Peacekeeping

We recognize that empowering women will lead to their taking command of resources and acquiring adequate leadership capabilities for the efficient management of those resources. Therefore, we emphasize the fulfilment of women's economic needs and the necessity of their engagement internationally at all levels and in all forms of decision-making.

In the maintenance of international peace and security, we take pride in our modest contribution of troops and police forces to United Nations peacekeeping missions. The recruitment of women to the police forces and the military amply demonstrates our commitment to women's empowerment in both the national and the international arenas.

The United Nations and its Member States need to further increase the number of women in peacekeeping operations and political missions in order to ensure gender expertise in the planning of missions and in all mediation efforts, and to enhance the appointment of women to senior leadership positions.

I cannot conclude without expressing my appreciation for the report's mention of Argentina's efforts to increase the number of Argentine women deployed in its armed and security forces, as well as to peacekeeping missions. The report also notes our initiatives to develop and improve training in the specific protection rights and needs of women and girls.

The promotion of gender perspectives in SSR is of essential importance to Slovenia.

In that respect, it is worth noting that security sector reform cannot succeed without taking into account the gender perspective. By deploying female military and police officials, peacekeeping missions can indirectly encourage host countries to include women in their security institutions.

Secondly, we need vigorous, sustained diplomacy and mediation to prevent violence or its escalation. Intensive diplomatic efforts by the Secretary-General, his senior envoys and key staff in the field can pull adversaries back from the brink, especially when backed by a united international community.

We support the United Nations increasing use of mediation specialists and special envoys, and we welcome the Secretary-General's call to increase the number of senior female mediators in line with resolution 1325 (2000).

I wish to highlight that 10 per cent of our peacekeepers are women — a figure which will surely increase in the years ahead. The Philippines is a strong partner of the United Nations in the promotion of women's active involvement and participation in peacekeeping. We fully support the idea of integrating the gender perspective in the deployment of peacekeeping personnel, and continue to play our part in putting that into practice.

"We now understand that the risk of infection can be even greater in communities emerging from violent conflict. United Nations peacekeeping operations — with their military, police and civilian elements — are well placed to engage with vulnerable communities that have been affected by conflict in order to ensure that the epidemic does not gain a foothold among them.