"Indonesia remains committed to augmenting the role of female peacekeepers," Foreign Minister Marsudi remarked at the open debate held at the UN Headquarter in New York, the United States, on Tuesday.
Minister Marsudi made the statement at the UN Security Council Open Debate titled "Investing in Peace: Delivering Quality Training and Capacity Building to Improve Safety and Security and Performance of UN Peacekeepers" held under the framework of Indonesia as president at the Security Council for the month of May this year.
At the meeting, Minister Marsudi pointed to the fact that female peacekeepers were more adept at forging close ties with the locals and offering comfort to those reeling under the impact of conflicts.
The minister also drew reference to strong evidence that women’s participation in peace processes raised the likelihood of sustained peace by 20 percent and contributed to more enduring and resilient peace.
"Hence, we must make peacekeeping more conducive for female peacekeepers by collaborating to overcome barriers to women’s significant participation in peacekeeping and formulate a specialized training scheme to help female peacekeepers hone their potentials," she explained.
Indonesia has, until now, deployed over 100 female peacekeepers in eight UN peacekeeping missions.
"The number of our female peacekeepers has, for the foremost instance, crossed 100, and we remain serious to realize more achievements," Marsudi noted.
Apart from its focus on female peacekeepers, Indonesia has also vowed to consistently step up the engagement of women as the agents of peace.
"Hence, we had organized a Regional Training on Women Peace and Security in Jakarta last month for young women diplomats in the Southeast Asian region," Minister Marsudi noted.
EDITED BY INE
Reporter: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
Editor: Eliswan Azly
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
