room to improve the protection afforded to women and girls from violence in humanitarian emergencies. Irish Aid, the Irish Government's development cooperation programme, seeks to ensure that the protection of women and girls in emergencies is one of the key criteria in its decisions on humanitarian funding. Over the next three years, we will progressively increase the funding we provide for protection in emergency and recovery contexts.

Protecting women against sexual violence in conflict remains a collective responsibility and requires us to act with resolve, coordination and as one to strengthen measures to stop the perpetrators and instigators of the violence and to prevent such violence from recurring.

My delegation believes that the mandates of women protection advisers in peacekeeping operations and special political missions need to be clearly defined and periodically evaluated in order to enable each context to be borne in mind and to improve coordination between among the advisers in carrying out their missions so as to avoid any possible duplication of work on the ground and to ensure better consistency in their work.

Women must be sent to the field as peacekeepers and peacemakers in greater numbers. There must be more women in the United Nations system, also at the policy level. They must be the agents of positive change

Nevertheless, justice for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence continues to be the exception to the rule, and holding perpetrators accountable has proven to be exceedingly difficult. Generally speaking, it is crucial that evidence be professionally collected at the earliest possible stage. That process may be assisted, inter alia, by the Justice Rapid Response initiative. Survivors of sexual violence also only rarely receive reparations. In that context, we particularly commend the work of the ICC Trust Fund for Victims, which adopts a gender perspective across all its activities and assists survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Protection issues are crucial, but we need the same level of emphasis on participation. The Secretary-General reports that sexual violence is also specifically being used as a method of curtailing the participation of women and girls in public life. That is a very worrisome development. Indeed, the voices of survivors, especially of sexual violence, are rarely heard. We must do more to ensure that survivors and their representatives and organizations are at the table when we work towards ending sexual violence. We are convinced that such an approach will have a strong impact on the willingness of the relevant actors to bring about change.

Sexual violence is a repugnant and criminal phenomenon that is closely linked to insecurity and the impunity associated with a weak institutional framework for the rule of law. Those issues have been very present in earlier debates of the Council, as well as those, in other contexts, in the General Assembly, including the work in progress on the post-2015 development agenda. States have adopted measures to confront the scourge and to protect women and children, who are the most vulnerable to sexual violence in situations of armed conflict. However, in each new report, the Secretary-General takes stock of horrendous situations caused by offenders, particularly those that appear as systematic violators in the annex of the report (S/2014/181).

Serbia supports the fight against all forms of violence, especially against sexual and gender-based violence in all circumstances. Sexual violence in armed conflict presents one of the most serious forms of violation and abuse of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. In recent years, prevention and suppression and an adequate response to sexual violence in conflict has been the subject of intensive deliberations in the Security Council. We welcome the efforts made to that end. We support the activities undertaken by the Secretary-General and have followed the actions of Ms. Bangura very closely.

Significant efforts have also been made by Member States, civil society and non-governmental organizations in preventing and fighting this crime. However, much more must be done in order to fully eliminate sexual violence in conflicts. My country believes that the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence is of the utmost importance. We support the efforts invested within the United Nations to engage with State and non-State parties and obtain commitments to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence. We also support the recommendation of the Secretary-General to include the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence in the mandates of peacekeeping and special political missions, as well as to continue with the deployment of women protection advisers in peacekeeping missions and the training of all United Nations peacekeeping personnel using the innovative tools developed by United Nations Action against Sexual Violence partners.

The victims of sexual violence in conflicts are by and large non-combatants, in particular vulnerable population groups such as women and children. We are deeply concerned that refugees and internally displaced persons are at increased risk of sexual violence in conflicts. In some cases, that has led to human trafficking and sexual slavery. All victims of sexual violence must be provided with psychosocial, economic and legal assistance and non-discriminatory health care, including appropriate services for children and male survivors.

We firmly believe that international activities aimed at addressing sexual violence in conflicts must be coordinated among Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations based on valid information and measurable results.

Proceeding from resolution 1325 (2000), in 2010 Serbia adopted its national action plan for the 2010-2015 period concerning the implementation of the resolution. In addition, Serbia also implements its national strategy for the prevention and suppression of violence against women in the family and intimate partner relationships, adopted in May 2011.

By signing the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in September last year, 144 States, including Serbia, pledged to do more on the prevention of sexual violence in conflict and to better support the victims. In that way, a strong message was sent that sexual violence in conflict is unacceptable and that those responsible will be brought to justice, prosecuted and punished appropriately. We believe that it is necessary to work towards preventing these crimes precisely by raising awareness that they cannot go unpunished. The role played by Governments and by international criminal justice in that regard is very important.

Serbia supports the fight against all forms of violence, especially against sexual and gender-based violence in all circumstances. Sexual violence in armed conflict presents one of the most serious forms of violation and abuse of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. In recent years, prevention and suppression and an adequate response to sexual violence in conflict has been the subject of intensive deliberations in the Security Council. We welcome the efforts made to that end. We support the activities undertaken by the Secretary-General and have followed the actions of Ms. Bangura very closely.

Significant efforts have also been made by Member States, civil society and non-governmental organizations in preventing and fighting this crime. However, much more must be done in order to fully eliminate sexual violence in conflicts. My country believes that the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence is of the utmost importance. We support the efforts invested within the United Nations to engage with State and non-State parties and obtain commitments to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence. We also support the recommendation of the Secretary-General to include the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence in the mandates of peacekeeping and special political missions, as well as to continue with the deployment of women protection advisers in peacekeeping missions and the training of all United Nations peacekeeping personnel using the innovative tools developed by United Nations Action against Sexual Violence partners.

The victims of sexual violence in conflicts are by and large non-combatants, in particular vulnerable population groups such as women and children. We are deeply concerned that refugees and internally displaced persons are at increased risk of sexual violence in conflicts. In some cases, that has led to human trafficking and sexual slavery. All victims of sexual violence must be provided with psychosocial, economic and legal assistance and non-discriminatory health care, including appropriate services for children and male survivors.

We firmly believe that international activities aimed at addressing sexual violence in conflicts must be coordinated among Governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations based on valid information and measurable results.

Proceeding from resolution 1325 (2000), in 2010 Serbia adopted its national action plan for the 2010-2015 period concerning the implementation of the resolution. In addition, Serbia also implements its national strategy for the prevention and suppression of violence against women in the family and intimate partner relationships, adopted in May 2011.

By signing the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in September last year, 144 States, including Serbia, pledged to do more on the prevention of sexual violence in conflict and to better support the victims. In that way, a strong message was sent that sexual violence in conflict is unacceptable and that those responsible will be brought to justice, prosecuted and punished appropriately. We believe that it is necessary to work towards preventing these crimes precisely by raising awareness that they cannot go unpunished. The role played by Governments and by international criminal justice in that regard is very important.

Despite all of the efforts of the international community and the establishment of legal and normative frameworks, including seven Security Council resolutions, conflict-related sexual violence is on the rise. It is getting more complex. It is used to displace civilian populations, to seize land and property and to illicitly extract natural resources. Children are sexually assaulted and suffer from stigma when born out of rape. Young girls are trafficked, forced to marry rebels and used as messengers. Boys and men are subjected to sexualized violence. Sexual violence has become a tactic and weapon of war and impunity prevails. The only way to effectively address this scourge is a comprehensive and integrated approach which entails prevention, early warning, justice, accountability, the participation of women in political processes and economic empowerment.

The inclusion of provisions on sexual violence in the Arms Trade Treaty is just one of the recent encouraging examples of action in that regard. In its turn the Security Council, in resolution 2106 (2013) — the fourth resolution focused on conflict-related sexual violence — has reaffirmed the centrality of gender equality and women's political, social and economic empowerment to preventing sexual violence and further developed the operational framework on conflict-related sexual violence. Among other operational provisions, it calls for the further deployment of women protection advisers and gender advisers to the relevant United Nations peacekeeping and political missions, as well as humanitarian operations.

The Security Council has also recognized the need for more systematic monitoring and more timely, objective, accurate and reliable information as a basis for prevention and response. The Security Council's support of the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence has contributed to a better understanding of the scope and roots of the problem and facilitated a more proactive stance of United Nations teams on the ground. Having more robust monitoring and reporting mechanisms, the Security Council could also consider developing a procedure that would ensure systematic monitoring of the implementation of its decisions and commitments taken up by parties to conflict.

At the same time, the lack of adequate national capacity and expertise to prevent, investigate and prosecute violence remain among the main impediments in combating sexual violence and ensuring accountability. We are encouraged by the United Nations efforts to assist the strengthening of national capacities. We welcome the extremely important work of the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, which is being rapidly deployed in situations of particular concern with respect to sexual violence in armed conflict to assist national authorities in strengthening the rule of law.

Another concrete and laudable example is the joint UN-Women/Justice Rapid Response training, roster management, and deployment mechanism established upon a request of the Secretary-General to ensure that each commission of inquiry is provided with expertise on investigations of sexual and gender-based violence.

It is also of paramount importance that peacekeepers continue to be trained to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence, and that special training materials be prepared, preferably in the native languages of peacekeepers. Peacekeeping forces must ensure that internally displaced persons camps are free of alleged perpetrators. The United Nations Blue Helmets themselves must strictly follow the rules of conduct.

Lithuania strongly supports the Group of Eight declaration on preventing sexual violence in conflict, and we are glad to learn that over 140 States have already endorsed the declaration of commitment that was introduced in New York in September 2013. Lithuania looks forward to the global summit in London in June this year, where specific actions are to be identified and agreed.

We note with appreciation that women, peace and security issues are included in the Secretary-General's country-specific reports under a separate heading. The Security Council could also consistently include the women, peace and security agenda in the terms of reference of its visiting missions. As the Council continues to horizontally integrate the issues of sexual violence into its work, including in the drafting or renewing mandates of United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions, relevant sanctions committees must review their listing and de-listing guidelines, add sexual violence to their lists of criteria, harmonize designation criteria for listed individuals by including any relevant charges from international justice mechanisms, consider sanctioning parties identified by the Secretary-General and his Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. The Council at its disposal has and should actively consider other means to ensure accountability, such as referrals to the International Criminal Court, special tribunals and commissions of inquiry.

The International Commission of Inquiry on the Central African Republic should provide all relevant information to the Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) in order to list the perpetrators and send a strong signal that all offenders will be held accountable. The capacity of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic to monitor and report human rights violations, including sexual violence, must also be enhanced.

The sexual violence in Syria against women and men, including in Government detention facilities; non-State armed groups targeting female family members of Government forces; and more than 300 cases of gender-based violence in three health clinics in Damascus and Rural Damascus alone are clear violations of international humanitarian law and resolution 2139 (2014). We support referral of the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Only by using all available tools at our hands will we be able to prevent further violence and end this vicious cycle of impunity. The experience in combating conflict-related sexual violence in the Central African Republic, Syria and many other countries, as reported by the Secretary-General, shows that the United Nations has to find meaningful ways to engage non-State actors.

Finally, let me touch upon the issue of survivors. Care for and protection of survivors of sexual violence are another vital issue to address in order to fight stigmatization and reprisals and prevent violence and impunity in the future. We believe that reparations could significantly contribute to restoring justice, especially when other means are not feasible. Twenty years after the end of the Balkan War, an estimated 20,000 survivors of crimes of sexual violence have not seen justice. The alleged perpetrators enjoy positions of influence while victims and their children born of rape are left to suffer stigmatization and shame. Women were excluded from the peace negotiations, even though women's organizations were the first to initiate meetings with people from the other side, trying to find common ground and ways to stop the violence. That is the probable reason why the Dayton peace accords did not include the provisions recommended in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action. Indeed, our toolbox is full of useful instruments but it is now time to take matters into our own hands, consolidate our actions on the ground and deliver together and in close cooperation with all humanitarian, diplomatic, justice, security and civil society actors.

We have seen some significant steps forward since the Council last convened an open debate to consider this issue in 2013 (see S/PV.7044), including the adoption of resolution 2106 (2013). Over the past year, we have also welcomed specific commitments made by a number of countries to combat sexual violence in armed conflict.

The Secretary-General's report (S/2014/181) on conflict-related sexual violence is sobering; it illustrates the scale and severity of the challenges that remain. It is clear that political commitments need to translate into concrete actions on the ground. The international community must address the use of sexual violence to intimidate and maintain social control, reprisals against those who report crimes, the targeting of children and the lack of access to justice, as well as many other difficult challenges.

If lasting progress is to be made, then we must focus on preventing conflict-related sexual violence from occurring in the first place by dealing with root causes. That requires national Governments, supported by the United Nations, to emphasize better education at all levels within communities — from schools to health centres to the military — in order to help shift social attitudes and improve understanding of sexual violence.

We strongly encourage the ongoing training of United Nations peacekeepers to protect populations from sexual violence. Peacekeepers can provide a strong line of prevention and response, both in terms of recognizing early warning signs and reporting them, as well as addressing appropriately instances where sexual violence has occurred. Good quality training that is comprehensive and contextual should ensure that peacekeepers are able to recognize and respond to those most vulnerable to sexual violence. That includes, for example, persons with disabilities who have a heightened risk of sexual violence but often face challenges to both prevent and report sexual violence.

Effective accountability is vital to hold perpetrators to account, to ensure recognition for victims and to deter future crimes. We acknowledge the important work done by international tribunals and the International Criminal Court in strengthening international law on sexual violence. The focus the Council has paid to accountability in resolution 2106 (2013) was welcome, and we must continue that trend by ensuring that accountability and access to justice are part of all our conversations about conflict-related sexual violence.

New Zealand is one of the 144 countries that endorsed the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, an initiative of the United Kingdom. The Declaration demonstrated that the political will exists to tackle conflict-related sexual violence. The upcoming Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, to be held in London in June, provides an important opportunity to grow the political will and identify practical actions while reflecting on some of the concerns raised in the Council today.

New Zealand strongly endorses the Secretary-General's and others' call for all parties to conflict responsible for acts of sexual violence to cease that horrendous conduct and to make protection commitments. We also call for the further strengthening and implementation of the protection framework while ensuring that protection is extended to those most vulnerable to conflict-related sexual violence.

My delegation acknowledges the significant gains recorded in the past decade towards building political momentum in the fight against the scourge of sexual violence in conflict. Undoubtedly, that has contributed to a more focused, coherent and integrated approach across the United Nations system in addressing this complex and persistent challenge.

The recent report of the Secretary-General warrants serious consideration, given the overwhelming evidence that sexual violence in situations of armed conflict and post-conflict remains systemic and widespread in many parts of the world. We are conscious that the consequences of those egregious crimes are devastating for affected communities.

While the report of the Secretary-General strongly underscores the need for a comprehensive, multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional framework approach to address the prevention of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict settings, we concur with the Secretary-General's observation that national ownership, leadership and responsibility are key in the prevention of sexual violence. Ultimately, Member States bear the primary legal and moral responsibility for preventing and addressing such crimes.

In the broader framework of prevention, we have long advocated for the explicit referencing of sexual violence in conflict in all the relevant country-specific resolutions, as well as in the authorizations and renewals of the mandates of peacekeeping and special political missions.

We recognize the valuable contribution of the five-point priority agenda of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict as a strategy to address sexual violence in conflict. However, as highlighted in the report of the Secretary-General, we believe that priority must be given to fostering national ownership, leadership and responsibility to ensure sustainability.

My delegation commends the work of the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict in enhancing the capacity-building of civilian and military justice systems to address sexual violence. We believe, however, that significantly more needs to be done by Member States, the United Nations system and the relevant entities in supporting national efforts by States to increase women's participation, leadership and expertise in the rule of law and transitional justice, as well as in advancing accountability measures for serious offences committed against the victims of sexual violence.

My delegation is of the view that civil society and women's organizations are important partners in efforts aimed at preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence and in providing victims and survivors with information and support, towards facilitating their access to health services, legal assistance, basic services and livelihood assistance.

In that regard, Member States, and key United Nations bodies such as the Peacebuilding Commission, UN-Women and the United Nations Development Programme, working with United Nations country teams and peace missions, have a critical role to play in supporting and capacitating the development of civil society and women's organizations at community and local levels. The value of engaging women from different communities in identifying early conflict warning signs, mediating community conflicts, and leading campaigns to prevent sexual and gender-based violence is well documented.

In conclusion, every effort must be made to end impunity by perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict. My delegation therefore affirms its support for the inclusion of sexual violence in the definition of acts prohibited during ceasefires, including the exclusion of perpetrators of sexual violence from amnesty provisions.

The Security Council must also include measures that bring pressure to bear on perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict, especially on individuals and parties through the adoption of specific measures, including specific and time-bound protection commitments by all the relevant actors to an armed conflict.

In times of conflict and post-conflict situations, attention should be paid to all forms of violence against civilians, but especially to sexual violence. Conflict often creates family dislocations, shattered livelihoods and sole breadwinners, with the resulting negative consequences. Single mothers are often the product of conflict, and, in some cases, that increases vulnerability to sexual harassment, exploitation and violence.

The Government of Sri Lanka has implemented a firm policy on sexual violence and taken firm action on reported cases of violence against women and girls during the conflict and the post-conflict periods in my country. Sri Lanka has deplored all violence against women and has a well-established policy against gender-based violence and all forms of sexual abuse. During the conflict period, from January 2007 to May 2009, seven security forces personnel were reported to have been involved in five incidents of sexual violence in Northern Province. That is out of a total of 125 persons accused in 119 incidents for the entirety of Northern Province.

In the post-conflict period, from May 2009 to May 2012, 10 security forces personnel were reported to have been involved in six incidents of sexual violence in Northern Province. That is out of a total of 307 persons accused in 256 incidents for the entire Northern Province. The involvement of security forces personnel as a percentage of the total accused stands at 5.6 per cent in the conflict period and 3.3 per cent in the post-conflict period.

It is interesting to note that the involvement of security forces personnel as a percentage of the total incidents of sexual violence is quite low, both in the conflict and post-conflict periods. In a majority of the aforementioned cases, the perpetrators have been close relatives or neighbours of the victim. Against that backdrop, the Sri Lankan authorities reject the inferences by certain organizations and reports that the presence of the military contributes to the insecurity of women and girls in the former conflict-affected areas.

Legal action has been taken by the Government in all of the above-mentioned cases in which Sri Lankan Security Forces personnel were involved. The military has taken stringent action, including discharging offenders or imposing other punishments in accordance with the military and penal codes. Furthermore, charges have also been filed in normal criminal courts. Along with the application of the law to personnel in breach of the law, the Sri Lankan military continues to provide large-scale human rights training with the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Certain organizations are involved in propagating false reports against the Sri Lankan military of sexual violence. A recent report was authored by Ms. Yasmin Sooka. That report made accusations, often with disturbing details, without providing sufficient details, such as to the time, place and the identity of victims, to enable investigations and prosecutions.

Those accusations were subsequently repeated in further publications of various organizations, thereby contributing to forming an opinion that is propagated without evidence. None of those allegations have been substantiated by verifiable data in any of the documents.

Significantly, no credible evidence has been directly brought to the attention of Government authorities by any of the parties. The Government has not been provided the evidence — which is claimed to be in the possession of the authors of these reports — in order to investigate and respond.

I would like to also point out the other extensive measures the Government has taken to cater to women and girls to ensure that their well-being and security is protected. The Government has established women and children's police desks staffed by female police officers in police stations in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces. Specially trained police officers function at such desks which provide an enabling and protective environment for children, women and girls and their parents to report incidents of abuse and exploitation.

In the majority of the situations that have been observed, sexual violence is perpetrated as much by Government forces as by armed opposition groups. Our response to that must be firm: there shall be no impunity for the perpetrators of those crimes, and we will not rest until justice is done. In that regard, we would like to emphasize the recommendations of the Secretary-General on the need for countries to foster national ownership, leadership and responsibility and to strengthen the capacity of their civilian and military justice systems.

In that context, we would do well to recall the complementary role of the International Criminal Court when States are either unable or unwilling to render justice to the victims of acts of serious sexual violence insofar as they constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes.

Last March, the Human Rights Council in Geneva hosted a panel on sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which again brought to our attention the massive character of violence against women in that context. Armed conflicts and the weakness of State institutions, especially the judiciary and the security forces, are the primary destabilizing factors. The high incidence of sexual violence, especially rape, is a source of grave concern, all the more so because systematic impunity creates a context that encourages such violations.

Three months ago, just before the second Geneva Conference, 50 women from across Syria shared with us their priorities regarding the issue of sexual violence. They stressed that rendering justice was essential. Over a year ago, Switzerland, together with more than 60 other States, called on the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. That demand is more timely now than ever, and in that regard we support France's initiative to draft a resolution to that end.

It is also crucial, in the early stages of a peace process, to adopt gender-sensitive policies and measures to protect women and girls from sexual exploitation, early marriage, human trafficking and rape. What other options do we have for action? While there may be no ready-made solutions, I would like to explore three areas that are addressed in the report.

We welcome the Secretary-General's recommendation to emphasize the decisive role of civil society, in particular women's organizations and community leaders, in the many efforts to eliminate sexual violence against women. We need to ensure that women's participation in peace negotiations and processes is conducted on an equal footing with men and that the resulting agreements take gender problems into account.

That is why it is aberrant and offensive to see vicious men, hateful of all society — despite anything they may say — attacking women in public, especially the most defenceless, in the name of some cause or as an act of war, or aberrant pleasure in conflict. Violence against women is merely violence, without merit or cause. It is without justification and demonstrates the abandonment of hope. And it is not merely violence against women that is unacceptable and tragic, but sexual violence in particular. Rape, as is known, is not a crime of sex but of violence, not a show of power but of immeasurable weakness. It demonstrates the worst in men and in civilization. How is it that men in conflict condone such degradation not only to the women they harm, but ultimately to themselves and all humankind, through acts of sexual violence against women during wartime?

In the end, sexual violence against women in conflict is not a sign of the strength of one power over another —although militias may believe that due to reasons that may date back to generations and civilizations when women were the property of men and their subjugation by opposing forces reflected back on the parties to the conflict.

Our world now has evolved to where it is clear and well-known that those terrible acts stand alone and apart from war, expressing the rapists' inabilities, impotencies and wrongful thinking. Sexual violence against women during conflict only reinforces in the minds of the civilized world how wrong those guilty warriors are and how bereft of merit their positions must be to fall so low as to hurt the most vulnerable, the most innocent and perhaps the least able to defend themselves in those moments, against the senseless, barbaric acts.

As our consciousness continues to grow and the world evolves, we must take a united stand and say “never more” to violence against women. We must hope that those involved in conflict will one day understand why they go to war and why half of the world does not participate in their argument or in the spoils of war. Yet that half always plays a part in the healing and the return from conflict to peace and security once again.

We strongly advocate further support for the agenda on women and peace and security at all levels, national, regional and global, and today's debate is a good and valuable step in that direction. As indicated in the Secretary-General's latest report (S/2014/181), sexual violence in conflict is one of the greatest and most persistent injustices in the world today. It is also one of the most neglected.

Viewed in the broader context, sexual violence is one of the symptoms of a distorted social order characterized by conflict, injustice and insecurity. Sexual violence adds to ethnic and other divisions, reinforcing insecurity and instability, and leaves its victims with terrible physical and psychological wounds, pain and humiliation. There is no doubt whatever that the use of rape and sexual violence exacerbates conflicts and perpetuates them long after active hostilities are over. Crimes of sexual violence in conflict inflict lasting scars on individuals, families and societies, making reconciliation and peacebuilding much more difficult. Peace and reconciliation require a firm and consistent process and a lot of determination and patience in order to ascertain the truth, something that is particularly difficult when rape is used as a tool of war against women, children and men.

Sexual violence has been used in all recent wars and conflicts to pursue political and military aims, including in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It has been used to dominate, to terrify and humiliate opponents, to uproot communities and ethnic groups, and thus to contribute to the collapse of entire societies for generations to come. Based on our own tragic experiences of the aggression to which Croatia was exposed at the beginning of the '90s, in which rape was also used as a method of intimidation and terror, we are convinced that the issue of sexual violence in conflict can be adequately addressed only through a comprehensive approach. The Croatian Government has therefore proposed a new law for the protection of victims of sexual violence in war, with the aim of legislating the rights of such victims, together with an accompanying system of compensation and rehabilitation.

Through the extensive experience of war and post-conflict management that Croatia unfortunately gained on its own territory, we may be able to make a significant contribution to wider global efforts to prevent and combat sexual violence in war and conflict. In that regard, I am pleased to announce that an International Conference on Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict will be held in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, from 29 to 30 May, jointly organized by the Croatian Ministry of Veterans' Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme. The Conference will be titled “Delivering Justice for the Past, Preventing Abuse in the Future”, with its main purpose that of sharing lessons learned in addressing the rights of victims of sexual violence in Croatia and other countries of the former Yugoslavia, and of disseminating those lessons around the world through the United Nations and other systems. The Conference can also be seen as a building block for the upcoming Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, to be held in London.

Croatia is of the opinion that more can and must be done to combat the issue of sexual violence in conflict, and particularly to address the prevailing culture of impunity for such crimes. The non-reporting of sexual violence in war and conflict is another key problem, since it affects not only social perceptions of what is in fact a widespread problem, but also the work of all the relevant bodies and institutions. We fully recognize the importance of breaking the silence surrounding sexual violence in conflicts and changing the public consciousness so that the shame and embarrassment become that of the perpetrator. Civil society organizations can play a very important and vital role in that regard.

A book entitled — which means “sunny” in English —published in Croatia in 2011, contains the testimonies of imprisoned women against whom the crime of rape was committed during the war in Croatia. Sunny has also become a strong civil movement in Croatia during recent years, with courageous women finally breaking the social and intimacy barriers that occur in cases of war-time rape. Based on the book, the movie Sunny was filmed, with the support of the Croatian Ministry for Veterans Affairs, and was recently premiered in Zagreb. It is the first documentary film in which the victims of sexual violence in war, including male victims, have come out to speak of their suffering.

At the global level, there is now increased awareness on the part of the international community about the problem of wartime sexual violence. We have to build on that positive momentum and take concrete action to address impunity and strengthen specific goals — comprehensive reform of legislation on wartime sexual violence and reparation for victims, speeding up the processing of war crimes, implementing the witness-protection programme, changing the societal mentality, and severe punishment for perpetrators, not victims.

Finally, we believe that the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict provides a solid framework to step up our efforts in preventing and responding to sexual violence and bringing about justice for millions of victims of sexual violence, not only in conflict but also in post-conflict situations and beyond.

Sexual violence has increasingly become a grave concern and has proliferated in conflict and post-conflict situations. Women and girls are raped, forced into prostitution and sexual slavery, and subjected to various sexual acts that leave them with severe physical, psychological and emotional trauma. Their lives are shattered, their hopes are destroyed and they are left with permanent stigma.

The report (S/2014/181) before us clearly indicates that the prevalence of sexual violence during periods of conflicts often leaves lasting legacies, with acute consequences for the security of women and children in the post-conflict era and beyond. That is demonstrated by high levels of rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated against women and children in some post-conflict settings, which ultimately has a direct impact on the durability of peace and prospects for sustainable development.

The United Nations, and in particular this body, have convened meetings to deliberate on mitigating factors that can be employed to prevent and or curb such a scourge. However, despite all efforts, the scourge still persists and continues to terrorize communities, thereby posing a serious security concern. That is so because perpetrators are left unpunished and the culture of impunity aggravates conflict cycles. Fighting sexual violence in conflict is a shared responsibility that requires a broad-based approach that involves the international community, regional and national Governments, civil societies and other stakeholders. National Governments should foster national programmes that take measures aimed at preventing and stopping the occurrence of sexual violence and prosecute perpetrators. In that regard, national stakeholders should be fully engaged in order to foster national ownership, leadership and responsibility. While recognizing that Governments bear the primary responsibility for the safety and rights of women and the protection of all citizens in their countries, the international community should support those efforts, while fully respecting national sovereignty and focusing on capacity-building and resolving funding and technical difficulties.

The elimination of conflict-related sexual violence would not be possible without addressing the root causes of gender inequality and changing the mindset of the perpetrators, victims and society at large. Victims should be encouraged to speak out and report violence. In most cases victims, especially women, prefer to remain silent to avoid the stigma of being ostracized from their communities, cast out by their husbands and families, and left destitute with their children. Women's empowerment and mainstreaming gender equality in peacekeeping processes and ceasefire agreements are crucial in fighting the scourge. Furthermore, survivors and their families should be provided with sufficient medical, psychological and legal support and rehabilitation programmes.

Capacity-building and technical support from the international community are relevant in helping national Governments deal with sexual violence matters. Governments lack adequate national capacities to investigate sexual violence cases and prosecute sexual violence offenders, and that, regrettably, impedes on accountability. Sufficient resources must be devoted to women-led civil society organizations, particularly those providing services to survivors and those that enable women to access justice and participate in decision-making.

Violence against women, including rape and sexual slavery, is often used as a weapon of warfare in order to dehumanize women themselves or the communities to which they belong

The grave violations of women's human rights through mass rape and other sexual violence require the immediate attention of such organizations as the International Criminal Court and other relevant tribunals

Furthermore, international and national courts should have adequate resources, access to gender expertise, gender training for all staff, and gender-sensitive programmes in order to more effectively prosecute those responsible for such crimes.

Perpetrators, including commanders who commission or condone the use of sexual violence, should be held accountable.

May the Council and the United Nations membership more broadly heed the six areas of serious concern related to the situation in South Sudan and sexual violence in all conflicts, including in those situations that are not the focus of the international community.

The use of sexual violence as a weapon of war is abhorrent and utterly unacceptable. These crimes destroy the social fabric of communities and inflict long-lasting psychological trauma.

We continue to advocate that one of the most important ways to combat conflict-related sexual violence lies in policies aimed at the prevention and peaceful resolution of armed conflicts. Preventative measures could prove instrumental to spare the human and psychological costs associated with sexual violence.

They involve, among other things, strengthening national capacities, changing how victims are perceived in their communities and protecting witnesses. They also encompass curbing the availability of weapons used to commit those atrocities, ensuring, through adequate predeployment training, that peacekeeping missions are increasingly instrumental in preventing conflict-related sexual violence, and promoting criminal accountability and due prosecution of sexual violence crimes.

in practice, peace agreements rarely make reference to the need to eradicate all forms of violence against all women and girls. They seldom include provisions linked to accountability for gender- based violence. Post-conflict arrangements hardly ever deal with the situation of women who have been subjected to violence during conflict and its aftermath. Sexual violence, including domestic violence, is still not sufficiently viewed as a threat to peacebuilding and related to broader issues of insecurity.

Conflict-related sexual violence needs to be explicitly addressed in security sector reform and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes. More has to be done to ensure that women are active participants in peace agreements and in the negotiation, design and implementation of post-conflict and peacebuilding arrangements.

The international community should use this periodic debate as an opportunity to renew its commitment to the creation of a world where women, men and children do not have to endure the suffering of being a victim or a victim's relative of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations.

Progress has been made in the fight against sexual violence in conflict since the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions. However, sexual violence has not been eliminated. It is time to take stock of what has been achieved. Implementation and the consolidation of measures to prevent and end conflict-related sexual violence have to be our main objectives. Let me make a few suggestions on how to further advance the women and peace and security agenda:

First, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of the effective and meaningful participation of women, in the interest of promoting gender equality, which is the essence of resolution 1325 (2000), and of ending sexual violence. Women themselves know best what they and their children need in order to feel safe, to protect themselves and their families, and to rebuild their lives and their communities after a crisis.

Secondly, it is well known that sexual violence is a prevalent element in most armed conflicts and is sometimes even used as a tactic of warfare. Recent events in South Sudan, where radio broadcasts were used to incite sexual violence, are a stark reminder of that appalling reality. Most perpetrators still go unpunished and are not held accountable for their actions. Those actions destroy the lives of women, children and whole communities. Accountability is the promising way to promote lasting reconciliation. If hatred and fear prevail in a society, peace will not be possible.

Accountability is first and foremost the responsibility of each State. Therefore, national capacities need to be supported and built. Justice- and security-sector reforms are essential. When effective prosecution in the State concerned is not possible, the only way to achieve justice for victims and survivors is to have those cases transferred to an international jurisdiction, including to the International Criminal Court. Thirdly, the prevention of sexual violence, especially by preventing conflict in the first place, has to be the goal of all our efforts. In order to prevent sexual violence in ongoing conflicts, the elimination of gender-based imbalances in a society is crucial. To that end, coordination between all relevant sectors is essential. That includes security, service provision, justice, human rights, development and peacebuilding.

Germany has recently ratified the Arms Trade Treaty, which has clear provisions related to serious acts of gender-based violence or serious acts of violence against women and children. We would like to call on all States to follow our example and sign and ratify the Treaty in a timely manner.

Fourthly, data collection is essential for our ability to prevent, protect and respond and is the precondition for any justice and accountability mechanism at the national and international levels. Women protection advisers therefore need to be deployed and monitoring and reporting arrangements should be established in all relevant peacekeeping and special political missions. We welcome the mandating of women protection advisers in the newly established Mission in the Central African Republic, which will face the challenges of integrating women protection issues into all disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and security sector reform processes, and of ensuring that the survivors of sexual violence have access to all psychosocial and medical services in order to protect their sexual and reproductive rights.

Indonesia stands for zero tolerance of sexual violence against all citizens — women, children and men — in armed conflict. To that end, the effort should not be limited to focusing on improving the prosecution and elimination of impunity against cases of sexual violence in conflict. It has to be a comprehensive undertaking with the United Nations system entities playing a more active and supporting role, coupled with an equally meaningful participation and cooperation by all Member States. Foremost in that respect is upholding the rule of law at both international and national levels I reiterate the significance of the United Nations role in that regard.

Sexual violence, rape, molestation and different forms of sexual abuse committed by individuals or groups are egregious and reprehensible crimes. Sexual violence has been systematically used as an instrument of war in many parts of the world, as testimonies this morning demonstrated. Sexual predators target vulnerable women and girls, men and boys. Their criminal acts inflict deep trauma, leave lasting scars, cause serious moral harm and impose huge social and economic costs on communities. Sexual violence remains one of the major causes of people's fleeing from their homes and of the resultant displacement. Those crimes constitute a threat to international peace and security.

The United Nations has done a lot, but needs to do more. As the report of the Secretary-General (S/2014/181) notes, the situation has actually worsened in certain parts of the world. Our collective efforts should therefore focus on converting commitments into concrete action-oriented preventive measures. We should collectively create a culture of zero tolerance for sexual violence. In that context, I would like to highlight the following points.

On the other hand, armed conflict and instability often disproportionately affect women. In times of instability, violence against women, including sexual violence, increases. It is therefore important to include women in conflict prevention and resolution efforts as well as post-conflict recovery and reconciliation.

Furthermore, sexual violence is used in conflict as a weapon of war to humiliate and injure victims, their families and entire communities, and often continues after the conflict has ended. Victims, not just women and girls but also men and boys, are traumatized and stigmatized forever. Those heinous acts remain vivid in the recollections of whole communities for generations, as we are reminded by the legacy of conflict in the Western Balkans and Rwanda. Such acts should not be repeated and must be stopped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Syria, Mali and Somalia and in other situations of concern at the present time.

We should not forget that sexual exploitation and abuse in conflict and post-conflict situations is not only committed by members of the parties to the conflict, but also by United Nations personnel. Therefore, we welcome the developments in applying the United Nations zero-tolerance policy in certain situations on the Council's agenda. We call on the Council to include all aspects of the policy in all resolutions renewing or establishing peacekeeping mandates. It is important that the United Nations set an example by practicing it preaches.

Although the commitment to accountability and the fight against impunity regarding sexual violence in conflict has been reiterated many times — again in today's discussion — and enshrined in Council resolution 2106 (2013), there are many obstacles to ensuring perpetrators' accountability and access to justice for victims of sexual crimes in conflict.

All of the issues mentioned were also raised at the third seminar of the Initiative on Mediation in the Mediterranean Region, held in Slovenia last month on the topic of promoting a culture of mediation and prevention in the Mediterranean, where the need to put the issue of sexual violence in conflict at the top of the agenda was highlighted.

The Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court play an important part in upholding accountability for perpetrators and the fight against impunity. Their role should be seen as an important element in establishing peace and security and the rule of law. We would also like to commend the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Justice Rapid Response Initiative and the UN-Women sexual and gender-based violence justice expert roster in assisting the international community and affected countries through their expertise in addressing conflict-related sexual violence.

I am going to take a different angle in relation to referring to how much we have done. I am going to focus not only on what how much we still have to do, but also to add a hint of optimism. First, the international governmental community has agreed that sexual and gender-based violence inarmed conflict constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity. It is worth mentioning it when we in the international community agree to say things in the same way and to work to the same end — in this instance towards the eradication of a problem.

I am going to take a different angle in relation to referring to how much we have done. I am going to focus not only on what how much we still have to do, but also to add a hint of optimism. First, the international governmental community has agreed that sexual and gender-based violence inarmed conflict constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity. It is worth mentioning it when we in the international community agree to say things in the same way and to work to the same end — in this instance towards the eradication of a problem.

Secondly, there is also reason for optimism owing to the international tribunals, such as those for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Today, the International Criminal Court and those tribunals have been building a clear definition of sexual violence as a war crime and as a crime against humanity. Certain countries in my region of Latin America and the Caribbean are also doing so. In my country, 1,083 persons have been prosecuted and 443 have been convicted for crimes against humanity, with a gender perspective and the aspect of women's human rights having been incorporated in all the cases.

Sexual crimes reported by victims in their testimony were not subject to punitive action until Rwanda, Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, until the initiatives undertaken in our own countries, because they remained invisible. They were part of war, the spoils that came with vengeance and hate that targeted women's bodies. But while gender-based violence, and sexual violence aimed at women and girls in particular, is not a new phenomenon in history, the adoption of measures to investigate and prosecute it nationally and internationally is very recent. For that reason, we had to continue to work patiently but collaboratively. As my dear Jordanian colleague said, gender-based crimes used to be considered collateral damage in war; their investigation in many cases was peripheral and often resulted in impunity for the perpetrators.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says that acts of sexual violence against women are crimes against humanity when they are used as weapons to inspire terror. It has defined sexual violence as any physical or mental abuse committed as an act of violence and also characterizes it as a crime of torture. Sexual crimes against women are now internationally codified. There is no statute of limitations, which we should recall here in the Security Council. Crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations.

The Belém do Pará Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women says that it is not only an offence to human dignity but also a violation of human rights. Let me speak not just about what the justice system has said, the words I have just read out. Justice in fact now says that because the victims had begun to be heard. In one horrible case, a woman named Susana was raped in the hospital after just having been operated on. To this day I can hear her crying and saying that she had been a virgin. That was a crime against nature. For a woman, rape is an act of the worst possible humiliation. Another woman, Monica, said: “I asked them, when the Red Cross came to see us, I asked, ‘As a woman, how is it possible that I did not become pregnant after being raped so many times?' They explained to me that women's periods tended to stop. They said that in concentration camps, like here, we did not become pregnant, we were afraid to getting pregnant. We did not menstruate. We did not want to end up pregnant by a rapist.” Estela said: “They did not allow us to bathe. It was very hard not to be able to wash after being raped and to have to remain soiled. They would give me stale bread. I was able to wash in a bathroom only a couple of times. I have images in my mind of being raped in the bathroom. By the final rapes I was fainting; I do not have a recollection of those. They would blindfold me. I heard a girl screaming, ‘Mama, mama, mama'. We were in the same camp, and she was being raped.” A man named David said: “They would give us electric shocks to our gums, under our lips, to our genitals. In my case, I had an abscess on my penis the size of a peach. They also placed things in my rectum that would conduct electricity. We were humiliated. I could not bear the agony. How could we go back — to say that a boy had been raped?”

I hope that all the victims will be heard, as those victims were heard and it was possible to do justice and combat impunity. We hope we will be able to work not just to eradicate this crime against humanity in conflict situations, but also to build equality for women in times of peace. Our friend Ms. Bangura has said it. “We will go out to find them”, the children and grandchildren of the State terrorism that took place in Argentina call out in the streets. “As with the Nazis, we will find them, no matter where they are.” They call out in the streets for the sake of the memory of their mothers and for the sake of truth, justice and reparation. “We seek them without weapons, without hate or vengeance. We seek them for the sake of truth, memory, justice, reparation and peace.”

The international prohibition on sexual violence in conflict is long-standing, but our plan for combating it has not previously been laid out. That is why the advances last year were so important. Those include the adoption of resolution 2106 (2013), setting out a comprehensive prevention framework, and the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, signed now by over 140 nations. We congratulate the United Kingdom and Foreign Secretary Hague on their efforts on the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, in which Australia's Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, is an active champion.Our challenge, now as always, is implementation—turning the resolutions into solutions, as Ms. Bangura has just said. Fundamental to that is timely and comprehensive information. Unhindered humanitarian access is essential, as are measures to fight the stigma and threats of reprisal against survivors, which impede its reporting. Increasing the numbers of women in peacekeeping missions and police units can help, and we must address barriers to their recruitment, deployment and retention. We must ensure the early deployment of women protection advisers in United Nations missions. Commitments on the part of Governments and parties to conflict to combating sexual violence are crucial to change on the ground. We commend Special Representative Bangura for securing new commitments with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Reaching armed groups is hard, but we must try. Ceasefire agreements should always include sexual violence as a prohibited act.

Specific actions to prevent sexual violence must be included in security sector reform, rule of law initiatives and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes. As resolution 2117 (2013) recognized, the misuse of small arms and light weapons exacerbates sexual violence, and we call on all States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty. There must be situation-specific training for all peacekeeping personnel, including military and police, that addresses the full range of sexual violence crimes, including abductions, forced marriage and sexual slavery. Particular attention must also be given to the needs of the most vulnerable populations, including the marginalized, children, older persons, indigenous communities, people with disabilities and displaced persons. The needs of men and boy survivors must also be considered.

As Ms. Misaka reminded the Council this morning, it is crucial that survivors have quick access to comprehensive services, including sexual and reproductive health services and psychosocial, legal and livelihood support. We must confront the issue of pregnancy as a result of rape, particularly where abortion services are illegal and the health consequences of unsafe abortion and a lack of maternity care are dire. Civil society and women's organizations providing services and giving political voice to women affected by conflict must also be adequately resourced.

Empowering survivors with their own economic future can be a transformative way to reconstruct their lives. Obviously, accountability is centrally important. States must accept their primary obligation to investigate and prosecute sexual violence crimes, provide support for survivors and protect witnesses who testify. Teams of experts working to support local justice mechanisms can have lasting impacts. As part of the regional peacebuilding mission to Solomon Islands, Australia has mentored female Solomon Islands police to take victim statements, compile evidence and support survivors throughout court processes. Such models are naturally being applied elsewhere and should have broad application.

Where national jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to prosecute perpetrators, the Council should consider referrals to the International Criminal Court. Targeted Council sanctions have a clear role to play — to expose and circumscribe the perpetrators and create a powerful deterrent to others. The current events in South Sudan encapsulate the challenges we face in that regard. In consultations two days ago, the Security Council was told the exact times and the content of the media broadcasts inciting rape and the names of the individuals who made them. We must ensure that they are held to account.

To conclude, the Security Council's debate on sexual violence may only take place once a year, but our work to end that barbaric practice — that crime — must be a daily commitment and attract our serious attention across the whole of our agenda. The Council must take every opportunity available and use every tool it has to end that abhorrent crime and provide survivors the justice and services they need to rebuild their lives.

We would like to highlight the priority that the Secretary-General has accorded this subject since the publication in 2006 of his report on the “In-depth study on all forms of violence against women” (A/61/122/Add.1), which addressed sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations. In the eight years since then, we have adopted resolutions 1820 (2008), 888 (2009), 1960 (2010) and 2106 (2013), all sponsored by Chile, and whose implementation will contribute to the Secretary- General's recommendations in the report before us today (S/2014/181). That comprehensive, multisectoral and multidimensional report, and its preventive and protective framework, will enable us to establish early-warning mechanisms and appropriate responses. We commend the field visits the Special Representative has conducted and the commitments made by national and regional authorities to the United Nations system, which have been reflected in resolutions renewing mandates. We would also like to highlight the Special Representative's recent visit to the Central African Republic, during which President Samba-Panza renewed the commitment expressed in the 2012 joint communiqué. Such efforts must be backed up by holding perpetrators of sexual violence to account and combating their impunity. The International Criminal Court is an important complement to the work of national courts and hybrid tribunals in this area, as we saw in the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba and the voluntary surrender and subsequent arrest of Bosco Ntaganda. The proliferation of arms has helped to create an environment conducive to this type of violence. Chile, aware of the problems associated with that proliferation, has signed the Arms Trade Treaty and urges other States to support it.

Chile welcomes the policy and operational recommendations for preventing and eradicating this type of violence, and stresses that primary responsibility in this area belongs to the States concerned. In that regard, we would like to emphasize the importance of multidisciplinary, timely and non-discriminatory assistance to survivors of sexual violence, including children born of such violence, of ensuring targeted and appropriate services for children and adults and of promoting survivors' empowerment and reintegration. We call on all parties to conflicts who are responsible for, or suspected of, committing acts of sexual violence, including those listed in the report, to put a stop to such violations and make concrete and time-bound commitments to protect. Mediators and envoys involved in mediation, ceasefire, peace and preventive diplomacy processes must be properly trained in this area and ensure that peace agreements contain concrete provisions concerning them, including ensuring adequate preservation of the evidence of such crimes.

Chile supports the systematic inclusion of the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence and its follow-up in the relevant country-specific resolutions and in the mandates of special political and peacekeeping missions. These missions, commissions of inquiry and other related mechanisms should consider including women protection advisers. We also look forward to the possibility of including this issue in the work of the monitoring bodies of the relevant Security Council sanctions.

As the Secretary-General recommends, we urge the consideration of the links between conflict-related sexual violence and the illicit trade in natural resources, as well as such illegal activities as the illicit drugs trade and the traffic in persons covered by the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, its protocols and relevant legal instruments. We stress the importance of deepening the exchange of information among the system's actors and strengthening the training of all peacekeeping personnel using innovative tools, among others, those of the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict and the corresponding United Nations initiative. We encourage the international community and donors to support the prevention and eradication of the scourge through the United Nations Action Multi-Partner Trust Fund.

At the regional level, in July 2013 Chile's Joint Peacekeeping Operations Centre, together with the United States Naval Postgraduate School, organized a seminar in Santiago on theme “Women, peace and security: new challenges to implementation of resolution 1325 (2000)”, with the participation of regional professionals. It included training in gender-based sexual violence and resolution 2106 (2013), inter alia. At the national level, the Centre's 2014 curriculum addresses resolution 1325 (2000) and related resolutions and the prevention of abuse and sexual exploitation, with a focus on the norms expected of peacekeeping personnel.

Sexual violence continues to be used to humiliate opponents in conflict, as a form of torture, to inflict injury, to extract information, to stigmatize, degrade and intimidate, to destroy communities, to displace communities and groups from their land, and to intentionally spread HIV or reward fighters. We cannot continue to ignore the scourge and reiterate our firm determination to implement resolution 1325 (2000) and related resolutions on such violence, while supporting efforts towards its prompt eradication and the healing and reintegration of victims and survivors.

Indeed, the Security Council, through its five resolutions, has developed a robust framework to prevent and address sexual violence in armed conflict.

However, gender crimes remain an enduring part of most armed conflicts and rape continues to be used as a weapon of war.

Among other things, we have been informed about an increase in reported incidents of sexual violence in Afghanistan, and there are clear indications that conflict-related sexual violence has been a main feature of attacks in the Central African Republic and a consistent characteristic of the crisis in South Sudan.

Estonia and Latvia believe that accountability for sexual violence crimes is crucial for deterring and ultimately preventing their commission, and for doing justice by victims

To reverse the near complete impunity that perpetrators of sexual violence currently enjoy, it is important that States build the capacity to ensure accountability

In order to enhance accountability, the Council could adopt targeted measures against those responsible for conflict-related sexual violence and include individuals sought by the ICC on the sanctions lists.

It is of utmost importance that peacekeepers continue to be trained to enhance their capacity to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence, that women protection advisers be deployed within peacekeeping and special political missions, and that ceasefire or peace agreements explicitly reflect sexual violence considerations Latvia and Estonia commend United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and the efforts of the United Nations system to establish the monitoring and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence, as mandated by resolution 1960 (2010).

Conflict-related sexual violence is pervasive, although, as the report clearly states, it is almost universally underreported due to factors such as stigma, reprisals and the targeting of survivors and those who support them, including humanitarian workers, human rights defenders and journalists

However, our group is concerned about elements in the report indicating the systematic and widespread use of sexual violence as a tool of intimidation and social control. In addition, the report highlights the continued use of sexual violence as a means of displacing populations, as well as the pregnancies resulting from sexual violence and the plight of children born of rape, which requires much more attention

Ceasefire and peace agreements should contain provisions that stipulate conflict-related sexual violence as a prohibited act in the definition of a ceasefire, and amnesty provisions must not be applicable to crimes of sexual violence.

Furthermore, parties to conflict have to provide remedy and assistance to victims and survivors of sexual violence, including health-care services

We also call upon the members of the Security Council to use all means at their disposal to address sexual violence in armed conflicts, including by making referrals to the International Criminal Court and other relevant actions.

We are fully committed to addressing all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence in conflict. The protection of women in conflict situations and ending impunity remain our utmost priorities

We believe that the prosecution of sexual violence crimes, as well as national ownership and responsibility in addressing the root causes of sexual violence in armed conflict, are central to the prevention of such acts in the future. Sexual violence in armed conflict cannot be accepted as a cultural phenomenon. It is not an inevitable consequence of war or a lesser crime.

Women's political, social and economic empowerment, gender equality and the mobilization of men and boys in an effort to combat all forms of violence against women are essential in long-term efforts to prevent sexual violence in armed conflict and post-conflict situations

Sexual violence is a form of psychosocial torture where the suffering of the victims extends to their families, and through families reflects the entire society, while the suffering does not cease after the act of violence is committed

With the aim of improving the overall situation of women victims of rape, we are making efforts to finalize the process of developing our second action plan for the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) for the period 2014-2017, which contains important provisions for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence

In Myanmar, sexual violence is a crime strongly abhorred by our traditional values and strictly forbidden by law and by our culture. As such, severe legal action is taken against the perpetrators of any reported case, whether by civilians or the members of security forces. The existing penal code strongly prescribes a severe penalty for those who have committed acts of sexual violence.

As conflict naturally breeds violence, we recognize the importance of addressing the reported problems of sexual violence that may occur in conflicts. However, incidents committed by unruly individuals cannot be construed as the policy of a given institution. The most important point is to refuse to condone any act of sexual violence. In Myanmar, all criminal cases filed with authorities were properly investigated and the perpetrators were punished according to the law. There have been a number of cases where military personnel have been prosecuted for committing acts of sexual violence. The accusations that have been made in some quarters suggesting that the State Constitution grants immunity from prosecution to military personnel who commit criminal offences are therefore totally groundless and appear to be politically motivated. With the reformist Government now paying greater attention to promoting democratic values than ever before, members of the armed forces have been clearly instructed not to commit any crimes, including those of sexual violence. A series of capacity-building workshops has been held to educate them on human rights, and the curriculums in military training schools also include instruction on the laws relating to the prevention of sexual violence.

As a State party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Myanmar has taken steps to eliminate discrimination and violence against women, in line with the Convention's provisions, and we are currently implementing a 10-year national strategic plan for the advancement of women. Myanmar's three-year-old democratic reforms have also created an environment more conducive to the protection of women and girls. Our new-found freedom of expression and of the media has emboldened everyone to file complaints about any wrongful acts without fear. Any abuse of rights can be reported to our national human-rights commission. The issue of the protection of women has also attracted the attention of the legislative body, and a law banning violence against women is being drafted with the assistance of the United Nations. That important legislation is expected to be finalized for enactment very soon.

As much as we all condemn the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, we should also deplore the exploitation of this sensitive issue by certain groups as a tool for achieving their own political goals. The problem of sexual violence cannot be solved by an approach of naming and blaming. The international community should rather take a constructive approach by sharing information on violations and assisting Member States in their efforts to address the issue. In that regard, my delegation has noted with interest the recommendations and framework elements presented in the Secretary-General's report. We also wish to stress the importance of national ownership, leadership and responsibility in preventing sexual violence in conflict. In its exercise of that responsibility, Myanmar would welcome assistance from the United Nations in enhancing its efforts and capacity to protect women and girls from sexual violence.

I would like to highlight the importance of the issue before us — sexual violence — which particularly affects women in conflict situations and is an issue that gravely affects human rights. In that respect, this debate should directly involve the General Assembly. It is also necessary to stress the importance of combating the root causes of war and conflict, namely, the influence of the arms trade and violent actions by the powerful. The current world conflict scenario has become even more complicated due to economic dynamics. Countries in crisis view the arms trade and war as ways to strengthen their economy. But truly nothing will undermine human rights and women's rights more than strengthening the economy through the arms industry. The total world military expenditure in 2013 was $1.747 billion. The 15 countries with the highest military expenditure together represent four-fifths of all military spending in the world.

Moreover, it is a paradox of our time that, although the growing technological sophistication has not resolved the basic problems of a large part of the world population in achieving sustainable development, it has provided weapons of mass destruction. And there is still no end to poverty and inequality. Ecuador is convinced that, to deal with the fundamental causes of conflict and violence, genuine commitment is needed to curb the current arms race and new forms of war and conflict, such as so-called preventive war, cyber espionage and the involvement of outside actors in fomenting conflict within countries in support or defence of their own interests.

It must be acknowledged that armed conflict and violence are often generated by inequality among States that themselves have been generally affected by an unjust international economic system, various forms of social exclusion, religious intolerance and ethnic and gender discrimination. In that regard, we must call upon States to avoid wars of aggression and the use of force based on alleged threats out of respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples. With those considerations, we do not see that the problems of sexual violence in conflict have diminished, due to the persistence of a social permissiveness with respect to violence against women and girls, which, unfortunately, in many areas of society, has come to seem almost natural.

In the case of Ecuador, our armed forces are considered to be an institution that protect the rights, freedoms and guarantees of all our citizens — men and women. We therefore look at defence as a public good that integrates human rights, international humanitarian law, gender equity and multiculturalism in a cross-cutting manner. This takes concrete form in the implementation of our gender policy in the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, which has been in force since March 2013. The gender policy fosters a change in the cultural patterns that cause gender-based violence, through which related subjects are incorporated into training for all military personnel and the promotion of educational programmes designed to prevent sexual violence that are tailored specifically for the training of troops. The policy has also brought improvements to military infrastructure so that adequate conditions are in place for military personnel, female and male alike.

We must also say that in some regions of the world we continue to undertake peaceful means of conflict resolution, building a culture of peace and new forms of coexistence, as well as a clear position for achieving global disarmament. As members of the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, we are contributing to the creation of a true region of peace. But those efforts undertaken at the national or regional levels can be strengthened only by the effective actions of international bodies such as the International Criminal Court, which brings the timely prosecution of crimes against humanity, especially those related to discrimination and violence against women.

Lastly, Ecuador again insists upon the need to come up with multilateral and global strategies that fight the underlying causes of war and conflict and bring to light warmongering policies, adopting measures that bring an end to them and subjecting them to international law. We remain committed to building a true culture of peace through social justice, the fight against impunity, dignity and equality of women and the good living of our peoples.

Conflict-related sexual violence is a particularly heinous and barbaric crime. It is undoubtedly underreported, yet even so the recent Secretary-General's report (S/2014/181) presents an extensive catalogue of crimes that are ongoing in 20 different country situations in conflict and in post-conflict settings. The victims — women and girls, men and boys — are invariably among the most vulnerable in their societies. Since last year's annual open debate (see S/PV.7044), we have seen further significant normative progress. Resolution 2106 (2013), adopted last June, addressed impunity and effective justice. Resolution 2122 (2013) of last October calls for more consistent implementation of the women and peace and security agenda, with special attention to enhancing women's participation and leadership.

Last September's Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict was endorsed by 145 countries, and the United Kingdom will continue its leadership on the issue with a global summit to be convened in June. The Secretary-General has rightly concluded that at the global level there is now unprecedented commitment and momentum for decisively addressing the scourge of sexual violence in combat. And yet the critical question remains as to how we can translate that normative progress into more widespread change on the ground.

Ireland was happy to be associated yesterday with an event on Burma/Myanmar organized by the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security to look at issues around sexual violence in conflict. The Special Representative and a representative of Burmese civil society, Ms. K'nyaw Paw, participated in the event. A crucial part of Myanmar's transition to democracy will be addressing current and historical human rights abuses, which include crimes of sexual violence. The Secretary-General's report calls for a comprehensive protection and service response for survivors of sexual violence, which we wholeheartedly support.

The Secretary-General's report (S/2014/181) makes for grim reading, and very clearly there is much we, the Member States concerned, need to do. And in that context, when it comes to the presence of Syrian refugees in Jordan and their vulnerabilities, as alluded to in the report, even though we note that the principal refugee camp for Syrians falls under the supervision of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Jordanian Government accepts full responsibility for whatever may happen on its territory and is committed to ensuring the security of all refugees, especially women and children. Naturally, we condemn any attempt by any individual or individuals to exploit them. We also need help — much more help — and perhaps we will soon reach a stage at which other countries with real capacities may consider sharing the burden and accepting greater numbers of Syrian refugees than is presently the case.

Turning to the Secretary-General's recommendations, I join others in stating that it is pointless discussing accountability for sexual crimes perpetrated against women, girls and boys unless we do two things. The first is our need to properly understand the extent to which functioning courts are second only in importance to the provision of security and on an equal footing with humanitarian considerations when it comes to the United Nations involvement in conflict or post-conflict environments. Without a properly resourced single vehicle for the delivery of legal and judicial support, the United Nations will continue to fall short in delivering what it should to distressed communities. Secondly, the International Criminal Court needs to be supported by the Council to the hilt, and no serious discussion on combating the worst forms of sexual violence can be obtained from a Council unwilling to do that.

Finally, I ask once again the painful question of whether we as a collective membership, bound together in this Organization by its Charter, actually have the credibility to offer strong opinions on this subject matter? Do we have the credibility when all of us have refused to undertake the complete range of actions necessary to ensure that sexual exploitation and abuse by our own peacekeepers — United Nations peacekeepers — is reduced to zero? Can we not be accused by others of hypocrisy when in this Chamber we rightly condemn all expressions of conflict-related sexual violence committed against women, girls and boys, and speak of them as criminal and intolerable — as we have done for 14 years now — while down the hall, only a few metres from here in the Sixth Committee, we do next to nothing, year in year out, on the draft convention on criminal accountability of United Nations officials and experts on mission — a draft that has been on the agenda of the Sixth Committee since 2007.

Let us be clear about what it is we are saying by our inaction. We are saying that it is okay by us when a United Nations civilian staff member commits rape in a United Nations peacekeeping mission, where the host country has no functioning judiciary and when the country of nationality cannot exercise its criminal jurisdiction extraterritorially over the accused because it has no law allowing it to do so. Is that our view? Rapes perpetrated by United Nations civilian staff members in that context can go unpunished? That is precisely what it is we are saying, year after year. Please do not think those crimes have not happened, because they have. Do we have any credibility when we also insist that the United Nations has no business in relation to the conduct of investigations for alleged crimes committed by our own United Nations uniformed peacekeepers, knowing that in the past we, the Member States, were not reliable enough in guaranteeing that justice be done in respect of the victims? Are we credible when in the last reporting period of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) we still had 42 cases of sexual exploitation and abuse involving United Nations peacekeepers being investigated by that Office? By now, some nine years after we identified both the challenge and the plan needed to eliminate this odious phenomenon, there should be practically no cases at all.

I do not wish to be misunderstood: if we had done everything we should have done over the past nine years to ensure the total elimination of this abominable practice by our own peacekeepers, and they still occurred, then we could accept that there was little more we can do. But we, as Member States, have not done everything, and so we cannot make that claim. The United Nations is required to set an example before our publics as an Organization that will without question pay special attention to the most vulnerable and defenceless of protected persons in war, with first a guaranteed protection provided by ourselves, from ourselves, and then from others. What must we therefore do? We must adopt the convention on criminal accountability as soon as possible. We must make the United Nations a co-examiner of the facts, even when the allegations involve United Nations military personnel. We must be more transparent with regard to the severity and nature of the crimes being committed by United Nations peacekeepers. We believe that the OIOS takes too long in establishing the facts, which then must be prepared by the criminal jurisdiction concerned in order for them to become admissible in courts of law. Perhaps, as it was originally suggested, another slim but effective investigative capacity needs to be considered.

We must do better on matters relating to paternity. In situ courts martial for military offenders must be the rule, and not the exception, for sexual offenses. And we must consider again the proposal that all United Nations personnel destined for field service submit a sample of their DNA to the United Nations before they deploy, both to serve as a deterrent to the commission of crimes and for the sake of possible subsequent investigations, including establishing paternity. Finally, we, the Member States, need to report to the United Nations clearly and at the earliest possible time what judicial steps were undertaken by our authorities with respect to alleged crimes. If we are serious about confronting the odious phenomenon of conflict-related sexual violence generally, and we are not to be hypocrites, we must think about these issues more seriously.

That is all part of a broader effort to strengthen institutional safeguards against impunity for conflict-related sexual violence. Donors should be encouraged to ensure sustainable funding for this valuable resource for the countries concerned. Nigeria shares the Secretary-General's view that the lack of capacity remains one of the major impediments to ensuring accountability, which leads to widespread impunity. In turn, that has a detrimental impact on access to justice and the security and safety of survivors. It is evident that survivors' access to justice can be hindered by restrictions on physical access and inadequate legislation, or, indeed, by the financial and social costs associated with reporting and pursuing justice for crimes of sexual violence. Regrettably, many countries lack legal aid services and protocols for the protection of victims and witnesses, and an already weakened criminal justice system amplifies the lack of access to justice. We are pleased to note that United Nations actors, including the Team of Experts, continue to support national authorities in that regard.

At the global level there is now unprecedented commitment and momentum on the application of all the relevant Security Council resolutions. The international community must sustain that momentum. As part of those accomplishments, we believe that a great deal more needs to be done to implement commitments on women and peace and security. For example, there is a need for increased sex-disaggregated data on security threats in order to contribute to greater security for women. My country welcomes the Secretary-General's recommendations that outline critical elements for the prevention of sexual violence in conflict, specific actions required at political and operational levels and the need for national ownership, leadership and responsibility.

The determination to tackle sexual violence in conflict is not confined to the United Nations. At the regional level, under the auspices of the African Union, the African Solidarity Initiative held a high-level meeting in October 2013 on preventing and responding to sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict countries and beyond. That consultation was organized under key international policy and action frameworks, particularly resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008), the 2005 World Summit Outcome (General Assembly resolution 60/1), the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, the protocol on the prevention and suppression of sexual violence against women and children and the 2009 African Union gender policy. The meeting was aimed at significantly reducing and eliminating sexual violence and accelerating the implementation of agreed responses, especially those related to prevention and protection and victims' access to care and justice.

At the subregional level in West Africa, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has also put in place strong mechanisms with regard to the role of women in conflict prevention and management. Those include the protocol on conflict prevention, management, resolution, peacekeeping and security and the supplementary protocol on democracy and good governance. Those mechanisms form the basis of the ECOWAS conflict-prevention framework. The women and peace and security component of the framework is aimed at consolidating women's role, participation and impact at all stages of conflict management, including humanitarian provisions, while reinforcing various national and regional mechanisms on their protection and promotion. Other regional initiatives of that nature include the women's network for peace and security in the ECOWAS region; the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding; the Movement against Small Arms and Light Weapons in West Africa; and the Alliance of African Initiatives for peace and stability in West Africa. At national level, through the Law Reform Commission and the Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigeria has initiated reforms in the criminal justice system to ensure the delivery of gender justice in law and practice. Bills on addressing gender equality and all forms of violence against women and girls have been sponsored at both the federal and state level. Strident steps have been taken at the national level to ensure the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). In the same vein, Nigeria stresses the importance of compliance with resolution 1820 (2008), on ending acts of sexual violence against women in conflict.

Nigeria fully embraces the adoption of political commitments to prevent sexual violence in conflict, namely, the historic declarations adopted by the Group of Eight countries in April 2013 and the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which has been signed by more than 140 nations. We believe that Member States should implement those commitments as a matter of high priority. Member States that have yet to sign that important Declaration should be encouraged to do so before the October deadline — about six months from now. It is critical for States to focus collectively on converting the political commitments into concrete preventive action, particularly at national level. It is in that spirit that Nigeria today, in this forum, declares its intention to sign on to that laudable initiative as a means of demonstrating its unwavering commitment to the fight against sexual violence and all its ramifications.

Sexual violence is a violation of fundamental human rights and, in particular, the human rights of women. International humanitarian law and international criminal law are dedicated to protecting women from sexual violence. However, we do not see the indices of violence against women diminishing this year. As we have said before, it is the responsibility of all States to put an end not only to that form of violence, but also to impunity for war crimes, including war crimes related to sexual violence, for example, such horrors as forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization and other types of sexual violence.

A few years ago, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda established that rape and other forms of sexual violence were used as a weapon of war during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Although no one can tell the true number of the victims of rape during the genocide, it is reported that between 100,000 and 250,000 women were raped. Some of those women survived with scars, some with incurable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS. The consequence of those heinous crimes is beyond description. Nevertheless, the perpetrators of those crimes in Rwanda, now acting under the umbrella of the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, continued their mayhem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they terrorized communities and committed rape against women and girls.

Sexual violence is also a reality in Syria, the Central African Republic and many other conflict areas. In South Sudan, the radio is even used to call for the rape of women based on their ethnicity. We totally agree with Ms. Bangura that sexual violence in conflict needs to be treated as a war crime, not as an unfortunate collateral damage of war. It is therefore up to us as Member States to end this scourge. It must be made clear that sexual violence is not only a United Nations issue but an issue that requires the leadership, national ownership and responsibility of States. National ownership is imperative because it is at the national level that Governments create a platform for awareness and outreach against those crimes. Governments, whether in conflict or at peace, have a primary responsibility to prevent any acts of sexual violence against women, children and men, and to ensure accountability for such crimes. That responsibility is transferred to non-State actors under whose control civilians are.

We call on the established United Nations Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict to continue supporting national institutions to strengthen their response in addressing sexual violence. Ending impunity for those who commit sexual violence during conflict should be our collective effort and goal. Along the same lines, the Council should ensure that all country reports and mandate renewals evaluate the level of protection and promotion of women's human rights, as set out in several Security Council resolutions. In that regard, I totally agreed with what our colleague Prince Zeid that rapes perpetrated by United Nations civilian staff while on a peacekeeping mission cannot and should not go unpunished.

As the Council discusses options for the United Nations engagement in several conflict-stricken countries where the situation continues to worsen, with women bearing the brunt of the conflict and with human rights violations increasing, the United Nations presence should have a robust mandate to protect civilians. Protecting those in need should be given priority by ensuring that we take full measures, in particular to provide more effective protection to the civilian population at risk, to create the conditions for humanitarian assistance and to allow the investigation of violations and abuses. All peacekeepers should be trained on gender issues and ways to support victims of rape before deploying to peace operations.

On our part, Rwanda has adopted predeployment courses for all our troops that include lessons related to sexual and gender-based violence. In the same vein, we call for the deployment of gender advisers, women protection advisers and child protection advisers in all United Nations peacekeeping missions to focus on violations and abuses committed against women and children, including all forms of sexual violence in armed conflicts. Needless to say, the fight against impunity and accountability is key to eradicate the scourge of sexual violence in conflict. The Security Council should reinforce its efforts to ensure that investigations and prosecutions are carried out through the national justice systems when possible, or through various international justice mechanisms. Regardless of any debate we may have, our main objective is to ensure that justice is done for the victims, which can also serve as a deterrent for all belligerents.

In conclusion, allow me to restate our understanding that sexual violence in conflict, like any other growing violent trend, is a criminal practice that we can eradicate if we have the political will. We strongly believe that our joint efforts can yield tangible results and create a changed environment on the ground for those affected by that terrible scourge. My delegation will continue to support and work closely with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict in the implementation of its mandate.

I should like to reiterate the fact that among States that are particularly involved in protecting women in conflict and on the question of sexual violence in conflict much progress has been made in our country since 2005. The Sudan has implemented resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and security, and has established several specialized centres at the community level to step up the role of women and to hold women's consultations on equality.

This month, we have begun to implement our 10-year action plan to help promote human rights, in particular women's rights. That has been commended by the independent expert, and we would have liked to see that reflected in the report (S/2014/181), especially our efforts in the area of sexual violence against women.

Apparently, UNAMID is being asked not to go to certain areas. However, when it talks about UNAMID's civilian component, which has a unit for protecting women against sexual violence in armed conflict, it does have permission. Therefore, we did provide access. In that regard, I think we are talking about erroneous information in the report.

The report also states that armed men in military uniforms attacked women and were responsible for sexual violence. That is not true. I think that we should ensure the veracity of the information and check sources before it is put into the report. We did not prevent the investigator from gaining access. We have a clear procedure in place when it comes to impunity and violence against women, which I have already talked about.We underscore the need to protect women against violence, and against sexual violence in particular. My Government would like to reiterate its readiness to continue cooperating with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. We have sought to coordinate her visit but we have not been able to do so. Despite that, the Special Representative is very welcome. She can come see what is taking place and check that the information is true.This is a very sensitive matter. Once again, I would like to underscore that the principle of protecting women during armed conflict is a noble principle and it should not be politicized.

Sexual violence continues to be used to humiliate opponents in conflict, as a form of torture, to inflict injury, to extract information, to stigmatize, degrade and intimidate, to destroy communities, to displace communities and groups from their land, and to intentionally spread HIV or reward fighters. We cannot continue to ignore the scourge and reiterate our firm determination to implement resolution 1325 (2000) and related resolutions on such violence, while supporting efforts towards its prompt eradication and the healing and reintegration of victims and survivors.

Women are routinely subjected, to different degrees in various societies, to physical, sexual and psychological violence, and are even further victimized in situations of conflict to all sorts of brutal aggression. Despite several years of intensive action on the part of the international community, whose commitment and determination to fight sexual violence I welcome, women unfortunately continue to be victims of such violence the world over, wherever conflicts occur. The number of countries cited in the report of the Secretary-General is tangible proof of this.

States must uphold their obligations to prosecute those who perpetrate such violence and ensure that the victims of sexual violence enjoy equal protection under the law and access to justice. There can be no place for impunity within frameworks seeking to achieve lasting peace, justice, and national truth and reconciliation. When national judicial systems fail, the perpetrators of sexual violence should be subject to prosecution under international criminal justice, the jurisprudence of which when it comes to such violence represents a major step forward. Chad believes that all States are obligated to implement the principle of zero tolerance when it comes to sexual violence against women and girls. In this regard, we would like to welcome the stringent zero-tolerance policy applied by the United Nations regarding cases of sexual violence perpetrated by members of peacekeeping contingents.

The repercussions of sexual violence for women and their loved ones are enormous, and the victims are changed for life by what they have suffered. Not only do they often find themselves left alone with no medical or psychosocial assistance, but they are obliged to remain silent in the face of threats against them and any witnesses. The fight against sexual violence in conflict requires victims and witnesses to be protected so as to allow them to report the perpetrators of these crimes. Likewise, efforts should incorporate information, training and awareness-raising to enhance the prevention of sexual violence through capacity-building for States and other relevant stakeholders. In this regard, Chad welcomes the crucial role played by the United Nations and civil society, and encourages them to strengthen their warning systems and their cooperation with regional and subregional organizations with a view to fine-tuning a comprehensive response to issues related to sexual violence.

The wake-up calls issued by the adoption of the various resolutions of sexual violence marked significant progress that must be further strengthened by the effective implementation of all of the measures they provide for. Chad recognizes the central role women can play in efforts towards peace and security in situations of conflict. Their active participation at all levels of decision-making and in the prevention and settlement of conflicts, in brokering peace and in post-conflict peacebuilding is of great importance.

Since our last open debate on sexual violence in June 2013 (see S/PV.6984), new conflicts have broken out and others have intensified. The magnitude of the phenomenon has intensified proportionately, showing, unfortunately, that sexual violence goes hand in hand with conflict. I refer to the conflict in Darfur, which continues to deteriorate, and to that in South Sudan, where, as Ms. Misak has just outlined, the fighting that erupted since 15 December 2013 has led to serious violations of human rights, including a great number of cases of sexual violence. I refer, too, to the Central African Republic, where sexual violence has been the main feature of the attacks carried out against the civilian population since March 2013.

In Syria, sexual violence has been a constant since the beginning of the conflict. The independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic gathered information showing that Government forces and affiliated militias have committed sexual violence, including rape, in detention centres and prisons across the country, often during interrogations conducted by intelligence services. We also know that certain armed groups in Syria have also committed such violence. All of these conflicts and the other situations addressed in the annual report of the Secretary-General lead us to the conclusion that the Security Council must remain mobilized in the face of these despicable practices that deliberately target civilian populations and destroy the social fabric of entire communities. Last year's open debate focused on the fight against impunity. That topic remains relevant. It is at the heart of our efforts to end sexual violence. Condemning the perpetrators of sexual violence does not mean only punishing the guilty parties but also preventing future violence, righting wrongs and doing justice by victims and survivors. The international community must step up its efforts to support national authorities to assume their responsibility in the fight against impunity.

The partnership between Justice Rapid Response, UN-Women and the Institute for International Criminal Investigations is a good example of what can be done. Luxembourg supports that partnership, which has made it possible to establish a list of specialized experts who can be rapidly deployed to lead and participate in investigations and to provide assistance to the victims of acts of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict settings. Along with strengthening national capacities, there must be continued support for international criminal justice so it can play its role in cases where States either fail to live up to their obligations or lack the will to do so. I would like to reiterate the importance that Luxembourg attaches to the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Security Council is responsible for considering all of the means at its disposal to combat sexual violence, including referral to the ICC.

In recent years, the information available to us on cases of sexual violence has increased in both quantity and quality. Procedures for the monitoring, analysis and communication of information on sexual violence have begun to be implemented following the adoption of resolution 1960 (2010). It would be advisable to accelerate the implementation of those procedures, as envisaged in resolution 2106 (2013). It is also critical that advisors on the protection of women continue to be deployed in a systematic way. The Security Council should also ensure that it systematically takes into account the prevention of sexual violence in framing country-specific resolutions and in considering the renewal of the mandates of peacekeeping missions and special policy missions.

We commend applaud the efforts of the United Nations campaign against sexual violence conflict, headed by Ms. Bangura, in particular the preparation of early warning indicators for cases of conflict-related sexual violence addressed by United Nations missions in Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. The struggle against sexual violence can succeed only if the States concerned, the United Nations and all its Member States mobilize and unify their efforts. In that context, we welcome the signature on the sidelines of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly of the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. That initiative, which has since been endorsed by more than 140 countries, shows the will of the international community to put an end to that scourge. We hope that the June follow-up Global Summit in London will lead to the adoption of further specific commitments.

Violence against women is one of the most widespread violations of human rights and most broadly discussed topics. It is utterly deplorable that one in three women and girls experiences violence in her lifetime. Violence against women, especially sexual violence, has massive repercussions. The incidence of sexual violence in conflict, in particular, often has grave consequences for the security of women and girls during peacetime. Malaysia joins other Member States in strongly condemning sexual violence against women and girls, men and boys. My delegation remains concerned that sexual violence is almost universally under-reported. We must reverse this trend. We need to urgently address the factors and underlying reasons for the continued acts of sexual violence committed against women and girls and the emerging incidence of sexual violence perpetrated against men and boys.

Ending impunity is crucial to our quest to put an end to sexual violence in conflict. We must move urgently to replace the prevailing culture of impunity with one that promotes the rule of law, justice and accountability. We welcome the ongoing work of the United Nations and other stakeholders, including the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, which focuses its efforts on strengthening the capacity of national rule of law and justice actors. We agree with the Secretary-General's recommendation and call on countries to draw upon the expertise of the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict, as we believe that its engagement with relevant Governments would strengthen the latter's institutional safeguards against impunity for conflict-related sexual violence.

Underlining the importance of ending sexual violence, Malaysia joined many others in endorsing the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, which makes clear the collective view on the need for greater action to address the issue. Malaysia also welcomes the recent adoption of the Agreed Conclusion of the 58th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, strongly condemning all forms of violence against women and girls. It is crucial that we now focus our collective efforts on converting those political commitments into concrete actions.

My delegation supports the zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse in all peacekeeping operations. We believe that it is fundamental to ensuring that the rights and dignity of women are safeguarded. Malaysia, in this regard, welcomes the delivery of scenario-based training for peacekeepers in several training centres to improve their operational readiness to react swiftly to sexual violence. We commend the work of United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict in rolling out a framework of early-warning indicators to help enhance prevention capabilities in mission settings.

We have made strides in addressing sexual violence in conflict, but we can and must do more to put an end to this scourge. Malaysia therefore reaffirms its strong commitment to efforts to address sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations. We will continue to work with others to advance the agenda and ensure the participation of women is mainstreamed in activities towards securing peace and security.

In spite of those institutional gains, sexual violence in conflict remains one of the most egregious forms of human rights violations. Its impact goes far beyond an individual victim's pain and stigma. Even more troubling is the fact that sexual violence is often used as a tactic of armed conflict. As noted in the report of the Secretary-General (S/2014/181), sexual violence is wielded to attack specific ethnic and religious groups, used to displace civilians and unleashed to encourage predatory behaviour. The international community must scale up its collective efforts to combat the scourge, especially in the three areas of prevention, protection and prosecution.

First, we must strengthen the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence, establishing legal frameworks, promoting improved governance and the rule of law and raising public awareness; those are just some examples of the concrete actions we need to take. In that way, we believe that the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, to be held in London in June, will provide an opportunity to mobilize political commitments and promote public awareness. In addition, the participation of women together with the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in conflict resolution and peace processes should be ensured. Women can and must play multiple roles during periods of armed conflicts, as they often demonstrate resilience and ingenuity in the face of extreme adversity.

Secondly, we should pay increased attention to the protection of women facing rape, sexual slavery and other forms sexual violence in conflict. Building the capacity of national institutions and promoting relevant legislation and resource allocation are prerequisites for providing sustainable assistance to victims and survivors. At the same time, we must enhance international frameworks and tangible measures to protect women suffering from sexual violence in conflict. In that regard, we recognize the crucial role of peacekeeping operations and women protection advisers.

Thirdly, the politics of impunity should be terminated through the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of sexual violence. We cannot eradicate conflict-related sexual violence completely without bringing those responsible to justice. We note the contributions of the Team of Experts-Rule of Law/Sexual Violence in Conflict in building national capacity and expanding expertise in addressing impunity. The international justice system, including the International Criminal Court, should also play a leading role in ensuring accountability.

Belgium is particularly concerned about sexual violence committed by members of the police, the army and some armed groups, in particular in Afghanistan and in Côte d'Ivoire. The climate of impunity, characterized by a lack of disciplinary procedures, sanctions and criminal prosecution, significantly contributes to creating a high-risk environment for women and girls.

Belgium would also like to underscore the importance of ensuring access to effective justice for victims of sexual violence

Furthermore, Belgium shares the Secretary-General's concerns regarding the link between sexual violence and the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combattant programmes and security sector reform (SSR) programmes. There is a real need to pay particular and additional attention to the gender dimension when planning, training for and developing DDR and SSR programmes.

Belgium would like to underscore, as the Secretary-General did, that the end of a conflict does not mean an end of sexual violence. Post-conflict situations create high-risk environments