General Women, Peace and Security

We also underscore the specific risks faced by women journalists, including sexual and gender-­ based violence. A gender-­sensitive approach is needed when considering measures to address the safety of journalists.

Uruguay considers the issue of women and peace and security to be an essential part of a larger agenda that includes the situation of children in armed conflict as well as the protection of civilians in armed conflict; they are integral parts of the whole. It is therefore essential to make coordinated progress and to use all the instruments available to the Organization, particularly its capacities in the field.

One instrument in such efforts is peacekeeping operations, which in recent years have included mandates for the protection of civilians that pay particular attention to women and children. There has been significant progress.

We need to home in on lack of accountability as one of the root causes of rape and sexual violence in conflict, but at the same time not forget that women's political, social and economic empowerment across all societies is essential and that our goal must be the full implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).

As the international community, we curbed the development of nuclear weapons, heading off a once threatened and unstoppable wave of insecurity. We have binding Conventions against the use of torture and on the treatment of prisoners. We have outlawed the use of chemical weapons and imposed a global ban on cluster munitions. We have made progress in choking off the trade in conflict diamonds, which undermines many fragile countries.

In an unprecedented partnership, civil society organizations, the Council and the United Nations as a whole have put in place a visionary framework based on five resolutions on women and peace and security. That framework not only asks us to fight sexual violence effectively in times of conflict, it also commits us to supporting women as active agents for change.

Efforts to end sexual violence in conflict must include scrutiny of how gender roles are shaped and upheld in peacetime. Societies that view men as superior create an environment that is conducive to sexual violence in armed conflict.

We welcome the adoption today of resolution 2106 (2013), which, together with resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009) and 1960 (2010) complement landmark resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security. All five Nordic countries are sponsors of today's resolution.

In the implementation of the work plan contained in resolution 1325 (2000), our Government established a number of specialized centres at the central and national levels to coordinate the efforts of women in the fields of peace and development and to provide them with consultative guidelines with regard to strengthening the principles of equality and a gender perspective.

In addition to the efforts deployed by the advisory council for human rights in Darfur, social services and security units as well as the unit against violence against women, the Government this month launched the 10-year national action plan on human rights as a clear-cut national strategy to enhance the situation of human rights in the Sudan.