Germany fully aligns itself with the statement just made by the European ...

Germany fully aligns itself with the statement just made by the European Union. Let me thank Under-Secretary-General Valerie Amos for her statement on behalf of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs today. I also thank Ms. Pillay, Mr. Le Roy and Director General Daccord for their contributions. The voices of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations and the Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross are particularly relevant in this debate. Civilians continue to bear the brunt of violence and abuse in armed conflicts. Women and children are particularly vulnerable and often are directly targeted. The mass rapes in Walikale in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in July of this year — only days after the last open debate on the protection of civilians in the Security Council — serve as a stark reminder that we must do more to ensure the safety and physical integrity of civilian populations and to enhance full respect by all parties to conflict for applicable international law.