S/PV.6759 Security Council

I now give the floor to Mr. Ladsous.

I am grateful for this opportunity to discuss the critical issue of women and peace and security. My purpose today is to provide an update on security, protection and equal participation of women in countries where our peacekeepers are operating. For more than 10 years, resolution 1325 (2000) has guided us in supporting women in post-conflict societies. Peacekeeping operations are well positioned to help advance all the goals of resolution 1325 (2000). The political engagement and eloquent advocacy of special representatives of the Secretary-General at the highest levels are clearly critical factors that increase the impact the United Nations can have on the ground. Under their leadership, missions can provide an extremely powerful platform for support to women in post-conflict situations. Last year, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support completed an impact study on the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) in peacekeeping. It was a wake- up call. It showed that peacekeeping missions have supported important progress in some areas, including in the area of women’s participation in elections and political institutions. It also showed that in other areas, including protection, not enough has been achieved. Today, I shall focus my remarks on these two critical areas: political participation and protection. They are especially critical because they represent both the opportunity for women to make their voices heard and to shape the peace, but also the risk that women face from insecurity, sexual violence and targeting of civilians. Peacekeepers must do their utmost to maximize the former and minimize the latter. During my recent visits to peacekeeping operations, I have seen women participating in greater numbers as candidates and voters where basic security is assured. In other contexts, where electoral processes were marred by violence and intimidation, we must note that women’s participation remained low. Lack of freedom of movement, intimidation and all such factors contribute to lowered participation by women in electoral processes not only as voters but also as candidates. Elections offer the opportunity to advance the goals of resolution 1325 (2000) in a number of ways, including temporary special measures to increase women’s opportunities to win elected office, outreach to women’s groups, training for female candidates, better national police protection for women and encouraging political parties to elicit women’s participation. As for electoral assistance, we work in close coordination with the Department of Political Affairs, which has the General Assembly-mandated system-wide leading role in United Nations electoral assistance activities and policies. With regard to temporary special measures, as we head towards the June parliamentary elections in Timor-Leste, the United Nations Electoral Support Team helped Timorese authorities to draft an amendment to the electoral law. That amendment instated proactive policies specifically aimed at temporary special measures for women, setting allocations for women in political parties’ slates and in Parliament. The United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste and UN-Women co-chair a women’s political participation action group, which coordinates the work of the Mission and the country team. In preparation for the 2011 elections, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) provided financial and technical support for a review of the Haitian Constitution and for a constitutional amendment to specify temporary special measures for women. However, while such measures won acceptance in principle, the amendment itself was stalled over alleged discrepancies between the published text and the text voted on in Parliament. No new women were elected to the Senate — whereas four took office in 2006 — and in the lower house only five women were elected out of 99 seats. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, no temporary special measures were adopted. According to preliminary results of the November elections, 47 of the 483 members of Parliament are women — 9.7 per cent. That represents a slight increase of 1.3 per cent over the 2006 elections. Despite that increase, however, the Congo still has the lowest female representation in the parliaments of the Great Lakes region. Clearly, instituting special measures to increase women’s representation in legislative bodies is up to national authorities alone. But such measures deserve consideration because of the real opportunities they offer for advancing women’s rights, in keeping with Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women general recommendation No. 25. Through outreach to women’s groups, United Nations actors on the ground can help provide space for women to increase their participation in political processes. Thanks to a generous contribution from the Government of Luxembourg, MINUSTAH organized 360 election-related workshops for 6,500 people, of which 70 per cent were women. The workshops sought to augment the number of women in leadership positions and to foster awareness of the importance of women’s participation in decision-making at all levels. Training for female candidates is also an important activity for some missions. The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) promoted awareness of gender perspectives in the elections of 2011. It provided training for female candidates and other women engaged in voter registration. The Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) also developed tools for United Nations personnel, non-governmental organizations and political party representatives responsible for facilitating the process — for example through checklists for monitoring gender mainstreaming. (spoke in English) Security is a major determining factor for women’s participation in elections. The case of Liberia highlights the need to help national police provide security for women to participate in elections. Even though no major security incidents were recorded during the parliamentary and presidential elections in Liberia, early reports of possible political violence resulted in intensified prevention efforts by national and United Nations actors. United Nations police supported the Liberian National Police in its planning to prevent violence during the electoral cycle. The number of female candidates, however, declined from nearly 15 per cent to 11 per cent, and the percentage of women elected to the House of Representatives decreased from 16.6 per cent in 2005 to 11 per cent. The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) trained more than 500 police officers on the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence for the 2011 elections. The United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) has developed sensitization campaigns in working with political parties, some of which have in fact pledged to enrol more women in their parties. Female representation in the National Assembly grew slightly from 8 per cent in 2001 to 10.5 per cent this year. More support should be provided to women’s legislative caucuses at both the regional and the State levels in countries where elections have recently been held, in order to ensure that newly elected women parliamentarians are empowered to enact gender- responsive laws. Our missions remain engaged in that process, and we welcome our partnership with UN-Women and other United Nations country team actors. I turn now to the broader issue of sexual violence and the protection of civilians. It is important to reiterate that national Governments are ultimately responsible for the protection of their civilian populations. Our peacekeeping missions cannot act as a surrogate for State authority. We must do our best to strengthen frail State institutions and to improve their ability to protect civilians, but we must also be prepared to protect civilians directly. Our missions have received guidelines on developing comprehensive strategies for civilian protection, which bring together all mission elements. We can contribute to the protection of civilians by helping in vetting and training national security personnel and by ensuring that women become an integral part of security institutions in high-ranking, decision-making functions. We can also do so by strengthening awareness of the link between stronger national security institutions and lower instances of sexual violence in areas where conflict still occurs. In Haiti, United Nations police have a Gender Adviser who helps implement protection measures in the camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and a sexual and gender-based violence team that also supports the Haitian National Police. Gender training in the curriculum for national police cadets and training on sexual and gender-based violence for police investigators have also been developed. We also help the Government of Haiti to provide shelter to victims of sexual and domestic violence. Safe houses for taking in victims of sexual and gender-based violence are available in three IDP camps and seven police stations in the West Department, where the largest number of rape allegations have been reported. The representation of women in the national police has grown from 8 per cent in 2010 to 12 per cent this year. That is also partly due to the example provided by our international police units, and I would like to highlight the fact that the Bangladeshi formed police unit has the highest percentage of female police officers in the mission. In Liberia, it is clear that recruiting women into the security sector remains high on UNMIL’s agenda. UNMIL works to enhance the capacity of the national security institutions to respond to the increasing number of reports of gender-based violence, including rape. The weakness of the legal and judicial institutions in Liberia has highlighted the need to develop a Liberian national police gender policy, as well as to establish a gender unit and a women’s protection section at the Liberian national police headquarters. Again, our mission provides a strong example to national institutions, and I wish to commend the Indian Government, which has deployed a female formed police unit to Liberia. Similar efforts are being made by UNOCI in Côte d’Ivoire, where the gender focal point in UNPOL has helped coordinate gender mainstreaming in all areas of national police activity. UNOCI also continues to develop and deliver training on the prevention of gender-based violence to the national police. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUSCO has conducted sensitization campaigns targeting local women with regard to their role in mitigating conflict- related sexual violence. I again wish to thank Bangladesh for having loaned a female formed police unit, which acts as a role model for the Congolese. Let me now provide the Council with a brief update on identifying women protection advisers in our missions. The strong and close working relationship that has been established between DPKO, the Department of Field Support, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is enabling progress to be made regarding women protection advisers. A small number of women protection focal points have been designated from existing resources in MONUSCO, UNOCI and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur. The United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict Multi-Donor Trust Fund will also fund a total of three dedicated women protection advisers between MONUSCO and UNOCI. And I am pleased to inform the Council that nine women protection adviser posts have been approved in the budget of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, and their recruitment is under way. DPKO remains committed to implementing the sexual violence mandate, of which the time-bound commitments are an important component. Those commitments are part of security sector reform and are a strong tool for preventing sexual violence in the first place and for ensuring accountability when it does occur. DPKO is also rolling out new protection-related training materials for troop-contributing countries. Our missions are ready to support host Governments in addressing those commitments. We are ready to work with national security sectors to ensure that appropriate procedures are followed when armed groups are integrated into national security forces. We are ready to work in close support of national military and civilian justice systems to ensure accountability for incidents of sexual violence. While I have highlighted many activities and new initiatives, I must say that in too many cases we remain dissatisfied with the protection offered to women in many places where we are deployed. Host countries must do more, and peacekeepers must also do more to redress the threats faced by women in our mission areas. In States where both the civilian and military justice systems remain weak, renewed efforts must be made to strengthen judicial and military institutions. That is definitely the long-term solution to the problem of providing protection for civilians. The aim is to support the growing number of military trials of security personnel found guilty of serious crimes, including rape and other gender-based violence. We welcome the support of Member States in ensuring that such efforts can be sustained and multiplied. Finally, in order to prevent violence it is essential to establish security institutions with clear modalities of operation and with elements that are regularly trained and that act in compliance with international law and standards. With regard to implementing more effective policing on the ground, the formed police units provided by the Governments of India and Bangladesh serve as an inspiration to Haitian and Liberian women and girls and are examples that could be followed by other police-contributing countries. I have touched on a few issues that I consider to be of mutual interest to our two partner agencies, DPKO and UN-Women. I believe that the synergy created by our coordinated and coherent actions and policies will support women’s roles in their societies and increase their security and freedom from sexual violence. The political participation and protection of women are cornerstones of our efforts in supporting the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). I have sought to outline a range of priorities, to provide the Council with some examples of how peacekeeping operations can assist national actors in taking advantage of the opportunities that can arise in a post- conflict environment.

There are no more items on our agenda. We have thus concluded our work for this morning, and I now invite members to consultations.