Latvia

The topic of today's debate is of particular importance. The sustainable political, social and economic development of a country is possible only with a strong civil society that is involved in all stages of decision-making, including in conflict prevention and resolution and peacebuilding. Women's civil society organizations play a particular role in that regard by voicing women's rights and concerns early on, laying the foundations for non-discriminatory and inclusive decision-making processes and, most importantly, contributing to overall international peace and security.

Latvia participates in capacity-building in several conflict situations and post-conflict countries. Women's leadership, participation and economic empowerment are among the main priorities of our capacity- building initiatives. Latvia has shared its experience and implemented projects in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries. In all those initiatives, the Latvian Government has closely cooperated with women's civil society organizations, and activities in that regard continue. Women's non-governmental organizations in Latvia are also implementing their own capacity- building projects, for example by facilitating the establishment of women's resource centres in Central Asia, sharing expertise in the prevention of human trafficking and providing assistance to victims in Iraq.

Moreover, the United Nations itself should live up to its own standards by ensuring women's adequate representation in peacekeeping operations at different levels and by improving training on gender- specific issues for military and police in peacekeeping missions. The United Nations gender expertise is crucial for capacity-building and for increased engagement of women's civil society representatives in peace-making and peacebuilding processes, as demonstrated by recent examples in South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. In that regard, Latvia welcomes the formalization of the gender expert position in the Mediation Support Standby Team and the inclusion of gender advisers in all multidimensional peacekeeping operations and political missions. We look forward to the results of the review on how gender expertise is structured and deployed within the United Nations system.

The international community's involvement in scaling up women's community initiatives and improving their access to national and international dialogue and mediation processes is of particular relevance. The Security Council recognized as much in its presidential statement on this topic last year (S/PRST/2011/20). Women civil society representatives should be systematically invited to participate in international dialogues, contact groups, international engagement events and donor conferences, as well as regularly consulted on conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts. The Security Council should provide regular and even responses to women's peace and security concerns by, inter alia, inserting specific instructions for women's engagement in the establishment and renewal of mandates, ensuring regular reporting on women's human rights violations by United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions and continuing to use Arria Formula meetings and other formats to facilitate open dialogue with women's civil society representatives.