Peacekeeping

Involving women in conflict prevention and mediation and deploying women's protection advisers to United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions is crucial to building and reinforcing peace. We believe that women should play a greater role as legitimate partners in international and national efforts to maintain peace and security, which is fundamental for more effective performance on the ground.

In addition, Rwanda is the leading contributor from Africa of female police and correctional officers to United Nations peace support and peacekeeping missions. Among other duties, those officers actively contribute to combating and raising awareness about violence against women. They also serve as advisers on gender-based violence and share best practices with officers and local authorities.

The United Nations does much to deal with the protection of women in situations of armed conflict. We all know that that is not enough. Much more needs to be done. It is imperative to continue to mainstream the gender perspective into peacekeeping operations. As the largest troop-contributing country, we can testify to the fact that the appointment of gender advisers in the field has served a useful purpose.

The deployment of peacekeepers with an explicit mandate to protect civilians from sexual violence has been a very important step. But the challenge is to ensure that such deployment delivers results effectively in the field. Peacekeepers must be supported with appropriate training and resources to enable them to fulfil their protection mandate.

In that context, my delegation welcomes the various initiatives and actions undertaken by Member States, United Nations entities, including UN-Women, civil society organizations and other relevant actors that are focused on supporting and increasing the representation of women in peace negotiations and mainstreaming gender perspectives into peace agreements.

The Council must be fully informed before acting, which is why it is so important to establish follow-up, analysis and information-exchange mechanisms within peacekeeping operations and political missions and to provide for the deployment of sufficient numbers of women protection advisers, who have a crucial role to play in the coordination of the implementation of Security Council resolutions on conflict-related sexual violence.

Kyrgyzstan welcomes the efforts of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations in preventing violence against women in armed conflict. In that respect, important measures aim to strengthen the operational capacity of the United Nations, including through the United Nations International Network of Female Police Peacekeepers, established for those taking part in peacekeeping operations.

While United Nations peacekeeping missions have provided critical support for gender-related issues in countries emerging from armed conflict, we agree with the report's assertion that it is equally important to pay adequate attention to security-sector reform and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes, so as to avoid the risk of relapse.

At the international level, Fiji's commitment to eliminating sexual violence is expressed primarily through its peacekeeping efforts. Fiji sends police peacekeepers to missions where the mandate includes capacity-building of local security institutions.

Peacekeeping operations are another important pillar contributing to the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence. Local populations and international public opinion have high expectations concerning the role of United Nations peacekeepers in preventing sexual violence.