Statement by Ambassador Marc-André Blanchard, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations to the Security Council on Women, Peace and Security

Statement by the Group of Friends of Women, Peace, and Security

New York, 25 October 2018

Madam/Mister President,

I am pleased to speak on behalf of the Group of Friends of Women, Peace, and Security, an informal network of 54 interested Member States chaired by Canada, representing all five regional groups of the United Nations.

The Group warmly congratulates Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end the use sexual violence as a tactic of war and armed conflict. Let this be an inspiration to the UN and all Member States to redouble efforts to end sexual and gender-based violence in armed conflict, by ending impunity, strengthening compliance with international humanitarian law, bringing perpetrators to justice, reinforcing preventive measures including through Security Council sanctions, and providing comprehensive assistance to survivors. Finally, we must ensure the stigma of sexual violence falls upon the perpetrators of such acts and not the survivors.

The Group applauds the focus on women’s political and economic empowerment in this year’s open debate. Indeed, the linkage between women’s empowerment and peace and security is at the core of the WPS agenda. When societies achieve higher levels of gender equality they are less susceptible to armed conflict. When women are included in peace processes, peace agreements are more likely to be reached and more likely to last. Women play an indispensable role in peacekeeping and their full and meaningful participation at all levels is key to the operational effectiveness of missions. Women’s economic empowerment is also an integral and often over-looked conflict prevention and recovery strategy. Finally, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls are central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and to sustaining peace. Gender inequality remains a persistent challenge to women’s political and economic empowerment. In sum: efforts to achieve gender equality are not a distraction from peace and security efforts; they are a foundation of peace.

In light of such facts, the persistent absence of women’s meaningful participation in peace and security efforts should remain a heightened concern for this Council. As was thoroughly documented in the Secretary General’s report, despite women playing instrumental roles in efforts to prevent and resolve conflict, they remain continuously under and un-represented in efforts to negotiate peaceful political resolutions and peace agreements. In the last quarter century, women constituted only two per cent of mediators, eight per cent of negotiators, and five per cent of witnesses and signatories in all major peace processes. The consequences of women’s absence are compounded over time, as gender blind peace agreements may exacerbate gender inequalities in post-conflict societies.

Women’s meaningful economic and political participation necessitates the early involvement of women in key decision-making roles at all levels; addressing the full scope of women’s and girls’ human rights and gender equality; and including gender expertise and analysis in all stages of the conflict cycle. As the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security emphasized, we must also invest in young women’s capacities, agency, and leadership, and address the structural barriers limiting youth participation – and particularly the participation of young women - in peace efforts. We must work together to recognize and actively address obstacles to meaningful women’s participation, whether they are cultural, structural, or institutional in nature. We must also strengthen the capacity of women to participate in peace and security efforts, including through political, logistical, and financial support. Finally, we must confront the systems of violence and intimidation that prevent women of all ages from attaining full equality in their societies.

The Group welcomes recent efforts undertaken by the Secretary-General to enhance women’s participation in the UN. This includes implementation of a system-wide gender parity strategy, and notably the realization of gender parity in the Senior Management Group and among resident coordinators. The Group also welcomes the continued exchange of best practices through the Women, Peace, and Security Focal Points Network as well as the creation of women mediator networks to enhance women’s influence in peace processes.

While the Security Council itself has yet to achieve gender balance, the Group welcomes efforts undertaken by members of the Security Council to more systematically include women in its work. These include the establishment of the Informal Experts Group, encouraging all briefers to mainstream gender analysis into their interventions, integrating and strengthening WPS provisions into resolutions, presidential statements, and press statements, meeting with women’s groups during Council field visits, and increasing the number of women civil society briefers outside the debate on women, peace, and security. We encourage Council members to continue to build upon such best practices. At the same time, more needs to be done to fully implement the existing resolutions and looking at ways to reinforce the follow-up and monitoring of progress made.

Finally, as we approach the 20th anniversary of Resolution 1325 in 2020, the Group calls on all stakeholders to expand efforts to realize all four pillars of the women, peace, and security agenda, including prevention, participation, protection, and post-conflict recovery. While much has been achieved since the adoption of Resolution 1325, we are far from realizing the transformational potential of women’s equality and meaningful economic and political participation for peace and development.

Canada National Statement

Madam/Mister President,

I would like to make a few additional remarks in a national capacity.

Resolution 1325 was adopted when Canada was last on the UN Security Council. Since then, important progress has been made in implementing the WPS agenda, including through the adoption and renewal of an increasing number of National Action Plans. However, too many gaps remain. It is up to the Security Council and individual UN member states to take concrete actions.

There is no quick fix. It will not be enough to add a woman mediator here, or a gender advisor there. Structural political, economic and social gender discrimination exists in all of our countries. Conflict only exacerbates these inequalities. Long-term measures and sustained investments in our time and resources are required to achieve transformative results.

Canada is taking such measures. We are examining how our National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security can better address the violence and discrimination faced by Indigenous women and girls in Canada. Internationally, Canada’s feminist foreign policy demands that our approach in diplomacy, trade, security and development fully take into account the needs of women and girls in all of their diversity. We are doing so because we know the impact is greater, the results are more sustained, and the benefits more widespread. It is a conscious decision to be more effective.

We also recognize that being more effective means working together with others in the pursuit of peace. Following the launch of our second National Action Plan last year, we increased our efforts to advance the WPS agenda in all forums – including in those where, traditionally, women, peace and security has not been at the forefront. Throughout our G7 presidency, Canada has promoted gender equality. We launched the G7 WPS Partnerships Initiative, which aims to increase WPS implementation in partnership countries, and are so pleased to be partnering with Cote d’Ivoire on this important Initiative.

A long-standing promoter and defender of the multilateral system, Canada stands ready to improve it. Recognizing that progress to date has been too slow, Canada launched the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations to increase the meaningful participation of uniformed women in UN peace operations. To this end, Canada is establishing partnerships with the Armed Forces of Ghana and the Police Service of Zambia. 

Canada believes that we have a lot to learn from others and from each other. Just last month, together with the EU, Canada hosted a meeting of women foreign ministers in Montreal for a discussion on current challenges to global peace and security. At this meeting, Canada’s foreign minister announced that our government will be appointing a WPS ambassador to strengthen the implementation of our Action Plan. The Minister also announced that Canada will be co-hosting the WPS Focal Points Network with Uruguay in 2020 – the 20^th anniversary of resolution 1325.

We salute women around the world who bravely share their personal experiences in conflict and take action at the local, regional and international level. They remind us that the WPS agenda is not just a normative issue to be discussed in New York – it has real world impacts globally. I would like to recognise the important work carried out by Nobel laureate Nadia Murad in raising awareness about sexual violence in conflict. When she visited Canada in October 2016, she challenged Canadian legislators, government officials and civil society to do more to advance WPS. It is one of the reasons her photo is on the cover of our National Action Plan on WPS.

To do their important work, local women peacebuilders need resources. Last year, Canada doubled its support to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund. We encourage others to support this fund to increase women’s meaningful participation in peace and security efforts.

Madam/Mister President,

Canada supports efforts in this Council to mainstream the WPS agenda is all of its work. If elected to the Security Council for 2021, you can be assured that Canada will continue to champion the WPS agenda. We will seek opportunities to create and support gender transformative solutions to conflict. We will defend women’s voices and human rights. We will challenge narratives that undermine women’s ability to contribute, lead and shape solutions.  And we will continue to work together with civil society, Member States, and the UN to help re-invigorate the implementation of this important agenda.

Thank you.