Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Our national plan of action also provides for an increase in the percentage of women and men, be they civilian or military, who are specifically trained in gender issues to participate in peacekeeping operations. Allow me to cite a specific example of our support.

When the Security Council adopted the landmark resolution 1325 on 31 October 2000, it acknowledged the negative impact of armed conflicts on women and highlighted their decisive role in conflict prevention and in consolidating peace. Ten years later, however, the plight of women and girls in armed conflicts goes on unabated. The implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda remains slow and uneven at best.

The work of the Court is therefore of direct relevance to the 1325 agenda, as the Security Council anticipated when referencing the Rome Statute in 1325 ten years ago. It is therefore astonishing that the role of international criminal justice in general and the ICC in particular are entirely absent from the latest report on the implementation of resolution 1325 - not its only, but perhaps its most serious defect.

Furthermore, we will continue our financial support for the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims, which adopts a gender-based perspective across all programming and has a specific focus on victims of sexual and gender violence. We hope that the Fund will get more support from States as a result of their national efforts to implement SCR 1325.

The Government has also taken measures at the institutional, political and legal levels to ensure the plan's implementation, including an amendment to the penal code extending the legal definition of rape, making it a non-bailable offence, and increasing its penalty to life imprisonment.

Including women in peace talks is not enough by itself. In some post-conflict societies, women who have been victims of sexual violence, widows and orphan girls are ostracized, exacerbating the challenges that they must overcome and compromising the prospects for enduring peace.

However, despite these important efforts, the conditions that women and girls face in situations of armed conflict continue to be abhorrent, and effective methods for monitoring the impact of the measures put in place to protect them are lacking, as pointed out by the Secretary-General in his report (S/2010/498).

As we mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), let us take this opportunity to examine the progress that has been achieved, as well as the challenges that persist. Over the past decade, the United Nations system, Member States and civil society have made significant efforts to implement resolution 1325 (2000) through a wide spectrum of measures and initiatives.

With the recent establishment of UN Women, we believe that women will have a stronger voice to speak on issues affecting them and including the implementation of Resolution 1325. The coordination of the various agencies, offices and mandate holders that deal with women and violence against women in particular will be very crucial to the implementation of this resolution.

While it is understood that the Security Council has an important role to play in dealing with peace and security matters internationally, States bear the primary responsibility to protect their citizens women and children in particular from violence.