Liechtenstein
At the outset, let me join others in commending you for organizing this open ...
At the outset, let me join others in commending you for organizing this open debate on the occasion of the anniversary of resolution 1325. We welcome the last report of the Secretary General and the recommendations contained therein as an important step in moving the Women, Peace and Security agenda from rhetoric to action. We also align ourselves with the
statement delivered by Canada on behalf of the Friends of Women, Peace and Security.
When the Security Council adopted the landmark resolution 1325 on 31 October ...
When the Security Council adopted the landmark resolution 1325 on 31 October 2000, it acknowledged the negative impact of armed conflicts on women and highlighted their decisive role in conflict prevention and in consolidating peace. Ten years later, however, the plight of women and girls in armed conflicts goes on unabated. The implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda remains slow and uneven at best. Recent incidents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have once again confirmed that sexual violence is used as a method of warfare to achieve military and strategic ends. Women are still excluded from decision-making processes in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction.
Women continue to be seriously underrepresented in positions as Special Repre...
Women continue to be seriously underrepresented in positions as Special Representatives and Deputy Special Representatives of the Secretary General. We therefore welcome the seven-point action plan contained in the last report of the Secretary-General on Women's participation in Peacebuilding. We regret that the Council, in its last PRST on Post-Conflict Peacebuilding (S/PRST/2010/20), was not able to welcome this forward-looking report.
It is our firm belief that the advancement of the Women, Peace and Security a...
It is our firm belief that the advancement of the Women, Peace and Security agenda is intrinsically linked to the way the Security Council receives and analyzes information on its implementation, as well as on the commitment of Member States to take concrete action. We therefore commend the Council for endorsing the 26 indicators against which the implementation of resolution 1325 will be measured. We believe that information collected through the indicators should where appropriate also be disaggregated by disability in order to address the lack of data in this respect. We reiterate our support for the "call to action" of the ministerial event of 25 September 2010, which encouraged Member States to commit to concrete, time-bound and measurable actions.
To underscore our commitment, we have contributed to the financing of the &qu...
To underscore our commitment, we have contributed to the financing of the "Monthly Action Points" of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security (NGOWG), which highlight how the Security Council can integrate relevant content of resolution 1325 in its daily work, in particular on country specific issues. We hope that this can make a small contribution to the more general goal of effectively integrating the substance of the council's thematic work in its operational decisions. In addition, we have partnered with Switzerland to support the PeaceWomen project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) to publish a handbook on women, peace and security. The handbook provides language derived from best practices and is meant to assist the Security Council in incorporating relevant substance of resolution 1325 when designing mandates for missions on the ground.
Furthermore, we will continue our financial support for the International Cri...
Furthermore, we will continue our financial support for the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims, which adopts a gender-based perspective across all programming and has a specific focus on victims of sexual and gender violence. We hope that the Fund will get more support from States as a result of their national efforts to implement SCR 1325. Resolution 1325 and its follow-up 1820 call for decisive action against sexual violence in times of armed conflict. The explicit inclusion of sexual violence in the provisions dealing with war crimes and crimes against humanity was one most significant advances of international law reflected in the Rome Statute of the ICC. Today, the Court is dealing with a number of situations where sexual violence is rampant including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Court therefore has jurisdiction over any crimes within the remit of its Statute committed in the DRC since 1 July 2002. The Court will soon begin trying Callixte Mbarushimana, an FDLR militia leader arrested on 11 October, who is indicted on charges of sexual violence, among other things.
The work of the Court is therefore of direct relevance to the 1325 agenda, as...
The work of the Court is therefore of direct relevance to the 1325 agenda, as the Security Council anticipated when referencing the Rome Statute in 1325 ten years ago. It is therefore astonishing that the role of international criminal justice in general and the ICC in particular are entirely absent from the latest report on the implementation of resolution 1325 - not its only, but perhaps its most serious defect. Fighting impunity is clearly a central part of our efforts to eradicate sexual violence: It must therefore be an integral part of any future efforts in this body and the reports submitted for its consideration.