Statement by H.E. Mr. Tsuneo Nishida
Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations
Open Debate on Women and Peace and Security
Security Council
28 October 2011

Thank you, Madam President,

I thank the Secretary-General, the Executive Director of UN Women and the President of ECOSOC for their insightful briefings. We thank and welcome the statement made by the representative from civil society, as well.

Japan welcomes the Secretary-General’s report which demonstrates his clear commitment on this issue. We are encouraged that UN Women, under the strong leadership of Ms. Bachelet, has been resolutely promoting the agenda of women and peace and security as one of UN Women’s priorities.

Japan applauds the recent decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Ms. Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Ms. Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, who are champions for women’s participation in peacebuilding processes. It is groundbreaking that the announcement of the decision clearly mentions resolution 1325.

Madam President,

As a member of the group of Friends of Mediation, Japan has consistently advocated the importance of mediation and conflict prevention. We welcome that the General Assembly’s very first resolution on mediation, which was adopted this June, underlined the importance of the participation of women and the provision of gender expertise in mediation.

In order to prevent the recurrence of conflict and sustain longstanding peace, the needs of women and girls must be fully addressed in post-conflict peacebuilding. To this end, it is essential that women’s full and effective participation be ensured from the very beginning of conflict prevention and the mediation process. Japan expects UN Women, in cooperation with other partners, including the Department of Political Affairs, to coordinate and strengthen the efforts of the UN system in this area and provide guidance to regional organizations and member states in their efforts in mediation.

The important role of regional organizations, such as the AU, ECOWAS and IGAD, in conflict prevention has been widely recognized. In this regard, as shown by the Organization of American States’ (OAS) ministerial meeting for the advancement of women to be held next week in El Salvador, it is encouraging that regional organizations take steps towards the consistent inclusion of women and women’s rights in their conflict prevention efforts.

The promotion of women’s participation in peacekeeping and peacebuilding is key to the protection and empowerment of women. The strengthening of gender expertise and perspectives in PKOs activities and the increase of the number of female peacekeepers remain a challenge. In this regard, Japan deployed a female military liaison officer to the United Nations Integrated Mission on Timor-Leste (UNMIT) this year. We provide also gender training to Japanese personnel before they are deployed to PKOs. This year, through UNDP, Japan is supporting a project to promote the employment of female police officers and their training in Afghanistan, which so far has resulted in the employment of more than one thousand and two hundred of Afghan women in local police forces.

Madam President,

Implementation gaps of resolution 1325 remain large in all areas of prevention, participation, protection and recovery and relief. The indicators and strategic framework in the Secretary-Genaral’s reports contribute to identifying the gaps and addressing these limitations in a more systematic manner. Japan, for its part, will continue to make its utmost efforts to fill the implementation gaps before the 15th anniversary of resolution 1325, in corporation with our partners, and in particular with women’s organizations and civil society.

I thank you, Madam President.