Estonia

For a start, I would like to emphasize that women's security is part of overall peace and security and that women can contribute to peace processes and are very able to do so. The involvement of women in peacekeeping operations and conflict prevention is of the utmost importance to ensure the success of the operations, as it is the only way to reach the whole population.

The Action Plan also seeks to raise general awareness and interest in gender-related issues in our own society and to increase gender-related expertise. We support women's participation in posts related to peace and security and will take further steps to increase women's participation in military, police and rescue services. In the future, we would like to integrate the gender perspective into our pre-mission training even more. It is also our aim to consider gender-related issues during the general training of officers and non-commissioned officers.

Finally, let me note our appreciation of the work of Ms. Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN-Women, whose leadership in that role is of crucial importance to the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). We also expect that UN-Women will play an active role in helping to turn the principles of resolution 1325 (2000) on women and peace and security from words on paper into reality. I would also like to extend our appreciation to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict for their involvement.