Egypt stresses terrorism at UN debate on women

Oct 19, 2015 The United Nations Security Council recently held an open debate on women, peace and security. During the debate, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry fingered terrorism as the root cause of unrest in many countries adding that women pay the highest toll.

While addressing the council, Shoukry said:

“Terrorism is a threat to peace and security just like armed conflict and many states and regions suffer from this worldwide. In most cases this is the source of all conflicts and it is a threat that our local societies face constantly. This is impacting states’ abilities to carry out their expectations in terms of security and development. Terrorism threatens entire states but women are the most vulnerable. This is a concern of great importance to us, so Egypt has adopted the Security Council’s resolution today.”

During the debate, the UN council also adopted a new resolution that reinforces the critical role of women in conflict prevention and peace building. The resolution was built on the landmark resolution 1325, adopted 15 years ago.

“Mr. President, we during our consideration of subjects related to resolution 1325, noticed the lack of necessary attention given to the principle causes related to that resolution. In particular the suffering of women under foreign occupation, nor was it considering the impacts of exaggeration of the connection of international humanitarian law and international law which could lead to weaknesses in the system available for protection in both peace and war, caused by politicizing positions in different issues relating to these two forms of law” Minster Shoukry added.

The meeting, which was held under the presidency of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, unanimously adopted the new resolution 2242.