Peacekeeping

The Security Council must ensure that there is an ongoing systematic focus on prevention, including in all the relevant country-specific resolutions, in peacekeeping mandate authorizations and renewals, and in special political missions. Ensuring strong monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements will help to identify situations of risk early so that they can be addressed.

The United Nations, and in particular this body, have convened meetings to deliberate on mitigating factors that can be employed to prevent and or curb such a scourge. However, despite all efforts, the scourge still persists and continues to terrorize communities, thereby posing a serious security concern. That is so because perpetrators are left unpunished and the culture of impunity aggravates conflict cycles.

The elimination of conflict-related sexual violence would not be possible without addressing the root causes of gender inequality and changing the mindset of the perpetrators, victims and society at large. Victims should be encouraged to speak out and report violence.

Namibia wishes to re-emphasize the importance of the role of women in conflict prevention and post-conflict peacebuilding. As such, we fully support the inclusion of women in security systems, such as the armed forces, the police and peacekeeping operations and special political missions in support of various United Nations resolutions that recognize that important role.

My delegation supports the zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and abuse in all peacekeeping operations. We believe that it is fundamental to ensuring that the rights and dignity of women are safeguarded. Malaysia, in this regard, welcomes the delivery of scenario-based training for peacekeepers in several training centres to improve their operational readiness to react swiftly to sexual violence.

It is also of paramount importance that peacekeepers continue to be trained to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence, and that special training materials be prepared, preferably in the native languages of peacekeepers. Peacekeeping forces must ensure that internally displaced persons camps are free of alleged perpetrators. The United Nations Blue Helmets themselves must strictly follow the rules of conduct.

We must do better on matters relating to paternity. In situ courts martial for military offenders must be the rule, and not the exception, for sexual offenses.

Let us be clear about what it is we are saying by our inaction. We are saying that it is okay by us when a United Nations civilian staff member commits rape in a United Nations peacekeeping mission, where the host country has no functioning judiciary and when the country of nationality cannot exercise its criminal jurisdiction extraterritorially over the accused because it has no law allowing it to do so. Is that our view?

I do not wish to be misunderstood: if we had done everything we should have done over the past nine years to ensure the total elimination of this abominable practice by our own peacekeepers, and they still occurred, then we could accept that there was little more we can do. But we, as Member States, have not done everything, and so we cannot make that claim.

History has proven their credentials in creating peace. The policies of the United Nations system and outside it should therefore promote extensive measures to ensure the greater participation of women at all stages from conflict prevention to resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.