Let me add that my delegation will continue to support the idea of establishing a Council working group in order to be able to afford a similar level of attention and response to the issue of sexual violence as is currently and rightly granted to children in armed conflict. This is a matter of credibility for the Security Council.

I would like to say a special word of welcome and thanks to Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral Wallström and her team for their extremely significant contribution to the implementation of resolutions 1820 (2008) and 1888 (2009).

We were very pleased to support the joint analytical inventory developed by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the United Nations Development Fund for Women under the auspices of the inter-agency network United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. This is a key tool for the Organization to use in improving its ability to protect civilians from conflict-related sexual violence as part of peacekeeping operations.

We support the Secretary-General's impressive recommendations on specific steps that need to be taken to address the remaining challenges in this field. The proposal for the United Nations system to set up a mechanism, on which agreement has now been achieved, to better monitor, report and analyse data on sexual violence and to ensure that information flows effectively to the Security Council is particularly important.

We are also supporting the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in implementing a strategy to combat sexual violence in communities of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North and South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Secretary-General's report (S/2010/604) was particularly valuable because it identified practical, pragmatic ways in which this issue can be tackled. Australia is a firm supporter of tangible, practical solutions. There remains a gap between our collective expectations on what United Nations peacekeeping should be able to do and the actual capacity of peacekeepers on the ground.

Of course, information flowing to the Council should be reliable. The Council's endorsement in October of the comprehensive set of indicators was a significant achievement in that regard. We look forward to the United Nations system putting those indicators into action to collect data on sexual violence, as well as to inform policy and programmatic responses.

Much more needs to be done to address this vital issue, as we have heard this evening. We look forward to further reporting and briefing on how the United Nations system has gone about translating into action the list of proposals in the Secretary-General's report. Annual reporting is needed.

Early warning signs of conflict-related sexual violence are often received. But as the mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in July and August sadly demonstrated, our coordinated and comprehensive analysis of those signs must be strengthened in order to improve the prospects for preventing attacks on civilians. Sexual violence is not unique in that regard.

Fifteen years later, it is heartening to observe how much this issue has gained in visibility and traction. It is now taken up in various intergovernmental bodies, including the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Peacebuilding Commission. Member States at the national level and civil society organizations are demonstrating their commitment to tackling this challenge through concrete action.