Peacekeeping

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.

We thank the Secretary- General, the Executive Director of UN Women, High Commissioner Pillay and Ms. Brigitte Balipou, the representative of the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security, for their active involvement and valuable contributions. We also welcome the unanimous adoption of resolution 2122 (2013) by the Council earlier today, calling for higher levels of women's involvement in peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

We must increase our efforts to implement resolution 1325 (2000), in order to protect vulnerable women in armed conflict. In building peace, we must take women seriously. We must include their views and interests in political agreements and peacekeeping operations. We welcome the progress that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations has made in that regard, and encourage further cooperation with UN-Women.

The third area is partnerships on thematic, human rights and humanitarian issues. The Council has recognized the key role regional and subregional organizations play in affirming the role of women in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, peacekeeping and humanitarian response; ensuring the protection of children affected by armed conflict; and ensuring that the protection of civilians is central to peacekeeping efforts.

United Nations peacekeepers and those of regional organizations authorized by the United Nations have a key role to play in preventing sexual violence in conflict situations by practicing zero tolerance within their ranks and protecting vulnerable populations.

In his latest report (S/2013/149) the Secretary- General encourages Member States to include specific training courses for their peacekeeping troops. Nevertheless, our methods have not been sufficiently successful in fighting these crimes.

As Minister for Defence, I would like to emphasize the importance of integrating a gender perspective in peacekeeping operations. If we neglect information from 50 per cent of the local population, missions will be less successful. If we do not include half the population in our security assessments, we cannot address the security needs of the whole population.

While scenario-based training for peacekeepers is essential to enhancing operational readiness and prevention, it can never be a panacea for eliminating sexual violence in conflict.

This shows the importance of taking into account sexual violence in the context of preventive diplomacy, particularly when ceasefire agreements are reached between warring parties. In that connection, I support the recommendations made by the Secretary-General to establish monitoring mechanisms for the commitments entered into by parties during the good offices process, in line with resolution 1960 (2010).

The Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) considers the prevention and mitigation of sexual violence against women and girls as a key imperative across all its deployments. The RDF gender desk devises training programmes to raise awareness of sexual and gender- based violence. Those programmes have been fully incorporated into the core curriculums of Rwanda's military academies and training institutions.