General Women, Peace and Security

For reasons that have been extensively studied and debated through the ages, women and children have always been the vast majority of the innocent victims of violence and armed conflict.

Due to the very nature of their being, women, from birth, learn to be peacemakers and negotiators in conflicts. This is the task that they carry out entirely naturally within the bosom of their families, and by virtue of their innate abilities as catalysts of agreements in the intimacy of their homes and in the most complex situations.

In conclusion, my delegation would like to provide its full support to the presidential statement (S/PRST/2010/22) that was adopted at the beginning of this discussion. We express the wish that, under the leadership of Ms.

Ten years ago this Council recognized that conflicts have a differing impact on the lives of women and men, and that both women and men have a valuable contribution to offer in advancing peace. In short, the Council recognized gender-equality, and the promotion and protection of women's rights, as a central issue to its mandate of maintaining international peace and security.

For the purposes of this event, we first wish to comment on the pronouncement, highlighted in the Secretary-General's report, that in the 10 years since the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), its overall implementation has been slow. Undoubtedly, progress has been made, but much work remains to be done in implementing the resolution and assessing the progress of individual countries.

The European Union is strongly committed to the fuIl implementation of UNSCR 1325 and its follow-up resolutions. We urge all parties to intensify their efforts to reach the common goal of fuIl implementation.

Estonia is committed to the implementation of resolution 1325 and its follow-up resolutions. My delegation would like to align itself with the comments and commitments to be made on behalf of the European Union and offer the following remarks in our national capacity.

This year we are commemorating 10 years of the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, which represented, and still represents, the responsibility of the international community to ensure and protect and advance women's rights in conflict, post-conflict situations and in peace processes.

Egypt has been always supportive to 1325 and to its full implementation. It played a historical role to ensure the protection of women in armed conflict situations. Egypt was even among a number of states who contributed in the formulation of "The Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict" adopted by the General Assembly resolution 3318 (XXIX) as early as 14 December 1974.

Gender equality and the empowerment of women are cross-cutting issues for all development policies and, indeed, increasingly for all international policies. The Economic and Social Council has taken the full dimension of this requirement and reviews on an annual basis how the United Nations system mainstreams gender perspectives in its activities.