Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
russiaun.ru

Let me begin by thanking Spain for organizing this open debate. We are grateful to the Secretary-General, the Executive Director of UN-Women and all the other speakers for their substantive contributions to today’s discussion.This month marks the fifteenth anniversary of resolution 1325 (2000), which enshrined the topic of women and peace and security on the Council’s agenda. The importance of its implementation and the commitment of States to achieving its objectives were recently underlined once again at the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, which was recently organized at United Nations headquarters by the People’s Republic of China and UN-Women. We congratulate the organizers on its successful holding, which once again underscored the importance of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which remain key guidelines in the context of expanding the rights of and opportunities open to women over the past 20 years.In the Beijing Declaration, States reaffirmed their determination to take the steps necessary to achieve peace so as to promote the advancement of women and recognized the leading role that women have played in the promotion of peace.We voted in favour of resolution 2242 (2015), which was prepared by Spain and the United Kingdom and was designed to take stock of the 15 years of implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) and to set out the main guidelines for further efforts by Member States and the United Nations system as a whole in the important task of ensuring the participation of women in conflict prevention and resolution. There is no doubt that, given the particular importance of the resolution and its comprehensive character, which encompasses various areas of activity of the United Nations and the international community as a whole, the preparation of this document was a very difficult and ambitious task.Unfortunately, the late issuance of the global review of the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) and the lack of time to carefully study and consider all the aspects of the recommendations made had an impact on negotiations on the draft. As a result, we believe that, in a number of cases, it was impossible to come up with tried-and-tested language that fully corresponds to the various mandates and remits of the various entities, including those of the Security Council involved in counterterrorism activities.In the course of negotiations, our position was that it was important to avoid any distortions and to maintain the existing divisions of labour, as doing otherwise could have an adverse effect on the work of all those bodies.We do not believe that it is justified, in the format of the discussion of the resolution adopted today, to prejudge the outcome of other review processes under way in the Security Council on issues of peacebuilding and peacekeeping operations. We do not agree with the view that there is a need to set up an informal expert group on issues relating to women and peace and security. We believe that the creation of new bodies is no guarantee of the effectiveness of the work of the Council. Overall we feel that it is a dubious approach that is aimed at establishing more and more auxiliary bodies covering various items on the agenda. It is also inappropriate to refer this issue to such a structure within the Security Council, owing to its informal character. Given the increase in the number of armed conflicts, we believe that it is important for the Security Council to focus specifically on issues relating to the maintenance of international peace and security. We believe also that specific violations of human rights, including those of women, should be considered in specialized international bodies. Despite the aforementioned shortcomings, we hope that the adoption of resolution 2242 (2015) will contribute to the effective implementation of the multifaceted tasks facing the international community in the framework of the women and peace and security agenda. Given the importance and relevance of this issue, we deemed it necessary to vote in favour of the draft.The report of the Secretary-General outlining the results of the global review of the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) clearly indicates that over the past 15 years, progress has been achieved in promoting the participation of women in the prevention and resolution of armed conflicts and in post-conflict reconstruction. We would like to individually thank all of those who participated in the preparation of these documents.We find it encouraging that in 2014, women were part of every mediation effort by the United Nations, as well as the majority of national delegations, in nine of the 12 peace processes involving the United Nations. The number of peace agreements containing specialized provisions pertaining to women has increased significantly. The number of women in parliaments and Governments in countries emerging from armed conflict has also increased, and work in this area should continue.In this context, we support a number of the conclusions reached by the Secretary-General, for example, the fact that there is still insufficient participation of women in conflict-resolution and post-conflict-reconstruction processes, despite the existence of an official normative framework. We agree that there is a need to prevent conflicts at an early stage. At the same time, we believe that conflict prevention must be based on international law, including the Charter of the United Nations.The recommendation of the global review on taking a localized approach to the issue of women and peace and security is very useful. This takes into account the specific features of each individual conflict. We agree that cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approaches based on so-called best practices that are applicable to all countries and situations are not effective.We continue to call on the Security Council, in considering the issue of women and peace and security, to work on the basis of the existing divisions of labour within the United Nations system, without duplicating the role of such bodies as the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council and the Commission on the Status of Women, all of which have their respective mandates. Consideration of issues related to the topic of women and peace and security cannot substitute for the whole broad range of commitments related to gender equality and the empowerment of women that have been undertaken by each State.Our position continues to be that national plans of action on the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) cannot be used as an instrument to assess national policies aimed at enhancing the status of women. Such plans should be drawn up on a voluntary basis by those States that are in the grip of armed conflict or at the post-conflict reconstruction phase. As noted by the Secretary-General, the drawing up of such plans is not an end in itself; the outcome is what is important.The Russian Federation, for example, does not have such a plan. However, we have put in place all of the conditions necessary to fully realize the potential of women. This has made it possible to attract many bright, highly qualified women to politics. Russian women are also active participants in the social and political spheres. For example, they make up more than 70 per cent of civil servants. Women currently occupy the positions of Chairperson of the Federation Council, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation and Minister for Health Care, and also serve as high-ranking officials of local executive bodies in a number of regions.Women are actively involved in the work of civil society in Russia. To date, one third of all non-profit organizations, and we have tens of thousands of them, are women’s organizations, which do a great deal of social and charity work aimed at supporting women, children and families; prevent domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual violence; and other activities important to the community.Today women face new and increasingly serious threats. In areas controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Jabhat Al-Nusra, Boko Haram and other terrorist organizations, women are increasingly becoming the victims of targeted violence, forced marriage, sexual slavery and human trafficking. Violence against women is used as a means of intimidating the local population and disrupting established social connections.There is no doubt that the international community must put an end to this appalling situation. The combat against terrorism and the coordination of efforts in this area should remain a priority in the work of the Security Council and other specialized agencies of the United Nations system. Consideration of cross-cutting issues, including gender equality and the advancement of women, should be carried out based on the appropriate mandates, so as not to decrease but enhance the effectiveness of the work of those bodies. Only through joint efforts and appropriate coordination of the efforts of all stakeholders, first and foremost all Member States, based on strict compliance with international law, can we achieve the desired results.