News

STATEMENT BY THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA

United Nations Security Council Open Debate

on Women, Peace and Security

“Women’s Participation and Role in Conflict Prevention and Mediation”

28 October 2011, New York

Mr. President,

Let me begin by welcoming the Nigerian Presidency and expressing my delegation’s appreciation for convening an open debate on Women, Peace and Security.

As a member of the European Union, Lithuania fully subscribes to and actively supports the EU policies in the domain of peace and security and we align ourselves with the statement delivered by the European Union.

Lithuania is strongly convinced that national, regional and international activities related to peace and security should take into account gender aspects, in particular by promoting participation of women as beneficiaries, practitioners and decision makers. The Security Council resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions on Women, Peace and Security provide us with a relevant framework in this regard. We support the aims and principles as well as prompt and full implementation of these resolutions. Resolution 1325 is particularly relevant for the implementation of Lithuania’s foreign, security, and development cooperation policy objectives, our participation in international peace-building and peace-keeping missions, and for its implementation support during Lithuania’s OSCE chairmanship.

Let me thank the UN Secretary-General for the report on women and peace and security which provides with the useful insight on the status of implementation of resolution 1325 and recommendations for further improvements. 38 Member States contributed in preparing this report, Lithuania being one of them.

Among four action areas presented in more detail in the Secretary-General’s report, Lithuania attaches particular importance to prevention of conflict in general, and all forms of violence against women and girls. Integrating women and peace and security issues in preventive diplomacy, human rights and security monitoring, establishing early warning systems to generate information about the specific threats, elimination of impunity, better representation of women in decision making arenas, including donor conferences - among other actions - could certainly contribute a great deal to this purpose.

Lithuania strongly supports resolution 65/283 on strengthening the role of mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes which inter alia advocates the enhanced role of women in peace mediation. Indeed, it is essential that women are involved in peace talks, conflict resolution, elections and decision-making on post-conflict reconstruction. We welcome the Department of Political Affairs-UN-Women joint strategy on gender and mediation and look forward to its further implementation.

Mr. President,

The Lithuanian National Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of 2010 - 2014 for the first time raised the gender issue in the national defense system and included measures to train gender experts who could train the Lithuanian personnel prior to their engagement in missions and operations.  In 2011, as it was announced by our President Ms. Dalia Grybauskaite during the UN General Assembly general debate in September, Lithuania drew up its first national action plan for the implementation of resolution 1325. National action plan helps to streamline and better structure activities at national, regional and international levels, and to involve more institutions and NGOs.  In our case, it also facilitates informing our society about the aims of the resolution, promotion and protection of rights of women, encourages them to participate in international military and civil operations and missions, and by doing so to increasingly address the problems of local women. Speaking of national action plans, we have noted with interest the practices of some countries referred to in the UN Secretary-General’s report to provide for shadow reports of civil society organizations to be produced as part of monitoring mechanisms.

After adoption of the national action plan, Lithuania intends to apply for a membership in the Group of Friends of resolution 1325.

Lithuania has been increasingly active in various fora dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment. On June 30, 2011 women leaders from all parts of the world met in Vilnius at the conference Women Enhancing Democracy: Best Practices under the Lithuanian Chairmanship of the Community of Democracies to share their experiences in enhancing role of women nationally, regionally and internationally. Under the auspices of this conference the Working Group on Gender Equality of the Community of Democracies among other focus areas discussed women, peace and security. The conference showed that in general involvement of women is still low.

Therefore, Mr. President, changes in the situation of women, in particular in countries with identified patterns of conflict-related sexual violence, must start from the very basic issues enabling women to live a more decent life.