Mister / Madam President, Distinguished Participants,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

Unfortunately, violent conflicts, geopolitical shifts and cascading crises have marked the current decade. We have been challenged by a global pandemic, food crises and climate change. Technological developments has accelerated at an unprecedented rate and brought forward new forms of threats and other challenges. These have affected our security environment and put to test our rules-based multilateral order.

This also provides a challenge to our ability to stay true to international agreements on gender equality. Yet, these obligations continue to apply, and we cannot deprioritise them. We continue to have the obligation to ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights for all women and girls in all contexts, including in the current conflicts. Women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership continues to be central in all areas, including in ‘hard security’ and defence.

Maintaining international peace and security depends on our ability to draw maximum benefits from the synergies between existing frameworks. This includes obligations emerging from the CEDAW Convention and the Women, Peace and Security commitments. As highlighted by CEDAW General Recommendation 30, we should do more to reinforce and support women’s role in formal and informal conflict prevention, preventive diplomacy and to include gender-specific indicators in early warning systems. Enhancing accountability and increasing women’s meaningful and effective participation in peace and political processes are areas where we can do more.

The CEDAW Convention provides us with a tool to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. It requires States Parties to take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the advancement of women for the purpose of guaranteeing the full exercise and enjoyment of all women’s human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men. The Convention is thus an international legal framework that not only allows for a harmonization of national laws, but also facilitates inter-State cooperation and brings clarity on States’ obligations and positive actions to ensure the equal rights of men and women to enjoy all economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights.

Madam Chair,

The EU will continue to prioritise gender equality, also as a solution to the increasingly complex global security challenges. We aim to improve implementation by enhancing gender mainstreaming across our foreign and security policies.

Europe has always been about standing stronger together. This includes the geographically diverse coalition of states and civil society globally who remain committed to both the CEDAW and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda; and who understand that these are not interchangeable frameworks, but mandates that complement and strengthen one another.