Excellencies, 

Dear friends,

Let me first start by thanking the Kingdom of Morocco for its leadership in advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda. 

And let me also join with you in celebrating the extension of your National Action Plan on UN Security Council Resolution 1325. 

You will not find a more enthusiastic champion of your work to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda than the European Union. 

That is why Europe and Morocco can work together as we do.  We recently teamed up in Casablanca to discuss how to empower women working in counter-terrorism. We share the same goal of ensuring women are present in security sector reform as decision-makers. And not just as beneficiaries. It was important to bring together police, prosecutors, intelligence, and civil society to better understand what are the obstacles.

I would also like to recognise the leadership of the co-organisers of today’s event:

• Guatemala through justice reforms to address violence against women;
• Ghana for their impressive record in contributing women peacekeepers;
• The Philippines for putting women in peace and security in your country’s peace-building framework and education system;
• And France through the country’s feminist foreign policy and advocacy in the Security Council.

The European Union’s goal is to ensure that women are fully involved in defence and security policy at every stage. This is part of the security and defence pacts we have with eight countries, for example. 

One of the main reasons is because women face a whole set of different challenges in conflict. 

In war women have suffered devastating consequences of Russia’s war of aggression. They have given birth with the sounds of air raid sirens ringing in their ears. They have been victims of conflict-related sexual violence. 

Women’s organisations are often the first responders. That is why it is EU policy to strengthen them. And we do this all over the world, last year with almost 28 million euro for women’s rights organisations in fragile and conflict settings.

Another reason is because women are leaders not just victims. In Ukraine, for example, women serve in the armed forces, they deliver humanitarian aid, they support displaced families, and they are key voices in civil society. Women must therefore be sitting at the table when peace is discussed. We need women’s perspectives to guide transitional justice, reconciliation, and reconstruction. Without this, there will be no lasting peace. 

Dear friends, 

Let me finish as I started by thanking Morocco for organising this event, for bringing us together around this important topic. And thank you to the co-sponsors and everyone else for the commitment I see around the table. 

I think all of us agree that this agenda needs advancing. It needs better integrating in the Security Council debates. 

At a period when there are more international conflicts ongoing since the Second World War, we must not let the work on women in peace and security fall through the cracks. 

On the contrary. Our focus on advancing the role of women in peace and security should be laser sharp.

And let me add one personal note. Whenever I am in these kind of events, what I see around the table are women discussing women’s issues.

The problem is, when we talk about the victims, the majority, the huge majority, and I’ve been to a lot of events here, and I can tell it's not majority women. 
When we talk about peace and security, or women in conflicts, then it is women who are discussing this whether it's in the parliament, whether it's everywhere else.  But these are sisters, wives, daughters of men. 
So as long as the men don't take this topic seriously enough, we don't see change. 

Like our colleague from Mali said, the wars are started by men. 

Definitely we need more women in politics, but we also need more men to engage in the worries that women have. 

Thank you.