Intervention in plenary session by Ms Camille PETIT Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the Conference on disarmament Gender perspective and disarmament (Geneva, 23 May 2023) [fr]

Mrs. President,

I thank you for organizing this debate which is fully part of the agenda of this conference.

My delegation fully endorses the statement made by Colombia on behalf of several States and the statement made by the European Union. I would like to mention some additional points in my national capacity.

Mrs. President,

Equality between women and men is at the heart of our foreign policy and of our 2019 feminist diplomacy policy, which aims at promoting and defending the rights of women and girls in multilateral fora, as well as in our bilateral relations. This feminist diplomacy embodies in our foreign action the commitment of the President of the Republic to make equality between women and men the main priority of his two five-year terms.

To strengthen the participation of women in peace and conflict resolution processes, France is taking action to implement the "Women, Peace and Security" agenda through its third national action plan. It is working to establish robust mandates and adequate resources to ensure the protection and participation of women in the missions of United Nations operations.

France is working for instance towards the feminisation of its military personnel and the full, equal, substantial and effective participation of women at all levels of responsibility in these operations. To this end, France finances projects to train French-speaking female officers and advisors on gender issues in peacekeeping operations.

Mrs. President,

Women are indispensable stakeholders in transformation, social progress and peace. Disarmament work must fully integrate equality issues. This is why France supports the resolutions frequently adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on women, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. France advocates notably for the inclusion of gender issues in the resolution we bring every two years on improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to the UNGA.

In Ukraine too, women are at the heart of security isues. France calls on the international community to pay particular attention to the needs and situation of women and girls who are victims of conflicts, including the Ukrainian one. The protection of civilians, and especially women and girls, must be a priority. France condemns in the strongest terms the sexual violence used as a weapon of war by Russian troops in Ukraine, which can be qualified as war crimes. France supports Ukrainian women by giving 4 million euros to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), supports Ukrainian police officers investigating rape, and has just decided to increase our contribution to the Global Fund for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Conflict, co-founded by 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winners Nadia Murad and Dr Denis Mukwege.

Mrs. President,

France advocates for a feminist diplomacy, and one of its pillars is equal access to positions of responsibility between women and men. In this framework, we actively support a better representation and a full, equal and substantial participation of women at all levels of responsibility in disarmament issues. As of 2018, this Permanent Representation has joined the Gender Equality Champions network in Geneva.

I listened very carefully to the measures mentioned mostly by Mrs Valovaya. Nevertheless, it remains the case that within disarmament fora, women represent only one third of the participants in our multilateral meetings and few of them are at the head of delegations. Yet the participation of women in our work is essential, as it is a question of equality, justice and the legitimacy of the decisions adopted. We will therefore continue to support the proposal to update the rules of procedure of this Conference to make them gender neutral.

France will be engaged to make progress in this direction.

I thank the panellists who have already given some responses to my question : how is it possible to promote the participation of women in the Conference on Disarmament, but also in the other structures dealing with disarmament ?

I thank you./.