Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

The recent deployment of Irish defence forces with the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad has left us with some reflections.

Our extensive engagement in United Nations peacekeeping has taught us that the triggers for sexual violence and the entry points for influence are different from one case to another. But there are some common points. In all situations, active monitoring and timely reporting are critical. Without them, early warnings will be missed, policymaking will not be properly founded, and perpetrators will slip through the cracks.

Let me conclude by reiterating our unequivocal support for Special Representative of the Secretary- General Wallström and her Office, as well as our appreciation for the incremental steps that are being taken by the Security Council on this issue. The perpetrators of crimes of sexual violence now know that they are caught in the headlamps of Security Council attention.

Ireland is already seeking to take these recommendations forward. For example, sexual and gender-based violence has been incorporated as an indicator into an Irish Government-funded early warning/early response system in Timor-Leste.

Conflict and sexual violence feed off one another. The poisonous interrelationship is fully demonstrated in the Secretary-General's report. This is an excellent report, clear and dispassionate in its analysis and incisive in its recommendations. Ireland strongly supports the full range of recommendations and welcomes the extent to which they have been reflected in the resolution.

But helping to change attitudes and standards brings a follow-up responsibility. It cannot be right that communities are left with new ways of looking at things but — with the international presence gone — no means to ensure that new standards are implemented. This is where the continuum between peacekeeping and peacebuilding really matters.

Among the particular priorities stressed throughout this initiative were the need to fight against the culture of impunity in relation to sexual violence, to exclude sex crimes from amnesties, to improve women's access to formal, traditional and transitional justice, to increase awareness among family members and community leaders of issues surrounding sexual and gender-based violence, to enhance capacity to prosecute sex crimes, and to incorp

We welcome the appointment of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström.

We take great pride in the stellar record of our peacekeepers, both men and women, in the protection of women, children and the weak. Indian troops have apprehended some of the principal culprits behind the recent sexual violence in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We can do much more if more resources are made available.

The weakest are the biggest victims of conflict and, as the Secretary-General points out in his report (S/2010/604), women continue to suffer appallingly in conflicts. Sexual violence is, according to the report, not merely a consequence of conflict but a driver. It perpetuates conflict and locks its victims into a vicious cycle of violence and oppression.