General Women, Peace and Security

The Netherlands has for decades put gender equality at the heart of all its policies. Internationally, we support female leadership, the follow-up of resolution 1325 (2000), women's economic empowerment and the elimination of sexual violence against women.

Secondly, we advocate involving civil society organizations and effective cooperation with the signatories of national action plans.

Because of the important role of women, since 2007 the Netherlands has invested in national action plans, together with civil society organizations, research institutions and other Government institutions — altogether more than 40 partners. The objective of those partnerships is to create an enabling environment in which women are better able to take a leading role and to participate in political decision-making processes.

In conclusion, Malaysia reaffirms its strong commitment to efforts to address sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations, and strongly believes that the issue of women and peace and security deserves the Security Council's sustained attention.

My delegation is a long-standing supporter of the consistent mainstreaming of the Council's thematic agenda into its country-specific work. In partnership with Switzerland, we have supported the publication of the 2010 Women, Peace and Security Handbook by PeaceWomen, which has just been released in a second edition. To increase its usability, we made the handbook available as a mobile application.

In conclusion, I would like to reaffirm Kyrgyzstan's commitment to further contribute to United Nations efforts in ensuring women's rights and eradicating conflict-related violence.

Promoting the rights of women is at the core of my country's human rights policy. Kazakhstan, as a member of the Executive Board of UN-Women, has repeatedly voiced the need to accelerate the implementation of global gender commitments.

It would help to have at least one gender expert on every Sanctions Committee and peacekeeping mission or political office in the field. Resources must be allocated to that end. Likewise, the women and peace and security agenda should be incorporated into the terms of reference of Security Council visiting missions when interacting with interlocutors and stakeholders.

In conclusion, we commend the Security Council's continuing attention to the urgent and crucial issue of women and peace and security and strengthening it on its ongoing agenda.