We welcome the progress made on the development of the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements. For those arrangements to be effective, it is essential that they have the support of the broader United Nations membership and not only of the Security Council. To that end, Brazil encourages Ms. Wallström to engage in a dialogue with Member States and regional groups, with a view to both clarifying how the arrangements will work and exchanging views on how they can best operate.
The presence of women's protection advisers in peacekeeping operations will constitute a very helpful tool in the efforts to make the fight against sexual violence a mission-wide endeavour. However, prevention will be effective only if peacekeeping operations have the resources they need to implement their mandate. In that regard, we commend the improvements made in pre-deployment training, which are of crucial importance to preparing peacekeepers to carry out this critical task. The signing last December of a letter of intent between the Brazilian Ministry of Defence and UN-Women, aimed at consolidating their existing partnership, will contribute to ensuring more comprehensive training for our peacekeepers, including in preventing and addressing conflict-related sexual violence.
Making real progress in our efforts against sexual violence in armed conflict requires greater emphasis on prevention and capacity-building. The only way to ensure that the progress achieved during the presence of a peacekeeping mission is sustainable is by working with national Governments to address their needs in the areas of institution-building, the training of personnel, supporting victims and strengthening the rule of law.
We very much appreciate the work that has been done by the Team of Experts on Sexual Violence and the support it has been providing to Member States in strengthening their institutions. It is somewhat surprising that such crucial work is financed exclusively by voluntary contributions.
Real change requires an integrated approach that combines prevention, the fight against impunity and support for victims. The United Nations needs to be prepared to support capacity-building and institutional strengthening as a system-wide priority if we want prevention to be effective and the scourge of sexual violence in armed conflict to be eliminated.