Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

We must all redouble our efforts to contribute to better protection of women in conflict and post-conflict situations. Let me dwell for a moment on some initiatives that my Government has decided to support since our debate on women and peace and security in
October (6411th meeting).

The mass rapes in Walikale in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this summer were a brutal reminder of how sexual violence continues to be used as a weapon of war.

Luxembourg congratulates the United States presidency of the Council on organizing this open debate, which gives us an opportunity to review the implementation of resolutions 1820 (2008) and 1888 (2009) and the challenges still to be addressed in order to fight effectively against sexual violence in conflict situations.

At the same time, in a broader context, Luxembourg has just decided to fund a major project of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations that is aimed at strengthening the leadership and participation of women in peacebuilding activities in countries

We thank the Secretary-General and the Special Representative for their clear reference to the importance of the work of the International Criminal Court with respect to combating sexual violence.

This seems particularly ironic at a time when the mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have gained sad notoriety in any discussion on sexual violence in armed conflict, and when much of the recent work of the International Criminal Court has been dedicated to that situation, most prominently through the arrest of the militia leader Callixte Mbarushimana earlier this year.

These are important achievements and we congratulate you, Madame President, on having forged a consensus on this text. At the same time, we also wish to place on record that we consider the resolution to be a missed opportunity. The Special Representative stated in her remarks that she has made the fight against impunity her priority since she took office. And indeed, this was corroborated by the substance of her briefing.

The Council, however, chose not to reflect that in the text adopted today. In fact, the operative part of resolution 1960 (2010) does not include any statement on the Council's commitment to end impunity, let alone on any concrete measures to that end.

Liechtenstein co-sponsored resolution 1960 (2010) because it contains numerous valuable elements that enable the Council to address the alarming increase in sexual violence around the world. We agree with the analysis of the Secretary-General in his report (S/2010/604) that gender constructs are a critical but insufficient tool to understand the full complexity of sexual violence.

In his report (S/2010/604), the Secretary-General provides a relevant analysis of sexual violence committed in the course of conflicts.