Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-02-02-Speech-4-062-000"
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"en.20120202.7.4-062-000"2
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"Mr President, I do not believe that I will manage to cover every issue dealt with in the report in the next four minutes. However, I would like to highlight several matters which I regard as being vital.
This report is apt because, unfortunately, the use of rape as a weapon of war was invented by primitive societies, and here we also have it now as a weapon of war in modern, so-called ‘civilised’ societies. It is a topical issue with a significant impact, particularly in social terms, which can modify the pattern of behaviour and the way in which nations respond. Let us merely take the conflict in Congo as an example, where around 16 rapes a day have been recorded, proving that this problem has been far from tackled and eradicated.
In the view of this report, there can be no peace without security and they can only be thought of as going hand in hand with each other. However, they can only be thought of in terms of equal opportunities and of a gender-based approach, jointly created by women and men as part of a partnership, which also concerns conflict prevention and the way in which conflict is conducted and, most of all, the activities involved in peacekeeping and resolving post-conflict situations. The European Union has endeavoured to take vital steps to prevent and tackle this problem. Unfortunately, national plans, as requested, are only available in 10 Member States, with five Member States in the process of devising these plans, proving that we have not made any progress yet and are behind in relation to the objectives we set ourselves. I believe that setting up the European External Action Service gives the European Union the chance to become much more involved in resolving this kind of problem. The report calls for the delegations which are negotiating peace and are involved in conflict to be selected using a gender-sensitive approach and for women to be included in these delegations because their perspective may be helpful in achieving much more quickly and more efficiently what is called peace and social calm.
Another key point in the report concerns impunity. As I said, you cannot have justice without peace. However, unfortunately, the reality is that we have the problem of impunity. Although we can have recourse to the International Criminal Court, I believe that we need to find much more effective legal instruments. In a post-conflict situation, investigations need to be carried out and the perpetrators of these reprehensible criminal acts need to be brought to account because, in any other circumstance, we will end up seriously victimising the people who have suffered such acts and, if you like, society itself. I believe that this partnership between the European Union and the UN must be established not only through implementing Resolution 1960, but through other measures as well. I believe that the European Union has a duty to be a strong partner of the UN in tackling this problem. This is why we are calling for the post of Special EU Representative on Women, Peace and Security to be created within the EEAS. This is not an idle request. On the contrary, it is aimed at showing the European Union’s firm commitment to tackling this problem.
However, we believe that a series of rules also need to be applied to those involved in the process of war and peace. We believe that Member States’ military structures must take into account a gender dimension, not only in terms of numbers, but particularly in terms of quality, because there are, fortunately, women in the European Union who are capable of coping with the highest positions in the military and in civilian life. To achieve this, Member States must consider the gender dimension in their military structures, which is a new issue.
Thank you for your attention. As I said, I did not manage to cover all the topics, but please allow me to make one last point: I must thank all the shadow rapporteurs and all the political groups because we all worked together on this report."@en1
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