WORLD NEWS | Terrorist violence against women and girls remains rampant: UN Security Council’s India

United Nations, March 8 (PTI) India has told the UN Security Council that terrorist violence against women and girls remains rampant and should be strongly condemned, while calling for zero tolerance for all forms of terrorism.

Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, said on Tuesday that Member States must provide an enabling environment for women’s participation and inclusion in political processes and decision-making.

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“Terrorism and violent extremism remain the greatest human rights violators and ongoing threats to global peace and security. It goes without saying that women and girls always suffer disproportionately,” she said.

Speaking at a UN Security Council open debate on “Women, Peace and Security: 25 Years of Resolution 1325,” Kamboy said terrorist violence against women and girls remains rampant.

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“This should be condemned in the strongest terms and calls for zero tolerance for all forms of terrorism,” she said.

The Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 in October 2000 on women and peace and security.

The resolution reaffirms the important role of women in conflict prevention and resolution, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and post-conflict reconstruction, and stresses the importance of women’s equal participation and full participation in all efforts to preserve and preserve. promote peace and security.

“The principles of democracy, pluralism and the rule of law are essential prerequisites for creating such an enabling environment,” Kamboj said of the debates held during Mozambique’s presidency of the council in March.

Turning to the situation in Afghanistan, Kamboy said that India has been emphasizing the importance of inclusive and representative governance in Afghanistan, and that women should be empowered in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2593 adopted during India’s presidency of the Security Council in August 2021. meaningful participation.

She said that the United Nations and regional organizations must, upon request, assist national authorities in developing their capacity to strengthen their national legal frameworks and related institutional structures to ensure accountability and end impunity for perpetrators of violence against women.

“Support should also be provided to Member States to build capacity in post-conflict situations to effectively and institutionally address the inequalities and violence faced by women and to ensure their full participation in decision-making. Focusing on women in peacebuilding is critical important,” she added.

Emphasizing the integral role of female police officers and peacekeepers in advancing the women, peace and security agenda in post-conflict situations, Kamboj said India welcomes efforts to develop a gender parity strategy for military uniforms, leading to increased deployment of female peacekeepers.

In January 2023, India, one of the largest troop contributors to United Nations peacekeeping operations, deployed a platoon of female peacekeepers to Abyei as part of the Indian Battalion of the United Nations Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA). In part, it is India’s largest deployment of female peacekeepers.

In 2007, India became the first country to deploy an all-female formed police unit in Liberia. Kamboj said the moves reflected New Delhi’s intention to significantly increase the number of women in peacekeeping contingents.

India also supports increased deployment of women’s protection advisers to effectively monitor, analyze and report on conflict-related sexual violence, she said.

Noting that over the years, even as the normative framework for the women’s peace and security agenda has strengthened, Kamboj lamented that women remain underrepresented, or even excluded, in formal peace processes, political dialogue and peacebuilding.

She said that gender perspectives were still neglected in conflict prevention, recovery and reconstruction.

While supporting political participation, “we must also focus on women’s socioeconomic empowerment in an equally holistic way, including their access to credit, finance and technology,” Kamboj said.

She emphasized that digital technologies have great potential to empower women by providing greater access to education, finance, credit, social services, markets and employment.

Kamboj called UN Security Council Resolution 1325 “groundbreaking” for bringing a gender perspective to the maintenance of international peace and security.

“It recognizes for the first time that women are disproportionately affected by violence and that their participation in peace processes is integral to building lasting peace and security,” she said.

She further said that the cultural ethos of India taught its people to regard the earth as mother.

“As a nation rooted in the strong civic identity of women’s empowerment and equal participation in social and economic life, we firmly believe that the advancement of women is the foundation of national empowerment,” she added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)