YouSaid · the spoken record

Brian Urquhart

lines on the record
15
first
2003-05-13
most recent
2003-05-13
sittings or episodes
2
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un-security-council

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  1. “I think that is a very encouraging sign of the vitality of the Security Council and also of a great deal more work on the peaceful settlement of disputes than the public at large has any idea of. Of course, the formal development of the means of peaceful settlement of disputes may well be a great deal slower to come about. I hope very much that suggestions made in this debate will serve to speed up that very important process.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753Resumption1 (2003) · source

  2. “Sir Brian Urquhart: I greatly appreciated having a chance to listen to this very serious, thought- provoking and, indeed, quite imaginative debate on an extremely important and really very difficult subject. I have absolutely nothing to add to the many ideas and suggestions that have been put forward. Coming back here after many years, I am impressed all over again, I must say, by the way the Security Council is a curious combination of formality and informality. Of course, the informal side would inevitably lose its value if it were ever publicized. But what impresses me is the reality of 15 highly qualified and dedicated delegations working together day and night on a wide variety of problems - and most of the time working as a team.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753Resumption1 (2003) · source

  3. “The United Nations - and I make no apology for quoting Hammarskjold again - is, in his words, "a venture in progress towards an international community living in peace under the laws of justice." (A/PV.690, para. 68) That is still a very distant objective, but a worthy one. An essential prerequisite for moving forward in this infinitely complex venture is the growing effectiveness of the pacific settlement of disputes. Few activities are more important for the future.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  4. “Dag Hammarskj old once referred to "those who seem to take special delight in blaming the storms on the ship instead of the weather." When, as happened recently, the disagreements of its members - which are, after all, nothing new - are blamed on the institution of the Council itself, the Council's standing in pacific settlement and in other matters is inevitably diminished. Even in the pristine enthusiasm of 1946, only very few dedicated acolytes believed that the Security Council would immediately work exactly as the Charter prescribed. Most of us saw it as a blueprint for achieving peace in the world that would take generations of trial and error before it became a solid reality. The world was a dangerous, suffering and disorderly place in 1946 and, in a different way, it still is.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  5. “That original experiment, pushed aside, diluted and outmoded by revolutionary changes in politics and technology, is still, in the long run, an important concept and pacific settlement under the authority of the Security Council is at the heart of it. The other essential elements of that original vision - disarmament, for instance - have so far fared far less well. Everyone knows that in its present form the Security Council is the product of another, very different historical period. So far, substantial reform has proved impossible, but that does not detract from the importance of the Council's position and authority and it is extremely important to maintain it.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  6. “There are thousands of studies on the techniques of pacific settlement, but the key elements for success are and have always been the authority and standing of the Security Council, its ability and willingness to take prompt action, and the skill, ingenuity and determination of those who implement its decisions in the field. At the beginning, the Council, buoyed by the expectations and the longing for peace of a war-torn world, occupied an almost Olympian position in world politics. Maybe that original optimism and enthusiasm were unrealistic, but in those haunted days the effort to establish an international system that would be an alternative to the arms races, the military alliances, the threats and the aggressions that had always led to war in the past seemed like a blessed, if belated, piece of common sense.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  7. “It has always seemed to me that in such situations it is essential for the Council to have some reliable and highly-trained capacity for rapid reaction and deployment - the capacity to quell mere brush-fire violence before it develops into conflict or genocide. I know this is an extremely controversial issue, but I have to say - and I have noticed this more since I left the United Nations - that impressive- sounding decisions followed by sluggish or ineffective action both make bad situations worse and also undermine the reputation of and public confidence in the United Nations itself.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  8. “In the last 15 years, the Council has often been called on to deal with problems within the borders of a single State, and it seems likely that this will continue to be one of its main challenges. This is not what the technique of peacekeeping was originally designed for and it is not surprising that many difficulties have arisen. When dealing only with conflicting Governments, the authority of the Council and the support of its members usually give remarkable strength to relatively small and lightly-armed peacekeeping forces. Dealing with non-governmental groups and factions, violent in their very nature and which have little knowledge of - or, indeed, respect for - the Security Council, is a very different matter. We have seen this problem in a number of cases, especially since 1990.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  9. “In 1949, for example, the Security Council-appointed mediator in Palestine, Ralph Bunche, was able to negotiate the armistice agreements between Israel and its four Arab neighbours in almost complete independence and secrecy, although the authority of the Council was at all times the basis of his mission. In 1955, on the other hand, when Dag Hammarskjold negotiated the release of 17 American airmen in China - a situation that had become a serious threat to world peace at that time - he was accepted in Beijing solely in his capacity as Secretary- General. Over the years, the Council has shown great flexibility and imagination in devising for each pacific settlement mission the instrument best suited to the particular demands of the problem.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  10. “In the cold war period, the universal fear of a nuclear confrontation between East and West lent urgency and support to the Council's efforts to contain regional conflicts and to keep them out of the cold war orbit. The cold war political situation also demanded that instruments such as peacekeeping be strictly under the auspices of the United Nations. That incentive and that constraint no longer exist and the instruments of pacific settlement have correspondingly diversified. Sometimes now they are outside the United Nations framework altogether. Pacific settlement is not an exact science and different problems call for different approaches. The active element and the method will vary according to each situation.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  11. “As Secretary-General U Thant said of the successful good offices mission over the contested future of Bahrain, the best of such missions 66' is one which is not heard of until it is successfully concluded or even never heard of at all." Much of the Council's and the Secretary-General's work in pacific settlement remains unpublicized. It is no less important for that. Situations that defy settlement have sometimes been contained by peacekeeping missions or other United Nations instruments, so that violence and the threat to the wider peace are reduced. Some of these missions go back many, many years. This is another activity that attracts little attention unless, of course, the containment mechanism fails and conflict results.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  12. “The very existence of the Council and the continuous diplomatic and other exchanges that go on in and around it, combined with the ceaseless peace-seeking activities of the Secretary-General, constitute an essential, ongoing worldwide peace process that is hard to evaluate or to quantify, but is nonetheless extremely important. Without it, I believe that the world would be a much more dangerous and unpredictable place. The Council's role as a last resort- a place where restraint, concession and compromise are a virtue rather than a sign of weakness or a loss of face - has always been a major resource for peace. Pacific settlement can be a long and untidy process. It is seldom newsworthy, especially when it is successful. A war prevented is not usually news.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  13. “At present, there are, I believe, some 33 special representatives of the Secretary-General engaged in pacific settlement missions in different parts of the world. As members of the Security Council know better than I do, there are many obstacles to useful international action and the Council has always suffered from the dichotomy between the noble responsibilities imposed on it in the Charter and the conflict of the national policies of its members and the reservations of national sovereignty. Given these limitations, I think that the record of the Council - indeed, of the United Nations in general - in pacific settlement is a good deal more impressive than is generally admitted.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  14. “During the cold war period, Chapter VI, "Pacific settlement of disputes", was the preferred chapter of the Charter, and Chapter VII - with one or two exceptions - was largely in abeyance. Chapter VI was the basis for most of the important activities of the Council and for all sorts of experiments and improvisations. The list of techniques in Chapter VI - negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies - has been progressively built on and extended. Among such extensions are peacekeeping - sometimes rather glibly referred to as being under "Chapter VI and a half" - a very large expansion of the role of the Secretary-General, United Nations presences, special representatives of the Secretary- General, Security Council commissions, friends of the Secretary-General, and so on.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source

  15. “Sir Brian Urquhart: Mr. President, I am greatly honoured - and somewhat unnerved, I must say - by your invitation to speak today in the Security Council. I attended the first meeting of the Council, in London in January 1946, and in the succeeding years I spent hundreds of hours in this Chamber sitting behind successive Secretaries-General, writing reports and sometimes trying to implement the Council's decisions in the field. I still believe that, for all the ups and downs of its first 57 years, the primary responsibility of the Security Council for international peace and security is as essential a concept as it was in 1946. As I left the Secretariat 18 years ago, my remarks will inevitably be of a rather general nature, which is probably just as well.”

    2003-05-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4753 (2003) · source