YouSaid · the spoken record

Awan

lines on the record: 14
first: 2019-08-02
most recent: 2019-08-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That is exactly how we lived in my village when I was that smiling 5-year-old boy - not driven by any materials wants, but by love, tenderness and the hope for children to grow up peacefully. We can no longer ignore the facts, we can no longer wait, and we cannot we stand still. Please take responsibility as the adults of our global village and take care of our children in conflict-affected zones. The worlds is engulfed by wars and conflict in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the rest of the globe. Children are the victims of such wars. We must redouble our efforts and support our children for the betterment of our global village. We are all inhabitants of the same global village. It is therefore time to act accordingly, since no child should ever be part of war.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“That includes calling on all countries to endorse the Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers and the Paris Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups, and putting pressure on them to end and prevent grave violations against children, as well as to prioritize justice for crimes against children. Only through those measures will we be able to contribute to improving the lives of our youngest citizens in our global villages. For me personally, the main character of a good and nice village is social cohesion - the duty to watch after each other. This is true for the elderly, but also for our children - especially those who cannot stand up for their own rights or grow up in conflict-affected zones.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Such funding should be structured as long-term funding, rather than bursts of short-cycle humanitarian funding. That will allow multi-year interventions, in line with the long-term impact of war on children and the necessary deep social transformation to address factors that predispose children to recruitment. Where missions are downsized or transitioning, we must make sure that United Nations country teams are equipped to carry out those functions. And, lastly, I urge them to take action to address the ongoing violation of children's rights.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“That should be in addition to budget allocations within their relevant sectors. Secondly, I urge them to invest in child protection systems and services at the national, regional, and international levels. That includes increased long- term funding for reintegration programmes for former child soldiers, like me, as well as support services for survivors of sexual violence, children with disabilities and others in need, family tracing and reunification for those separated from their parents or guardians and timely referrals for children in need of health care, food, education, shelter and psychosocial support. Thirdly, I encourage them to ensure that United Nations peace operations and political missions have the necessary resources to advance the children and armed conflict agenda.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Every year, at least $200 million of humanitarian aid is needed to scale up basic mental health care packages to reach children and adolescents in conflict zones. Additional support is needed for comprehensive child protection, case management, including reintegration, and livelihood and education programmes in order to provide individualized, gender- sensitive support to address affected children's needs. What can the Governments in this Chamber do? First, I call on them to promote the right to mental health and psychological well-being in international forums and to integrate mental health in their national laws, policies and emergency plans. All Governments should commit to increase their mental health spending allocation to at least 5 per cent of their total health budget.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“They are exposed to life-threatening risks, extreme violence, abuse, physical and sexual exploitation, abduction or military recruitment - voluntary or forceful. Child protection programmes are essential for preventing violence against children, facilitating family tracing and reunification and ensuring proper and timely referrals of children in need of health care, food, education and psychosocial support. My appeal to the Security Council is to ensure that children affected by conflict get the full support they need to heal their physical and psychological wounds. Otherwise, their past will become their burden. We know that today about 420 million children are growing up in conflict-affected zones. One of five will require urgent psychosocial support. In South Sudan alone, 19,000 children are associated with armed groups or forces.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Not enough has been done, which is a shame since there is no excuse or reason for not knowing the harsh situation of those children. Yes, we can switch off our televisions when it shows children with war trauma, but one minute later we will see it on our daily Twitter news feed or in our Instagram stories or we will see bloody pictures of wounded children on the leading international news websites. It is here and now. We cannot deny it anymore like the world did when I was a child. In 2018, almost 50 million children were in need of protection in humanitarian settings. Yet child protection has not been systematically prioritized during humanitarian responses. It remains underfunded, deprioritized and even too late when children's lives are at risk. During a crisis, children are among the most vulnerable.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Every single day, when I am in contact with all those innocent children affected by conflict, I see myself. As a child-protection and psychosocial-support coordinator, administering psychosocial support, managing cases, tracing and reunifying families and helping children formally associated with armed groups, survivors of sexual violence, children with disabilities, children who are separated from their parents and detained children is not a simple thing, but a commitment. Naturally, carrying out those functions makes me sad and brings back many bad and sad memories. But I am also happy that the world today knows, at the very least, what child protection, mental health and psychosocial support are and what they do.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“I remember that they urged us to go to the church, play with other children and not stay by ourselves. After two years of trauma, I was able to socialize with other children again. Not all children can recover like I did without assistance from the outside. Child-protection programming, including individualized psychosocial support, education and livelihood opportunities, is key in the recovery of children and their families affected by conflict. With unconditional support from my maternal uncle and child-protection actors, I went to school and university and finally got a job with War Child Holland as a child-protection and psychosocial-support coordinator in South Sudan. I am now able to help other little Majok Peters in my own country, which has been torn by a series of wars.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“There was no social media to share my experiences, no United Nations monitors to document my story and no child-protection actor to calm my fears. It was me, myself and I in a devastating situation. Nobody saw me. The world had no clue as to what was going on. I felt totally abandoned by it. The serious trauma caused will have a lasting impact on the rest of my life. Of that I am sure. But you know what? I managed to escape and survived the brutal killings and massive abuses of the 1992-1994 period of confusion in the Sudan. At the age of 15, I managed to reach the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, which was managed at that time by Radda Barnen; it is now run by Save the Children International. Much was accomplished thanks to the camp's capacities and the support I received.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“The civil war in the Sudan broke out and soon reached my village. I really had no clue why the adults were fighting. Unfortunately, I found out very soon. When I was seven years old, the local rebel group fighting the Government in Khartoum took me from my home and made me undergo a six-month intensive military training. I was then assigned to local rebel commander to work as his bodyguard and perform such additional duties as cooking, fetching water, gathering firewood, spying and looting. It was an overwhelming and debilitating situation of do-or-die. My four friends and I would play under the shadow of fear, because it was illegal to play. With that high level of vulnerability, there was nothing I could do but follow orders.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“But despite improved information systems and stronger normative frameworks, children living in conflict zones continue to face many of the awful abuses and violations of their rights that my peers and I faced in the Sudan a long time ago. As a child, I lived in a village where our community took care of its members, although with little. We still felt responsible for the well-being of our children, parents and grandparents. But our well-being was not defined by material things; it was about the love and tenderness we shared with each other in the hope that the children would grow up peacefully. At the age of five, I was already herding cattle, goats and sheep in the hot sun of tropical Africa, together with other children of my age. I was one of those many smiling, innocent, playful children. Little did I know what was to follow.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“The world was unaware of our existence, much less the suffering we endured during the Sudanese civil war. And we had no idea what the rest of the world looked like. Yet, since the time when I was a child, the Security Council has recognized the severe impacts of war and other forms of armed conflict on boys and girls, whose protection it has taken steps to improve. It has developed a unique monitoring and reporting mechanism to collect information on the grave violations of children's rights in conflict, and, over the past two decades, it has increased its attention to children involved in armed conflict.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Mr. Awan: First of all, let me express my appreciation to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Poland to the United Nations for having invited me and facilitated my coming to New York for today's open debate. My thanks also go to War Child Holland, and my colleague with me now, Mr. Eamonn Hanson, for allowing me to take the floor at this important meeting. The world today has become a global village, which is quite different from the way it was when I was a boy. My name is Majok Peter Awan, and I know exactly what it is like to live in a village. I was born in 1979, in a remote village called Pakeer, located in what is now the Jonglei state of South Sudan. At that time, we did not have any hospitals or schools or even infrastructure to connect us with the world outside the village.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source