The struggle to empower women has moved forward from declaratory resolutions. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Commission on the Status of Women have been milestones in that journey.
The Security Council must ensure that the resources needed to implement its mandates are available. United Nations missions are being asked to do more with less. For example, the resolution that was just adopted will expand the mandate without expanding already inadequate resources.
The Secretariat and the funds and programmes can do more. We believe that greater participation by women in the areas of conflict prevention, peace negotiations, peacekeeping and post-conflict reconstruction is an essential prerequisite for lasting peace and security.
The resolution that was adopted yesterday (resolution 1960 (2010)) and which we sponsored, will add a number of new dimensions to the ongoing work. While the objectives of that framework are laudable, its implementation remains a work in progress. We will, during our term on the Council, remain seriously engaged with both the evolution of the normative side and its implementation.
The proceedings of the Council today will add to the edifice created by resolutions 1325 (2000), 1612 (2005), 1820 (2008), 1882 (2009) and 1888 (2009). Those and other decisions of the Security Council on, inter alia, sexual violence, children and the protection of civilians have led to a significant addition to the corpus of international law.
The monitoring and reporting mechanism, which is to provide the data on the basis of which the system is to operate, needs close supervision by Member States to ensure its veracity and credibility. Data collection and analysis, as well as listing and de-listing, should be carried out in a transparent and judicious manner under the close supervision of Member States.
Thanks to the resolve of the international community the operational and peacekeeping activities of the United Nations has been oriented towards recognizing the plight of women and children in conflict areas and being proactive in working towards preventing violence against them. India supports those developments.
No country can be absolved from the responsibility of acting against sexual violence, one of the more abhorrent forms of violence against women. My delegation is committed to international regimes that further those objectives.
Martin Luther King once said that injustice anywhere diminishes justice everywhere. We believe that the perpetrators of those crimes must be brought to justice. Relevant national capacities must be strengthened.
