As we have heard today, twenty-six years after the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325, there remains a profound gap between the commitments we make in this Council and the reality experienced by women and girls in conflict.
\n\nWe see it across our agenda.
\n\nIn Gaza, nearly 50,000 women and girls have been killed or severely injured since October 2023.
\n\nIn Ukraine, women and girls continue to face displacement, violence, and heightened protection risks as a result of Russia’s aggression.
\n\nAnd in Myanmar, the Secretary-General has documented widespread sexual violence alongside severely constrained access to life-saving support.
\n\nPresident, the problem is no longer that we do not know what works.
\n\nIt is that too often we fail to do it.
\n\nI want to highlight three areas where that needs to change.
\n\nFirst, participation must mean real influence.
\n\nWe welcome the contribution of today’s civil society briefer.
\n\nThe Council must listen to women, peacebuilders, and civil society.
\n\nBut listening is not enough. We must act on their analyses and protect those who engage with us from reprisals.
\n\nAnd participation cannot mean bringing women into the room after the important decisions have already been made.
\n\nIn Afghanistan, for example, women and girls have been systematically excluded from public life and decision-making.
\n\nTheir voices must be central to discussions about the country’s future.
\n\nPeace cannot be sustainable while half the population is shut out of shaping it.
\n\nThe United Kingdom is backing that principle with practical support.
\n\nThis March, the United Kingdom committed that by 2030, at least 90 per cent of our bilateral overseas development assistance will have a focus on equality for women and girls, either as a principle or a significant objective.
\n\nLast year, we provided approximately $4.6 million to women peacebuilders and women’s rights organisations across fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
\n\nThis financial year, we will sustain that commitment.
\n\nSecond, protection must be matched by accountability.
\n\nSurvivors of conflict-related sexual violence need comprehensive, survivor-centred support, but they also deserve justice.
\n\nYesterday, the United Kingdom announced over $6 million to support survivors of sexual and gender based violence in Sudan, alongside support for human rights defenders documenting atrocities for future prosecutions.
\n\nWe cannot condemn these crimes year after year while perpetrators believe they can act with impunity.
\n\nAccountability matters for survivors, but it also matters for prevention.
\n\nThird, we need to confront the ways in which women have been pushed out of public life.
\n\nIncreasingly, that happens online as well as off.
\n\nDigital threats and abuse are being used to intimidate and silence women, creating another barrier to their participation in political and public life.
\n\nThe United Kingdom has launched an international programme to tackle precisely this form of abuse.
\n\nTechnology needs to expand women’s ability to participate, not provide new tools to drive them from the debate.
\n\nPresident, women, peace and security is not an optional addition to the work of this council. It goes to the heart of whether the peace we help to build lasts.
\n\n26 years after resolution 1325, we do not need another restatement of the case for action.
\n\nWe have a responsibility now to close the gap between what this Council has promised and what women experiencing conflict actually see.
\n\nThat means real influence.
\n\nThat means funding.
\n\nThat means protection backed by accountability, and ensuring that women can participate safely as the threats against them evolve.v
\nThe Deputy Permanent Representative is a senior diplomat with the rank of Ambassador, acting as alternate to the Permanent Representative across the full range of UN business. This includes representing the UK in the Security Council and Economic and Social Council, and working on issues such as security and conflict, human rights, sustainable development and climate change. The DPR is also responsible for the daily management of the Mission.
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