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Thank you very much Mr President and thank you to your delegation for putting this important topic as an open debate today. Thank you to our two Ministers for joining us; I found your presentations really powerful. It鈥檚 excellent that you鈥檝e given us time to be with us today. Minister Wallstr枚m, you are a very frequent visitor to this Council which is extremely welcome and I think all I can say is that I wholly endorse what you said in the Council today, both of you, so thank you very much indeed for that. It鈥檚 a very important opportunity; thank you to the Secretary-General, the Executive Director and Randa Siniora. I just wanted, if I may Mr. President, to digress briefly to repeat what I said on 17 October about the content of briefings to this Council but we do believe that civil societies contribution is essential.

I want to add our voice to those congratulating the Nobel Peace Prize winners. I think in this year it鈥檚 a very important signal of the criticality that their work has, not just for the communities who benefit from it and are protected by it, but what it says overall about the international community鈥檚 priorities when it comes to putting the issue of women and girls and women, peace and security right at the centre of policymaking.

Two years ahead of the twentieth anniversary of Resolution 1325, we鈥檙e very pleased to have this important moment to reflect on progress and consider what more can be done. It鈥檚 not just a moral issue, this issue of women鈥檚 political and economic empowerment; fundamentally it鈥檚 an economic issue. Countries who enable equal opportunities for all their people, who enable equal access to the law and services, who enable equal participation in the economic life of that country are much more likely to thrive and prosper than countries who do not. So fundamentally, enabling half of your population to participate fully is much more likely to improve inclusive growth and sustainability. And I think that鈥檚 a really important economic point that we all need to bear in mind.

Mr President, successive Security Council resolutions have of course argued that greater political and economic empowerment of women is a key element of conflict prevention and I think this is all part of the Secretary-General鈥檚 core agenda. He spoke very powerfully today. We welcome his leadership, we welcome that of the UN Secretariat and we look forward to working more with them.

When women meaningfully participate in peace processes, the resulting agreement is 35 per cent more likely to last at least 15 years. It will be more inclusive and hence, it will better serve the community it represents. I鈥檇 like to echo what the Swedish Minister said about the importance of participation being a right, not a bonus.

As conflicts around the world become more complex and formal peace processes risk stalling, women鈥檚 efforts to tackle conflict have never been more needed or more vital. In this regard, we as the United Kingdom were pleased to bring members of the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth network to New York this week to exchange experiences with other regional women鈥檚 mediation networks and explore ways collectively to drive the agenda forward. I do think these mediation networks, whatever their label and wherever they come from, are actually an important resource for us all. The Executive Director was able to describe some of the work on the ground that has been very important and I am sure that they would be delighted to work even more closely with the United Nations.

Mr President, SDG5 collectively makes clear that empowering women isn鈥檛 just about these community-based actions. It also requires addressing systemic challenges and structural issues and getting to the core of the barriers to women鈥檚 full and equal participation and exercise of basic rights. In line with this, my government has cross-government National Action Plan committing to increasing women鈥檚 participation in decision-making and scaling up interventions to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. I commend such plans to all of those countries who don鈥檛 have them. And we also commend a signing-up of the UN Compact on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse which the Secretary-General also mentioned today.

We often hear about the importance of mainstreaming gender equality right the way through policy. As an example of this, the United Kingdom has opened all military roles to women and we are closing in on our target to have women make up 15 per cent of our armed forces. It is not enough but we believe it鈥檚 a good start.

Mr President, you may not know, colleagues may not know that there is today a British aircraft carrier sitting just off the coast of Staten Island. It鈥檚 on a friendly visit to New York. I want to stress the word 鈥榝riendly.鈥� But what I also want to stress is that 13 per cent of that ship鈥檚 company are women. 83 out of 650 personnel on board are women. It鈥檚 the highest that we have of our Royal Navy fleet. As I say it鈥檚 not enough but it鈥檚 a good start and we hope very much to build on that.

Mr President, I鈥檇 like to talk a little bit about education. Education is key to achieving our ambition and this means educating women, men, boys and girls if we want to change attitudes and behaviours. We have a Leave No Girl Behind campaign. This has the goal of empowering women and girls through quality education, including education in emergencies. And I do just want to stress the word 鈥榪uality.鈥� A lot of excellent work has been done around the world in getting girls into school. I previously had the honour to be the British Ambassador to Afghanistan and I鈥檝e seen girls going to school and I鈥檝e seen the difference it makes to their lives. The next challenge is to make that a real quality education so that they get the skills and the tools necessary so that they can as they grow up play a full role in the political and economic life of their country. Also as part of this campaign, we鈥檝e endorsed Safe Schools Declaration and we believe that this represents an important step forward.

We鈥檝e talked also about sexual and gender-based violence. By definition, this prevents women from being active participants at school, in the workforce and in other political and economic spheres. I want to endorse what the Netherlands Minister said in particular about speaking out against violence against women leaders because they are the people who at the moment will be driving this forward and we support you in that.

Finally Mr President as we collectively look towards 2020, the ambition for all of us should only continue to grow. I want to really echo what the Ministers and others said about the need to change our plans into concrete implementation. I think it鈥檚 very important. I hope we will be able to continue to address these issues in the Security Council. I just wanted to close by referring to Minister Wallstr枚m鈥檚 quote from the women she met about wanting bigger boats, bigger nets and not to get raped. I think there is a wealth of meaning and description in that very simple sentence. If we do nothing else, we ought to be able to provide them with better equipment, better safety and the personal security that they require.

Thank you very much Mr President.