QNA/New York
Qatar has stressed the need to give humanitarian and legal protection for women and girls affected by armed conflicts.
HE Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani, Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, also called for giving priority to the application of international law strictly to protect women during armed conflicts.
At the same time she also expressed concern about the continuing and emerging patterns of violence against women and girls during and after armed conflicts.
Sheikha Alia was speaking at a Security Council session on “Displaced women and girls: leaders and survivors.”
She said the attention given to the issue of women, peace and security by the Security Council since the adoption of the Resolution 1325 (2000), helped shed light on the larger impact of conflict on women and girls, as well as the unique role of women in resolving conflicts, building consensus and creating opportunities for the consolidation of stability, democracy, prosperity and reconciliation in addition to post-conflict peace-building.
She believed that the high-level review of the implementation of resolution 1325, which will be held in 2015, would be an important opportunity to highlight the good practices and to address the existing challenges and concerns, especially that women and girls still form the vast majority of those affected by armed conflict, including refugees and internally displaced women.
HE Sheikha Alia noted that the majority of refugees consist of women and children as a result of conflicts and terrorism, adding this well increase all forms of discrimination, violence and human rights violations against them.
In this context, she said Qatar commends the joint mechanism between the United Nations Commission for Women and the Justice Rapid Response (JRR) initiative with regard to sexual and gender-based crimes, and its support for the international community to achieve justice and accountability for violent crimes in conflict situations.
She expressed regret that in different regions of the world, particularly in the Arab world, refugees and displaced people face major problems as a result of conflicts and terrorism, pointing out that reports show 51.2mn people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2013, an increase of 6mn people registered in 2012.
