Remarks by Ambassador Dai Bing at Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security |
2021-10-21 11:23 |
Madam President, Foreign Minister Omamo, welcome and thank you for chairing the meeting today. I thank Secretary-General Guterres, Executive Director Bahous, Special Envoy Diop, and Ms. Velasco for their statements. As shown by the briefings of the Secretary-General and other speakers, protecting women in armed conflicts, promoting their political participation, and comprehensively advancing their rights and interests remain a formidable task. Against the backdrop of the raging pandemic and mounting turmoil, gains already achieved are at risk of reversal. The international community should step up efforts to coordinate actions and give more prominence to the agenda of women, peace and security. We should step up protection for women in armed conflicts. In Palestine, conflicts in Gaza in May killed 38 and injured 398 women. Palestinian women have long lived under the shadow of occupation. In Afghanistan, women have paid dearly for the 20-year long war. Recent hasty withdrawals of foreign forces have presented them with huge risks and challenges. In other conflict areas, trafficking women and children and sexual violence still occur from time to time. COVID pandemic has exacerbated challenges faced by women in conflicts. To strengthen protection for women in conflicts, the international community should fully consider their actual difficulties and needs, and timely provide humanitarian assistance. Strong, comprehensive measures are needed to combat violence against women and girls, including sexual violence in conflicts. Particular attention should be given to ending abuses and threats of women by terrorist and extremist forces. In Syria and Iraq, a large number of female family members of FTFs are still detained. Relevant countries should shoulder their responsibility and speed up screening and repatriation. Preventing and resolving conflicts offer the ultimate protection for women. The Security Council should work hard on eliminating root causes for conflicts, politically settling hotspot issues, and resolving disputes peacefully through dialogue, mediation and consultation, so that all women and children can enjoy and live in peace. Madam President, We should support a bigger role for women in peacekeeping and peacebuilding. UN political and peacekeeping missions should fully communicate and coordinate with countries concerned and, in view of local conditions, support the participation of local women and women's organization in peace processes, ensure women's representation and voices in peace talks and political arrangements. Women's participation in peacekeeping should get our continued support. In the planning and deployment of peacekeeping operations, there should continue to be equal opportunities for women's education, training and capacity building, and support for women's assumption of important leadership roles in peacekeeping operations. Of course, women's participation in peacekeeping is not for the sake of numerical indicators alone. More importantly, women's unique advantages in areas such as protection of vulnerable groups and community outreach should be leveraged to tangibly improve the overall performance of peacekeeping. China actively champions and supports women's participation in peacekeeping. Over the past three decades, we have sent more than 1,000 women to various UN peacekeeping operations. At UNIFIL, Chinese women peacekeepers are at the frontline of mine clearance. In the past year alone, their engineering contingent detected and destroyed over 2,200 mines, creating new safe zones for the Lebanese people. At UNMISS, a team of 10 Chinese women peacekeepers guards the security of the refugee camp, conducts long distance patrols, shares knowledge of women's rights and interests with local people, and even teaches foreign languages at elementary school in the camp. Madam President, We should more vigorously advance women's economic empowerment. Among various barriers in front of women in conflicts, the most fundamental one is the development gap. To elevate women politically, their economic empowerment is essential. The international community should actively help countries in conflict situations to rebuild, increase investment in women's education, and help them to change their destiny with knowledge. Women entrepreneurship should be encouraged and supported so that women can break free of poverty through their own efforts. Bodies such as UNDP and UN Women should prioritize supporting women's economic empowerment. Mandates for UN political and peacekeeping missions should include more support for women's development and economic empowerment. China has actively carried out international cooperation on women's issues to advance women's development globally. In recent years, in developing countries, we have implemented 100 maternal and child health projects and 100 Happy School projects. We have trained 130,000 women professionals in various fields for developing countries, and thus lending strong support to women's empowerment in those countries. In 2015, China and UNESCO set up a prize for girls' and women's education. So far, we have awarded the prize to 10 organizations from countries such as Zimbabwe, Kenya and Jamaica. It has encouraged more people to work for girls’ and women's education, and galvanized strong momentum for global gender equality in education. Madam President, Along with the international community, China stands ready to work to accelerate the realization of gender equality, and promote global women's development so as to jointly build a community of shared and better future for women, for everyone. Thank you. |