Canada

Let me first say a few words on behalf of the Group of Friends of Women, Peace and Security, an informal network of over 40 interested Member States, chaired by Canada. The Group of Friends has played an active role in the effective implementation of the Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security. On 25 September, Canada, as Chair of the Friends, co-hosted a ministerial event with the Secretary-General, ministers from Austria, Bangladesh, Chile, Liberia, Namibia, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, and the Civil Society Advisory Group. The event demonstrated the international community's intention to take concrete, time-bound and measurable actions on women and peace and security. We hope to see that come to fruition today.

The Friends congratulate Ms. Michelle Bachelet on her appointment as head of UN Women and strongly support the role of UN Women to provide support and leadership on women, peace and security within the United Nations system.

Canada looks forward to the Security Council reviewing the data collected by the indicators in the future. Such information would be very helpful in our efforts to protect civilian populations in armed conflict. For example, that information should assist in the development of clearer mandates for United Nations peace operations, which would thereby assist peacekeepers on the ground in implementing targeted protection strategies. The data would also assist in the development of targeted predeployment and in mission training for peacekeepers. Canada notes that the Secretary-General's report points to an ongoing need to enhance the meaningful participation of women in peace processes. Canada is pleased to support the work of the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the Department of Political Affairs as they work together to ensure that peace processes benefit from the direct participation of women at all levels, that mediators exhibit better understanding of gender-specific implications of various aspects of peace agreements and that agreements provide remedy for the experiences of women and girls in conflict and enable them to participate fully in post-conflict recovery.

Canada supports the efforts of SRSG Margot Wallstrom to provide strategic leadership and strengthen UN coordination mechanisms in order to address sexual violence in armed conflict. The recent systematic acts of sexual violence perpetrated in the eastern DRC demonstrate the necessity of Ms. Wallstrom's work. Canada calls on the UN system to ensure that her office is adequately resourced and capable of timely action.

To assist in bringing perpetrators to justice, Canada supports the Justice Rapid Response initiative. This multilateral stand-by facility gives UN entities and Member States access to a roster of rapidly deployable criminal justice professionals, who perform human rights and international criminal justice investigations, undertake special political and fact-finding commissions and commissions of inquiry, as well as security sector reform assessments.

I would like to share with you some activities that we will carry out in implementing Canada's Action Plan. We will:
• ensure that our non-governmental partners delivering Canadian humanitarian assistance have codes of conduct related to sexual exploitation and abuse;
• develop training modules which address prevention and protection issues from the women, peace and security agenda for Government of Canada personnel being deployed to peace operations, fragile states or conflict affected situations; and
• identify Canadian specialists with expertise in women, peace and security issues, who may be called upon to support future peace operations, including peace processes.