Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Women are a major force for peace, stability and development in society. The promotion of gender equality and women's rights represents a true reflection of human civilization and progress, and is also closely related to peace and world development. In situations of armed conflict, however, sexual violence against women is employed by parties to conflict as a means of war more often than not.

Thirdly, attention must be paid to the issues underlying the protection of women's security and curbing sexual violence in armed conflict. It is important to address issues of women's rights at a deeper level, in order to promote women's full development and eliminate the root causes of conflict.

Secondly, the Security Council has an active role to play in fighting sexual violence in armed conflict, in the light of its own mandate and strengths. However, it is different from the Human Rights Council and it is also different from the Commission on the Status of Women. When addressing sexual violence, the Council must not encroach upon the responsibilities of other United Nations bodies.

It is no surprise that such acts have been unanimously condemned and opposed by the international community. China strongly condemns all violence against civilians in armed conflict, and is resolutely opposed to using sexual violence as a means of war, as well as to any acts of sexual violence or sexual enslavement against women.

First, combating sexual violence in conflict must be done with full respect for national sovereignty, and should rely primarily on national efforts. National Governments bear the primary responsibility for protecting women's rights in their country; it is they, first and foremost, that should carry out the task of implementing the Council's resolutions and fighting sexual violence in conflict.

China took an active part in the consultations on drafting today's resolution on sexual violence in armed conflict (resolution 2106 (2013)), and has just voted in favour of it. We believe that the Special Representatives and United Nations missions should implement it in strict observance of the Council's mandate.

We wish to express concern, however, about the fact that in several areas it is still difficult to investigate and judge crimes of sexual violence committed against women and children because the national courts lack skills and expertise. That continues to make it difficult to bring perpetrators of such crimes to trial. For that reason, we emphasize the support needed from the United Nations as regards capacity-building in that area.

We also wish to highlight the work of the International Criminal Court. Its Rome Statute includes within the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity crimes involving acts of sexual violence against women and children. We emphasize the contribution made in that connection by the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, with their valuable rulings on the subject.

We agree with the Secretary-General's March report on sexual violence in conflict (S/2013/149) that national courts remain primarily responsible for investigating and judging crimes of sexual violence in conflicts, and we value the important complementary role played by the international tribunals in combating crimes of that kind.

The subject of women and peace and security and sexual violence poses many challenges and covers a number of areas. I refer in particular to the existence of and access to compensation and justice mechanisms for women and girls, especially in situations of armed conflict; the operation and supervision of compensation systems; and combating impunity for those responsible for crimes.