YouSaid · the spoken record

Boketa

lines on the record
11
first
2022-05-25
most recent
2022-05-25
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “The lives of those civilians and of women like Solange and Cinama do not fall neatly into the buckets of different sectors or agendas, or even frameworks. So, to ensure their protection, I ask that the global humanitarian community and Member States think and act holistically, locally and transformatively in order to meet them where they are — because every crisis is a protection crisis.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  2. “In order to fulfil the great responsibility of ensuring humanitarian access and protecting civilians, there must be closer coordination among the humanitarian country teams, Government authorities, peacekeeping missions like the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and civil society across the planning and implementation phases of humanitarian response. Civil society organizations — and especially women’s civil society — need additional, flexible financial resources, human resources and capacity. The inclusion of civil society organizations that are already providing aid and services is key to ensuring humanitarian access for displaced people and for marginalized, vulnerable populations in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  3. “Today, as a vocational trainer herself, Cinama passes along those same skills to other women in her community, and she owns her land. She is leaving a legacy to the next generation that she hopes will outlast the wars that have marked the milestones of her own life. During crisis, people affected by disasters and conflict look to their national and local authorities, the United Nations and the broader humanitarian community to support and strengthen their protection from those threats. Protecting them is therefore a primary responsibility of the duty-bearers.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  4. “Gender transformative means that the decision-making and planning processes at all levels would appropriately value and recognize the resourcefulness and capabilities of women in civil society as leaders. We see year after year that, when we can build women’s power and resilience through our programmes, they are able to pay it forward to other women, the community and the next generation. There are women like Cinama, who saw her mother struggle to raise her seven children on barely one meal a day, because, as a widow, she had no rights to land or inheritance, leaving the entire family vulnerable to each new wave of conflict and crisis. Now 26 years old, Cinama built her self-reliance through our training programme to become a brickmaker.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  5. “It is because of the good friends she met in her group training sessions and the trust built among participants and trainers alike that she says that we all accept each other, without discrimination, and her invisible scars can begin to heal. A woman such as Solange is just one example of the many who might fall between the gaps of community services due to stigma and isolation. If the goal of humanitarian aid and access is to reduce harm to all civilians affected by conflict and war, in order to reach Solange gender-transformative approaches and local women’s organizations must be part of the protection and humanitarian strategy. Such approaches would not just recognize and account for the unique impacts and challenges to humanitarian access posed by women’s vulnerabilities.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  6. “It is community-based and women-centred organizations that are the first on the front line to provide them with immediate support and to prevent a rollback on the progress that women have made in their savings and resilience, as well as in their dignity and status. I will give an example of one of our programme graduates, Solange, who was raped four times over two decades of war. She saw her husband and their three children being tortured and killed. It was after her fourth rape resulted in a pregnancy that she left her village, searching for a new start for her and her newborn daughter. Despite the self-sufficiency gained from the training that we provided to her, society still mocked her and isolated her as a victim of rape due to her visible scars from the beatings she endured.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  7. “The women in our programmes not only develop vocational training skills and start their own businesses, but they also learn about savings, the link between nutrition and health and their rights. Their savings and additional income offer them resilience and a buffer between crisis and total destitution. But, with the coronavirus disease, the war in Ukraine and rising food and fuel prices, that buffer for women is slowly eroding. We stand in solidarity, and share a hope for peace, with all Ukrainians, because we know that the effects of war, conflict and disasters near and far are often borne by the most vulnerable and the most marginalized.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  8. “Those compounding challenges also render women and marginalized groups the most likely to fall between the gaps of the humanitarian and protection, development and peacebuilding nexus. At Women for Women International, I work with women living in communities in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those women may have been displaced three or four times by the time they settle there — and, believe me, choosing to settle in such areas is not risk-free. The illegal exploitation of natural resources and mining conflicts often translate into armed violence that blocks roads and humanitarian access points. We therefore have to be creative and adaptive in order to provide consistent services to women, deliver stipends and maintain our training programmes.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  9. “To ensure better humanitarian access and to better protect all civilians, we believe that gender-transformative approaches and local women’s organizations must be part of the strategy from the start. Women are uniquely and disproportionately affected by the cycles of poverty and displacement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as are other marginalized populations, such as children, indigenous people, people with disabilities and the elderly. The path to gender equality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo indicates that not only are women plagued by the context of insecurity and conflict, but they also face harmful, patriarchal social norms and beliefs, which hinder their access to basic social services and humanitarian aid and create barriers when they try to challenge those circumstances.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  10. “Overall, 70 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, and 27 million Congolese are highly food insecure, that is, more than one in four people in the country. Global inflation and food shortages caused by the war in Ukraine are making a bad situation even worse. Furthermore, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is currently ranked 163 out of 170 countries in the recently released global Women, Peace and Security Index, which means that, on top of the other challenges, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is also one of the most difficult places in the world to be a woman. At Women for Women International, we help women survivors of war to rebuild their lives. Our programmes are locally led and rooted in the communities that we serve.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source

  11. “Ms. Boketa: I thank the United States Mission for the opportunity today to share our experience of ongoing conflict and crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It might seem obvious, but to protect civilians in armed conflict and ensure better humanitarian access, it is vital to first listen to those of us from conflict-affected countries. I am a national of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I therefore know first-hand the challenges facing my country in general and in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where I work. To refresh a little regarding the context, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is currently home to more than 5.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), which is one of the largest IDP populations in the world.”

    2022-05-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9042 (2022) · source