Mr. David Byrne:

My role here is to outline what the Department of Defence does with regard to the area of women, peace and security. Our role is particularly at the strategic and policy level. I work in the international security and defence policy area. I also have responsibility for European Union issues. That is not always a neat fit, so to speak, but when we are looking at EU missions going abroad, the gender aspect comes into it. The international security and defence policy unit of the Department of Defence has responsibility for this issue. We have responsibility also for defence related issues arising in the EU and the United Nations along with the European Defence Agency.

My area of responsibility covers EU issues, particularly the common security and defence policy, CSDP, of the EU and assisting in developing Ireland’s views in this area as well as the issue of women, peace and security. The CSDP is the way the EU meets its international obligations to maintain international peace and security. This is done by the CSDP providing the EU with an operational capacity to undertake crisis management tasks outside the territory of the EU. This does not just refer to military tasks as there is a significant civilian and humanitarian dimension to dealing with such crises. The EU has developed what it calls a comprehensive approach to dealing with crises and includes economic, diplomatic, political, military and humanitarian instruments.

As part of my brief I have responsibility for UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the associated resolutions which deal with women, peace and security. Every document that emanates from the EU that involves defence issues crosses my desk. This can range from rapid response concepts to mission updates to developing new missions. We co-ordinate closely with our colleagues in the Department of Foreign Affairs to ensure a national approach is taken.

The development of new missions and the reviews of existing missions is where we can achieve most with regard to women peace and security. When missions are being established, they go through a number of phases, and the documentation is reviewed each time at various committees. This is where we have our national input in that any mission must have unanimous agreement of all member states at Council. For example, when the EU training mission to Mali was being discussed, Ireland ensured there were specific references to human rights and gender awareness included in the relevant planning documents.

The EU also has a policy for the implementation of the Security Council resolutions in the context of CSDP missions and operations. This document takes account of lessons learnt and has the aim of ensuring gender mainstreaming and implementation of the resolutions from early planning through to the conduct of the operation. That is a brief flavour of how, strategically, we undertake our role in this issue in the Department.

Ireland is also a member of the NATO Partnership for Peace programme. As such we develop national goals to be achieved on an annual basis. We in the Department negotiate these partnership goals, one of which was on gender perspectives using UN Security Council Resolution 1325 as the departure point. That led to the Defence Forces implementing this goal from an operational perspective.

NATO has also issued its own review relating to its implementation of the resolution in the conduct of NATO-led operations and missions. As members will be aware, NATO undertakes missions and operations on behalf of the UN, and this review has looked at the practical side of addressing Resolution 1325 specifically in its missions.

The final area I will briefly touch on is training. Ireland is a member of the board of the European Security and Defence College, ESDC, which undertakes training in the area of common security and defence policy; it is a virtual college. This college regularly runs courses on gender and operations covering areas such as gender in the planning process of operations, conflict related sexual violence and gender in security sector reform. Courses are also run on the reform of the security sector itself, which includes modules on gender sensitive peacekeeping operations. We in the Department have been strong supporters of the college and chaired the steering board of the college during the Irish Presidency of the European Council.