Peacekeeping

That and other crises demonstrate the urgent need to act. This morning, we heard an eye-witness account on the Central African Republic. We have heard that the situation is tragic, encompassing sexual violence, forced disappearances, recruitment of child soldiers and, increasingly, religiously motivated violence. The precarious situation of women is shocking. The Council should remain apprised of the issue.

In New York, the issue of the participation of women should be included more frequently in briefings made to the Council by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Political Affairs, whose recommendations for better including women in conflict-resolution processes always prove to be valuable. Informal meetings of the Council with women working in the field should be continued and encouraged.

We call on the Department of Peacekeeping Operations Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions to ensure gender expertise in the planning of peacekeeping operations or special missions with rule of law mandates and the gathering of gender- aggregated data when making a baseline assessment of rule of law institutions.

Secondly, Egypt is deeply concerned about the increasing rates and patterns of violence against women and girls around the world, particularly sexual violence in armed conflicts and post-conflict situations.

In that context, we highlight the significance of the initiative taken in April by the Group of Eight on preventing sexual violence in conflict, assisting victims of sexual violence in war and preventing further peacekeeping forces and personnel.

Female members of the Croatian Armed Forces involved in international assignments actively work as commanders, military observers and staff officers. We are particularly proud to state that, in coordination with NATO, in December we will deploy our first female general as gender adviser to the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.

Domestically, through its national action plan for the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000), Croatia has integrated a gender perspective into its foreign and security policy as well as its actions. We attach particular importance to the involvement of women in peacekeeping operations. Their presence reinforces women's perspectives, giving their initiatives more added value.

In order to promote women truly shouldering their peacekeeping roles and playing at important part in peacebuilding processes, the various United Nations bodies and entities should work in accordance with their respective mandates, with a clear division of labour and as one. I wish to highlight the following four points.

We call on the Security Council to make the best use of the time frame leading up to the high- level review of the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) in 2015 and to mainstream measures to enhance women's participation in its work, including in the mandates of peacekeeping and political missions. Our immediate concern must be to increase the number of women in police and military contingents in United Nations peacekeeping operations.

In post-conflict settings, women's full and effective participation is fundamental to efforts to rebuild the justice sector and to security sector reform. In Solomon Islands for example, Australia supported, through the Participating Police Force, the post-conflict recruitment and retention of female officers to the local police force.