Peacekeeping

However, we still lack sufficient political will and resources to promote the systematic participation of women in United Nations peacekeeping operations. The report of the Secretary- General disturbingly highlights the fact that only 2.2 per cent of military personnel in United Nations peacekeeping operations and 7.6 per cent of civilian police personnel are women.

As Simone de Beauvoir said, one is not born a woman, but becomes one. But in order to change this, we must give explicit support to the participation of women, in particular in decision-making, so as to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment.

The regular review of the state of implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) testifies to the interest of the Security Council and the international community in this important issue.

The enormous international efforts, including those of the United Nations, to promote the implementation of resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) and of the relevant presidential statements of the Security Council have produced positive results. Of primary significance is the greater recognition that the maintenance of peace and security requires measures to meet the needs of women.

Secondly, the reconstruction process requires comprehensive efforts to meet people's basic needs in food, housing, health care, education, dealing with psychological shocks, restoration of infrastructure and consolidation of social institutions, including the important role of the family.

The Secretary-General emphasizes that we need to increase the number of women who serve as mediators, special representatives, special envoys and peacekeepers around the world. My Government commends the Secretary-General for his leadership and his efforts to increase the number of women in senior United Nations positions. We hope that these appointments will continue to increase.

We all have a role to play in ensuring that a full and effective contribution can be made by women during peace processes, that their needs are met as survivors of conflict, that their voices are heard in local civil society and that greater numbers of talented women are appointed to senior peacekeeping and peacebuilding positions.

The Security Council has agreed that we need to focus more attention on the linkages between peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Ensuring the engagement of the local female population is one obvious such link: empowered women both make peace and build it. And incidentally, this is not a new insight — very far from it. The playwright Aristophanes dramatized it for war-weary Athenians in his comic play Lysistrata nearly 2,500 years ago.

In resolution 1888 (2009), the Council took further steps to end impunity for the barbarous perpetrators of sexual violence against women and children in conflict. We now need to identify practical ways to assure women a central role in peacekeeping and post-conflict peacebuilding. That is, we need to improve our record in implementing resolution 1325 (2000).

We believe that the Security Council has a special responsibility to support women's participation in peace processes by ensuring appropriate gender balance in United Nations peacekeeping missions.