Statement of Gambia, October, 2016

“Bearing in mind the fact that resolution 1325 (2000) emerged a decade after the end of the Cold War, when new kinds of violence and warfare were already evident, in particular it was also a recognition of the complexity of post-conflict peacebuilding in countries such as Bosnia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when social fabric and trust within communities had been destroyed. However, although resolution 1325 (2000) and the six subsequent resolutions that followed have given much-needed international attention to the impact of conflict on women and girls, women still face a fight for recognition in both war and peace. A study conducted to mark the tenth anniversary of the resolution found that United Missions had achieved little success in improving the participation of women in peace negotiations and agreements. Women in rural areas still felt excluded. The report went on to state that while some progress had been made in passing laws against sexual and gender-based violence and improving women’s security, conflict-related sexual violence as a deliberate strategy in areas of conflict still occurred with impunity and had proved a formidable challenge for peacekeeping missions.