Canada welcomes today's presentation by Special Representative of the Secretary-General Wallström, and strongly supports her efforts to provide strategic leadership and strengthen United Nations coordination mechanisms in order to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence.

Canada welcomes the jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals confirming that rape and sexual violence can be war crimes and crimes against humanity. Individuals responsible for these crimes must be brought to justice; that includes those responsible by virtue of command responsibility.

Canada strongly supports the Security Council's recognition of the need to take effective measures to address conflict-related sexual violence and welcomes the report of the Secretary-General (S/2010/604) pursuant to resolutions 1820 (2008) and 1888 (2009), including their recommendations.

Canada also calls on the Council to increase pressure on States to hold perpetrators of sexual violence to account through adoption of sanctions and other targeted measures against individuals and entities that have perpetrated sexual violence. This must, of course, be done in accordance with standards of due process.

When the Council takes up issues such as sexual violence, the challenge is how to address in political, and even operational, terms an issue that is deeply moral in nature. In other words, the Council is called upon to help to translate our sorrow and outrage at such horrific violence into practical action capable of bringing about real change.

The adoption of resolution 1960 (2010) today, which Brazil is pleased to have co-sponsored, sends a clear message that the Council is ready to continue to fight impunity by focusing on parties that engage in conflict-related sexual violence. It has strengthened the tools and arrangements available to the Council and to the United Nations as a whole.

Recent events have shown that contacts with local populations are critical to ensuring protection. The role of civil affairs and public information components is therefore key. They should have the necessary resources — especially guidance and trained personnel — to be able to help avoid outrageous violence such as that witnessed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In situations where peacekeeping operations are deployed, the United Nations role in prevention becomes one of particular relevance, as the enhanced resources at its disposal create higher expectations among local populations and in international public opinion.

Impunity tends to fuel violence. Brazil appreciates and supports the work of Ms. Wallström's Office to support national institutions in identifying and prosecuting perpetrators. We also believe that the Team of Experts established by resolution 1888 (2009) can play an important role in helping States to strengthen the rule of law in situations of particular concern.

Dealing with sexual violence requires different parts of the United Nations system to act on many fronts. Today we have made progress in that direction and concluded, on a very high note, a remarkable effort that we began his year to provide an effective response by the Security Council to the scourge of sexual violence.