PSC/PR/BR.1(CDLXXVI) Page 2 women and children in conflict situations. Council further commended the Special Envoy of the Chairperson on Women, Peace and Security for the efforts she is deploying, including her recent visits to the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan, with a view to improving the participation of women in mediation and promotion of peace, political processes, conflict prevention and encouraged her to regularly brief Council on her activities, including through open sessions. Council and Participants acknowledged the resilience and the leadership of women in the Saharawi Arab Republic in the context of the Saharawi people’s struggle for selfdetermination. Council urged the AU Commission, through the coordination of the Office of the Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security to formulate a Continental Results Framework to monitor the implementation by AU Member States and other relevant stakeholders of the various instruments and other commitments on women, peace and security in Africa. Council and Participants recalled paragraph 17 of Assembly Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.501 (XXII), which declared 2014-2024 as the Madiba Nelson Mandela Decade of Reconciliation in Africa and, in this regard, stressed the importance of bringing and engaging women in the national reconciliation process in nation-building, conflict resolution, as well as the promotion of national healing and justice as a pre-requisites for realising a Conflict-Free Africa by the Year 2020. Council and Participants recognized the responsibility of AU Member States for ensuring the protection of women and children in situations where they are threatened or affected by violence, in line with relevant AU and international instruments. Council and Participants further recognized the fact that, whilst the necessary instruments for the protection of women and children in armed conflict and for the promotion of their rights exist, the pace of their implementation is deplorably slow. Council accordingly, called all stakeholders concerned to fully implement them in the promotion of the rights of women and children in conflict situations. Council and Participants strongly condemned the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and emphasized the need to fight impunity in cases of sexual violence, rape, abduction, forced marriages and other forms of gender-based violence in situations of conflict and stressed the need to hold perpetrators of these acts accountable. Council further urged all stakeholders to provide necessary assistance and support to all victims of these violations across Africa. Council noted the progress made by the AU Member States on the ratification and implementation of the AU instruments related to the protection of the rights of women and children in conflict situations and urged all AU Member States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify, without any further delay, the relevant AU instruments, notably the Protocol to the