Canada’s National Remarks at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security

October 25, 2023

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Perhaps like many others around this table today, when we started preparing our national statement, we looked at the one we made last year. And the year before, and the year before.

We were struck by how almost all of the text would be equally relevant today. I fear how far we could go back in years and continue to find useable material: References to growing threats against women peacebuilders, calls for much more consistent implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and more. Even specific calls to recognize and resource the leadership of Afghan, Haitian, Israeli, Palestinian, South Sudanese, Sudanese, and other women working for peace – including Indigenous women in Canada and around the world.

Yet while many of the words we’re using could be the same, this moment feels different. It feels especially raw and fearsome – as though so much work done by so many to centre humanity, strengthen institutions, and ultimately to build peace, is being lost more and more each day.

More than ever, the Women, Peace and Security agenda can be pivotal. If we fully implement today’s calls to action, it can be transformative.

This means heeding women peacebuilders’ continuous calls for their full, equal, and meaningful participation in all aspects of peace and security, and from the outset of every crisis and conflict.

It means building new partnerships and alliances across traditional divides, silos, and geopolitical blocks based on outdated power dynamics, and recognizing that the value that can best define how “likeminded” we are should be the desire for all people to live in peace, and with dignity and agency.

It means recognizing the financing gap facing women peacebuilders and their organizations — and working to close this gap, including by securing adequate, predictable, and sustained financing for peacebuilding.

For Canada and many others, it also means continuing to reflect with humility on our actions abroad, as well as at home. In Canada, vibrant civil society and Indigenous women leaders work with others around the world to keep the Women, Peace, and Security a living, evolving agenda – and to hold us accountable for our commitments.

Since 2020, Canada has committed over $23 million to support women peacebuilders working at the forefront of crisis response, and to facilitate their participation in peace processes. Earlier this year, we also renewed support to women’s rights organizations across the globe, including in fragile and conflict-affected settings, through our landmark Women’s Voice and Leadership program, committing $195M over 5 years and $43.3 million annually thereafter.

We know that more is needed. Indeed, much more is needed to realize the promise of this agenda, and to leave us all in search of brand-new text for this debate next year.

Thank you.