Canada’s National Statement at the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security

October 6, 2025

Canada’s National Statement delivered by Canada’s Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN on October 6, 2025:

Twenty-five years ago, this Council affirmed a simple truth: peace without women is no peace at all. When women are sidelined, we are all less resilient, we are less sovereign, and we are less secure.

Yet the commitment to Women, Peace and Security has never received the resources or the political will required to be achieved. Now, we are forced to spend precious time defending progress against pushback at the very moment when the Women Peace and Security agenda is needed most – to address global threats including technology-enabled violence, disinformation, and climate insecurity. As sexual violence as a weapon of war is rising, women human rights and women environmental defenders, including youth and Indigenous women, are being silenced.

Madam President, far from optional, Women Peace and Security is a fundamental enabler of security. It sharpens our understanding of threats, strengthens our responses, and enhances our ability to deter, detect, and defend.

Canada has expanded funding for women peace builders, supported community-level efforts, and advanced the Elsie Initiative to increase the full, equal, and meaningful participation of uniformed women, making peace operations more effective.

Our task now is to put the Women, Peace and Security agenda where it has always belonged – mainstreamed into the centre of peace and security.

On this anniversary, Canada pays tribute to the women in civil society from around the world who brought this agenda to the UN, carry it forward daily, and bear the greatest cost when we fail to deliver.

Thank you.