Italy

If we want to see tangible progress in this area, more needs to be done at the national, regional, and international levels. First, women and women's rights must be consistently included in peace talks. Women are formidable negotiators, mediators and peace-builders. But all too often they are denied access to negotiations at the highest level because of the lack of political will or commitment. A transparent and inclusive peace process involving representatives of every component of society, including women, is the most likely to succeed.

Third, it is not enough to simply advocate the participation of women in peace processes. We need to provide concrete support for women to build the skills needed for meaningful involvement. And education is crucial. At the same time, social barriers blocking women's access to peace processes need to be addressed. Since men are also a part of the equation, civic education and human rights programmes for both men and women at the community level can help lift these barriers and hammer home the importance of gender inclusiveness. We must also support civil society organizations, in particular women's groups, which are vital to creating better links among women and between state and community.

To achieve more consistent, serious progress in the implementation of 1325 at the global level, Italy welcomes the strategic framework and its concrete targets to guide the UN's implementation of Resolution 1325 developed by the Secretary-General, and the use of the set of indicators to monitor progress in implementing the framework. The framework will ensure a more comprehensive approach and more result-oriented action by the UN system. Regional organizations should consider adopting similar tools. At the national level, action plans remain a key instrument to ensuring implementation of the resolution.

Since then Italy has had regular contacts with civil society organizations to benefit from their experience in the field, particularly in the collection of sex-disaggregated data. The national focal point is promoting awareness activities by disseminating the plan throughout all sectors of Government and society. At the international level, Italy has introduced “Women, Peace, and Security” as a priority question to be raised during the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights Council, when the human rights situation of Member States under consideration are being addressed, in addition to bringing up the issue in bilateral contacts with the countries concerned.

In the field of education and training, gender-perspective modules have now been included in most of NATO's pre-deployment training efforts. This is an area where we feel we can benefit from the experience of other international organisations and we are thus pleased to be contributing to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project aimed at Supporting Gender Mainstreaming in Security Sector Reform in the Western Balkans. We hope that this, and similar cooperation which we have already begun with the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, will continue and deepen over the course of the coming year.