Thank you, Mr President,

Germany aligns itself with the EU statement and with the statement of the Group of Friends of WPS.

On this anniversary, many of us would have liked to be in a more celebratory mood. Alas, we must face the sobering reality of “stagnation and even regression across many of the goals of the Women, Peace and Security agenda”, as the Secretary General put it.

More and more people are directly affected by armed conflicts, especially women and girls. The participation of women in peace and security processes remains far too low. And conflict-related sexual violence is on the rise.

However, the picture is not entirely bleak: we have succeeded in putting gender equality and women’s empowerment in decision-making on the agenda of the Security Council. It has become common knowledge that women’s legal status and respect for their human rights directly correlates with peace, security and human development.

But we need to move beyond affirming these findings and beyond rhetorical commitments towards concrete action:

• Women peacebuilders need reliable, flexible and sufficient funding. Germany has been a steadfast partner and largest donor to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, providing long-term, unbureaucratic core-funding to women-led organizations in conflict zones. We plan to remain a contributor and to further contribute to the Fund substantially.
• Germany has joined the UN Secretary-General’s timely Common Pledge to increase women’s participation in peace processes and calls on others to do the same.
• Without accountability there can be no sustainable peace. Every survivor of conflict-related sexual violence must be granted access to justice and to essential services. Germany is committed to continuing its support and funding for the essential work of the SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict and her Team of Experts in this regard.
• We have to defend and strengthen multilateralism, international law and the UN system, which are increasingly under stress and being undermined. They have been and continue to be a key catalyst for gender equality. UN Women, in particular, has played an essential role in promoting the WPS Agenda.
• Since taking over the chair of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in January 2025, Germany has aimed to ensure that WPS agenda remains a cross-cutting topic on the PBC’s agenda. With this objective in mind, the PBC will hold a high-level meeting on Women, Peace and Security on October 27.

Germany will continue its strong commitment to the women, peace and security agenda. We are currently developing our next National Action Plan in order to underscore this commitment. Implementing and strengthening the WPS agenda is the right thing to do and that it is in our common interest.

We must finally harness the enormous contributions of women and girls. With resources in short supply on the one hand and a record number of conflicts worldwide on the other, the world urgently needs the potential, the ideas, and the solutions that women contribute!

I thank you.