General Women, Peace and Security

These challenges affirm the need for the strengthening of conflict-prevention, early- warning and early-action mechanisms, especially by the Security Council.

Secondly, all comprehensive, multidimensional and hybrid peacekeeping operations should have a strong women and peace and security mandate, with gender specialists to provide capacity-building in the military, police and civilian sectors, as well as in units that focus on the rule of law, transitional justice and human rights. Peacekeeping operations must strive for gender mainstreaming, just as at Headquarters.

In closing, I would like to stress that my delegation believes that organizing a debate such as this in the Council should not undermine the work of the United Nations bodies that are most relevant to the consideration of women-related issues, that is, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly.

Women are a key resource for promoting peace and stability. Research has shown that women’s participation and inclusion make humanitarian assistance more effective, strengthen the protection of civilians, contribute to the political settlement of disputes and the maintenance of sustainable peace, and accelerate economic recovery. Today, we find ourselves at a turning point in the cause of women and girls.

Hungary financed, on a bilateral basis, a gender- based training workshop in Kenya aimed at developing the security sector within the framework of our international development cooperation strategy.

Financing is of course key. We have heard proposals that at least 15 per cent of peacekeeping funding should be directed towards the objectives of resolution 1325 (2000). From our point of view, 15 per cent should be seen as an absolute floor, not the ceiling. As to Iceland, over 20 per cent of our contributions towards peacebuilding in 2014 had gender equality and women’s empowerment as their primary objective.

Hungary strongly supported the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and security, and the subsequent resolutions on that topic. We know that numerous initiatives and actions have been launched during the past 15 years aimed at enhancing the effective participation of women in peace processes, as well as their empowerment in peacemaking and post-conflict situations.

As an illustration of our strong commitment to the advancement of women, in collaboration with the United Nations and the European Union, on 9 and 10 November we plan to organize an international high-level conference on meeting gender equality challenges and opportunities in the European Neighbourhood Policy in Tbilisi, Georgia. We believe that the empowerment of women stands at the centre of sustainable development.