New York (VNA) – Vietnam and other United Nationsmember nations discussed women’s active role in peacekeeping during an opendebate of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in New York on April 11.

Addressing the event, Deputy Foreign Minister LeHoai Trung, head of the Vietnamese delegation, said women play an active rolein UN peacekeeping, especially in addressing gender-related issues, protectingand promoting women and girls’ rights, creating momentum for women and girls inthe areas they are working in to participate in peacekeeping and positivelyimpacting the settlement of sexual abuse and violence in UN peacekeepingoperations.

He said to improve women’s participation, the UNshould promote the implementation of the UNSC’s Resolution 2242. He asked UNSecretary-General Antonio Guterres to look into barriers to women’s engagementin peacekeeping and propose solutions on the basis of the Gender ParityStrategy.

Trung called on developed countries to boosttheir support for the Elsie Initiative for Women in PeaceOperations to increase women’s presence in security and defence forces.

The diplomat also emphasised that UNpeacekeeping operations need to ensure basic principles of non-intervention,neutrality and relevant parties’ consensus.

Since 2014, Vietnam has sent army officers to UNpeacekeeping missions in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Thefirst Vietnamese female officer arrived in South Sudan in 2017.

Vietnam currently has 10 female army officers atits level-two field hospital in South Sudan and will continue promoting women’sparticipation in UN peacekeeping forces, Trung said.

In his speech, Secretary-General Guterresreaffirmed the UN’s efforts to enhance women’s representation in peacekeepingby rolling out the Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy 2018-2028. 

He said the UN is stepping up the implementationof Resolution 2242 on women, peace and security, adopted in 2015. He alsoapplauded the promotion of the Elsie Initiative that aims to raise women’sparticipation.

Guterres called for assistance from memberstates in sending more female officers and focusing more on women in battalionsand police units at peacekeeping missions.

At the debate, UN member states stated theirsupport to the UNSC’s resolutions on women’s role in all stages of the peaceprocess as well as peacekeeping operations.

Many said it is necessary to ensure genderbalance in peacekeeping forces by increasing the number of women officers andcreating fair opportunities for women to be appointed to all positions,especially leadership, in UN peacekeeping operations and the security-defencesystem of countries. They noted that ensuring gender balance in UN peacekeepingforces will have positive impacts on the settlement of sexual exploitation,abuse and violence.

On the sidelines of the debate, Deputy ForeignMinister Trung met with several ambassadors and heads of other UN memberstates’ missions to call for their support for Vietnam’s candidacy for anon-permanent seat in the UNSC for 2020-2021. Vietnam is currently the onlycandidate representing Asia-Pacific.-VNA