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Excellency, ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and take part in this important seminar. Over the past years NATO has significantly enhanced its engagement in promoting the Women, Peace and Security agenda. And in particular in operations we are starting to gain some real experiences from the utility of:
- enhanced gender-related training for our troops
- having gender advisers in the field
- and women in our forces as well as
- training local forces and
- engaging with civil society.
Today we have a great opportunity to learn from our experiences and discuss how to improve our planning and execution of operations – it is like a pre Christmas gift and special thanks to our Swedish hosts who have made it possible for us to meet. I feel like home.
Our focus here today and tomorrow is operational effectiveness. The political agenda of Women, Peace and Security is of course much broader than that, and at the outset of our seminar allow me to briefly refer to how I see the broader framework for our work.
The basic foundation lies in the Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security from the United Nations Security Council - starting with UNSCR 1325 passed in 2000 and followed by four subsequent resolutions. I am sure that you all know the basic content of this policy body well. There are two main points I would like to underscore:
1) Conflict affects men and women in different ways and
2) We need to include women in decision-making and security institutions.
While it is important to understand women’s needs and situation during conflicts, ensure their security and in particular be able to prevent sexual violence, it is very important to understand that women are not only victims; they – we - can be key contributors to the resolution of conflicts and establishment of enduring security. If our intellect, abilities, competences and experiences are not included in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, we miss out opportunities to resolve the problems. We cannot afford not to include women. This is not simply a question of what benefits women, but of what benefits the whole society - men and women, boys and girls.
When we are discussing women, peace and security it is also important to keep in mind that the main responsibility to implement UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions rests with the national states. It is the Governments that are responsible for ensuring that the whole of their population is protected and included - not only the half. It is the Governments that need to ensure that women are included in decision making and security institutions.
While states have the primary responsibility ensuring implementation the International Community has a responsibility developing norms and policies, provide assistance when necessary and keeping states accountable. Within the International community, the UN has the lead. NATO has an important role to play – particular in operations, but also at the political level.
NATO is showing political leadership. It is a priority for the Alliance both to enhance the delivery of results.
It is more than twelve years since UNSCR 1325 was adopted – it was an important decision by the United Nations Security Council as it places the issue of women’s situation and rights at the agenda of International Peace and Security. But the issues still remain much in the margins of international affairs.
I do see a number of concrete ways we can enhance this agenda across the board in NATO and I remain optimistic regarding the possibilities to move forward simply because this issue is a real political priority for the Secretary General, for Allies and for partners.
But I do see some strategic, longer term challenges that are relevant also for our work in operations:
- The greatest challenge of all is to change mindsets. If you change the way people think, you will also change the way they act and perform their job. History will be made when mindsets are changing.
- We need to institutionalize our work on the Women, Peace and Security agenda. NATO has a policy and an action plan and is showing political leadership. But we need to deepen this commitment and ensure a systematic approach to developing targets, monitoring implementation, measuring results and reporting back to decision-makers – in operations as well as within cooperative security.
- We need to enhance nations delivery to the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The competences and capabilities needed in operations depend on nations’ delivery. We should facilitate better exchange of information and best practices between nations in particular in areas such as recruitment and retention of women in the forces and training.
- We need to strengthen our cooperation with other actors – and in particular the United Nations. NATO is making a significant contribution to the women, peace and security agenda, but in many societies respect for women’s rights and inclusion of women requires societal developments and a broad set of reforms. We can only ensure effective implementation of the Security Council resolutions working together.
I am looking forward to our discussions, which I expect will be a lesson learned exercise on both the relevance of and how to promote the agenda on women, peace and security when doing crisis management. I expect it to be a lessons-learned exercise that will inform our future planning and thinking.
To use the words of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant: Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play. So let’s combine the two and explore how we can improve our ways of doing business.