YouSaid · the spoken record

Christian Wenaweser

lines on the record: 118
first: 2020-05-15
most recent: 2021-10-15
sittings or episodes: 18
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

“As we all know, we have seen far too many vetoes in recent years that have not stood that test. We are of the view that any decision aimed at ending and preventing atrocity crimes should find the support of every Security Council member and never be subject to a veto. We welcome the fact that 122 States, including 10 Security Council members, have signed on to the code of conduct of the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency group regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. We hope that many others will join the code of conduct soon and work with Council members who are committed to its application in practice.”
2020-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1286 (2020) · source
“In addition to its other powers reflected in the Charter of the United Nations, the Council also now has the option of referring situations of manifest violations of the prohibition of the illegal use of force provision for investigation by the International Criminal Court, an additional tool with which the Council can live up to its obligation to ensure the relevant parts of the Charter of the United Nations. Finally, the use of the veto is a key element of every discussion on the relationship of the Security Council with the rule of law. We share the view of those who believe that the veto power given to the permanent members in the Charter of the United Nations is a responsibility. In particular, they must ensure that no veto be cast that obviously contradicts the purposes and principles of the United Nations.”
2020-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1286 (2020) · source
“As a consequence, the Council undermines its own authority and the obligation Member States have to implement its decisions. We are particularly concerned about recent trends concerning the application of international law with respect to the use of force, including Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. Excessively expansive and unchecked interpretations of Article 51 undermine the regulatory system set up by the drafters of the Charter 75 years ago and embraced by all of us when we joined the United Nations.”
2020-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1286 (2020) · source
“The most important contribution by the Council to the rule of law is in enforcing international law, beginning with its very own decisions. In that respect the Council certainly must do better. When permanent members take policy decisions that clearly violate Council resolutions, the authority of the Council as a whole is undermined significantly. The same is the case when they commit flagrant violations of international law, in particular the most serious forms of the illegal use of force against another State. We have witnessed all of that in the recent past. Those are actions that further remove the Council from its task to be a guardian of international law — be it the Charter of the United Nations or its very own decisions.”
2020-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1286 (2020) · source
“That is very surprising given that there is no lack of examples of Council members differing, at times sharply, on questions of public international law, and they certainly could have benefited from an advisory opinion on more than one occasion. If two thirds of the lifespan of the Council have been spent without resorting to an important legal tool, it can come as no surprise that the option is not even discussed anymore. But that can also change, and perhaps today’s debate can be the beginning of a new conversation on that. We encourage all Council members dedicated to the rule of law to contemplate the option when it has the potential to inform the decision-making of the Council and resolve differences in legal interpretation that impede effective Council action.”
2020-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1286 (2020) · source
“Given the important relationship that the Council has with the Court, we believe that all States serving on it, in particular its permanent members, should show their commitment to the rule of law by making the relevant declaration. The Security Council also has the competence to ask for advisory opinions from the Court on questions of public international law. We welcome the significant increase in the number of requests for advisory opinions in recent years, some of which have led to landmark opinions by the Court — such as the advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons. At the same time, that increase is due to the increased engagement of the General Assembly. The Council has used its important power in that respect only once in its history, as far back as 50 years ago.”
2020-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1286 (2020) · source
“We welcome this opportunity to offer reflections on the interplay between the Security Council and the International Court of Justice. Given the central importance of the rule of law at the international level, the importance of the role of the Court cannot be overstated. The Court’s work has been remarkably successful. Its judgments and advisory opinions are widely respected and represent one of the most important sources of the development of international law. There is, however, much room to expand the Court’s work. The most obvious point is that only 74 States Members of the United Nations have made a declaration under Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Statute to accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court.”
2020-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1286 (2020) · source
“Challenges to the rule of law and attacks on democratic processes, even in societies with long-held democratic traditions, must be met with responsible leadership, long-term policy thinking, stronger commitments against corruption and organized crime and an honest discussion about information and the role of social media. The fulfilment of SDG 16 is key to achieving sustainable development and ensuring that the Council lives up to its mandate.”
2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source
“The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are our blueprint for building back better and a road map for sustaining peace based on international law, human rights, cooperation, solidarity and multilateralism. Liechtenstein is pleased that the Council has addressed COVID-19, albeit in a limited manner, and encourages it to build on this precedent by taking on a human security-centred approach. This could include a Council contribution to system-wide discussions on the negative security impacts of the pandemic, including, but not limited to, the areas of climate and biodiversity, poverty and hunger, health, education, gender, freedom of expression and information and privacy. The pandemic has exacerbated what the Secretary-General has identified as the main threat to our societies — eroding trust in our institutions.”
2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source
“Systematic references to the impact of climate change on Council situations, particularly those outside of the African continent, are necessary and long overdue. But the Council must also address the root cause of these impacts. A small number of its members combined are responsible for more than half of global carbon dioxide emissions, and must urgently work to reduce them. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has led to wide-ranging human rights restrictions and increased risks of mass poverty and hunger, massive negative impacts on education, rising inequality and heightened social tensions — and, as such, generated a considerable human security cost.”
2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source
“Yet, the five years since the conclusion of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change have been the hottest on record, and it is increasingly possible that the next five will see the world’s temperature rise by 1.5°C — a threshold deemed the point of no return during the Paris negotiations. Liechtenstein is pleased that the Council increasingly recognizes the value of addressing the secondary impacts of climate change, such as involuntary migration, poverty, the loss of livelihoods and tensions between farmers and herders. Liechtenstein also continues to support efforts to tap into expertise across the United Nations development system, such as the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs-United Nations Development Programme-United Nations Environment Programme Climate Security Mechanism.”
2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source
“Liechtenstein is grateful to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for continuing Security Council discussions on the contemporary drivers of conflict in an open format. The systematic negligence of human security in the Council’s work limits its ability to meaningfully implement its mandate, even on the most restrictive reading, and makes the Council an irrelevant actor in increasingly prevalent crises of human security. Attempts by some members to restrain the Council to the so-called “hard” security issues of war and armed conflict point to an outdated paradigm of peace and security with a myopic focus on militarized causes and solutions. The Council first considered the link between climate and security in 2007 (see S/PV.5663).”
2020-11-03 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1090 (2020) · source
“Achieving peaceful, just and inclusive societies, as envisioned in SDG 16, requires increased access for women to justice from the local to the national level, developing gender-responsive legal and judicial systems and promoting the greater participation of women in the justice sector, including in the post-conflict period through transitional justice mechanisms and reparations processes. We applaud UN-Women and civil society organizations, such as Justice Rapid Response, for their important work in that regard.”
2020-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1084 (2020) · source
“In addition to ensuring the implementation of resolution 2467 (2019), we call on the Council to include conflict-related sexual violence as a designation criterion in targeted sanctions regimes.S/2020/1084 We firmly believe that there can be no peace without justice and no justice without peace, and there can be no justice without justice for all women. Structural inequalities, discrimination and poverty all too often hinder women’s access to justice, including transitional justice processes. We thank Belgium for its leadership in the Council on this topic, and we hope that the Council will agree on an outcome with a strong gender dimension.”
2020-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1084 (2020) · source
“However, the same stereotypes also impair men and boys and often result in underreporting, as also documented by the Liechtenstein-based human rights organization All Survivors Project. Resolution 2467 (2019) and its comprehensive survivor-centred approach are an important step forward for the women and peace and security agenda. In times of quarantines, lockdowns and other restrictions on movement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is particularly important to ensure that survivors of conflict-related sexual violence have access to reporting mechanisms and necessary services.”
2020-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1084 (2020) · source
“The pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities and has been the cause of the shadow pandemic for women and girls in particular, pushing women out of the workforce, depriving girls and young women of their right to education and compounding the crisis of domestic violence. Reports of the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and for Children and Armed Conflict document rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls and boys in a large number of conflict situations, many of which are on the Security Council’s agenda. Harmful gender stereotypes and abusive power dynamics are the root cause of sexual and gender-based violence, which affects women and girls disproportionately.”
2020-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1084 (2020) · source
“Mainstreaming the women and peace and security agenda within the entire United Nations system is of the essence to that end, as is the creation of synergies with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5. We deeply regret attempts to weaken internationally agreed human rights standards and to roll back the goals of the women and peace and security agenda by members of the Security Council itself. That regress is particularly worrisome in times of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which has disproportionately challenged women and girls.”
2020-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1084 (2020) · source
“We also encourage the Security Council to more consistently invite female expert briefers. As a contribution to further strengthening the participation pillar of the women and peace and security agenda, Liechtenstein commissioned a research project from the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security on the impact of women’s participation in State armed forces on respect for international humanitarian law. To allow women to be agents of change and to contribute to a more peaceful, sustainable and prosperous world, we need to create an environment that is enabling and inclusive, free of discrimination and unfair social norms and attitudes.”
2020-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1084 (2020) · source
“The twentieth anniversary of resolution 1325 (2000) is an important moment for the Security Council. It marks the beginning of an agenda that both has had enormous impact on the ground and is the source of ongoing frustration. However, above all, we should salute the work of civil society in the creation and implementation of the women and peace and security agenda, and it is its voice that should be heard today. We are inspired by the brave female protesters in Belarus, who are exemplary agents of peaceful change. While we see progress towards full, equal and meaningful participation, women’s participation in formal peacemaking processes, for instance, remains limited. Many peace agreements do not include provisions that give a sufficient voice to women and adequately address their security and peacebuilding needs.”
2020-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1084 (2020) · source
“In the interim, more systematic references to the impact of global warming on situations on the Council’s agenda, particularly those outside of the African continent, are necessary and long overdue. Most important, Council members must take urgent actions to reduce their emissions and spare vulnerable populations the brunt of the needless destruction that climate change is wreaking. It is not enough to more effectively address the nexus between climate change and security only when the policy decisions of Council members determine the scale of the security threat. The lives of billions around the world depend on decisions to avert climate disaster today.”
2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source
“The Council can already tap into a wide range of expertise across the United Nations system, such as in the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs- United Nations Development Programme-United Nations Environment Programme Climate Security Mechanism, and in other specialized agencies. It should pursue a resolution on climate and security as a stand-alone topic — one that establishes a reporting mechanism that makes use of that considerable expertise. It may also wish to consider whether a task force of relevant United Nations agencies could S/2020/929 S/2020/929 strengthen the Council’s engagement on the climate-security nexus through regular briefings and otherwise supplying relevant expertise and information.”
2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source
“But while it is important that the Council recognize those proximate factors, it must also trace them back to their root causes. To fail to do so is to fail to exercise effective prevention and sustain peace, and to disregard human security in favour of a paradigm that recognizes the salience of conflicts only in terms of armed origins and solutions. The Council is not short of recommendations for how to better engage with climate-related security risks. Fundamental to those is a reckoning that climate change is a root cause of insecurity and, relatedly, the need to develop an understanding of human insecurity as worthy of addressing before those affected resort to armed violence.”
2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source
“Entire populations will die, and States will become uninhabitable — a crime against our planet and against those must vulnerable to climate change. The violent and armed conflicts discussed in the concept note are portents of that death and destruction. We know that desertification, dwindling water resources and food and water insecurity have already led to violent conflict — both in situations where the Council has addressed the issue, such as in the Lake Chad basin and Somalia, and in those where it has not, notably in Syria and Yemen. Certain secondary impacts of climate change, such as increased involuntary migration, poverty, the loss of livelihoods and social tensions between farmers and herders, have themselves led to conflict, a fact that the Council readily accepts in some instances.”
2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source
“Yet, according to this year’s United in Science report, States have not heeded the warnings. The five years since the Paris Agreement on Climate Change have been the hottest on record, and it is increasingly possible that the world will warm by 1.5°C over the next five years, at least temporarily — a threshold deemed the point of no return during the Paris negotiations. Some may remember the call in Paris from our colleagues from the Republic of the Marshall Islands: “1.5 to stay alive”. The Council — with a small number of its members collectively responsible for more than half of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions — is confronted with the fact that, without urgent action, those emissions will directly create mass insecurity on a hitherto unforeseen scale.”
2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source
“I thank you, Sir, for using your presidency once again to bring the issue of climate change to the Security Council’s attention. Although climate change was discussed by the Council as recently as July (see S/2020/751), we must urgently address it again. Indeed, given the perilous situation in which we find ourselves, Liechtenstein must highlight the dire need for the Council to take drastic action on the key systemic security issue of our time. The General Assembly first considered a report by the Secretary-General on the security impacts of climate change 11 years ago (A/64/350). The concept note for today’s debate (S/2020/882, annex) also points out that the link between climate and security was first raised by the Council two years before that.”
2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source
“The Council could also consider whether a task force made up of relevant United Nations agencies could strengthen the Council’s engagement on the climate and security nexus through regular briefings and by otherwise supplying relevant expertise and information. In the interim, more systematic references to the impact of global warming on Council situations, particularly those outside of the African continent, are necessary and long overdue.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“COVID-19 has also brought to global attention the need for responsible human stewardship of global biodiversity, combined with such challenges as the illegal wildlife trade. The concept note for today’s debate highlights the need to pursue an approach to climate-related security risks that can inform Council decision-making, facilitate climate-related security-risk assessments and enable appropriate responses. A first step toward this goal could be a Council resolution on climate and security that establishes a reporting mechanism, making use of the considerable expertise that has already been developed within the United Nations system, including its specialized agencies.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“The Security Council runs a concrete risk of further paralysing itself in the role as guardian of peace and security if it does not embrace a broader notion of security that reflects the reality in which we all live. The present human security threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic must be an additional reason for the Council to address climate change. Economic lockdowns may have contributed to a temporary slowing of emissions, but efforts to restart economies quickly must make use of the cleanest forms of energy generation possible, in order to avoid a relapse and possible further setbacks. Building back better in response to the pandemic also means building greener, more sustainable economies.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“Liechtenstein acknowledges the expertise held in various United Nations bodies on this issue and encourages the Council to make increased use of the capacities and capabilities that exist across the United Nations system in order to improve its understanding of the climate and security nexus, notably the Climate Security Mechanism of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme. However, the underlying argument for opposing Council work on climate is a security paradigm with an exclusive focus on hard security that has long been outdated and, in the course of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, amply illustrated to be so.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“Many Member States fear the mass destruction caused by extreme weather events, of which global warming has dramatically increased the probability, or sea- level rise, which at today’s projections will make entire States uninhabitable or made simply to vanish within our lifetimes. Indigenous peoples remain at particular risk from the radical alteration of ecosystems and habitats due to climate change. The direct effects of global warming itself constitute an existential threat for many the world’s States and peoples. What could be more relevant to peace and security? One argument we hear from those opposed to a systematic focus on climate and security is that the Security Council is not the best placed of the United Nations bodies to address it.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“It is more than urgent for the Council to address the impact of climate on its work along these lines, given, in particular, the rapid downward spiral on climate change over the past decade. However, the Council should do more than this. It has so far treated the issue of climate inconsistently, and as a secondary factor. Its resolutions that refer to climate relate to country situations on the African continent and only as an aggravating factor or intensifier for other sources of conflict. But as the Secretary-General’s report explains, climate change is not only a threat multiplier, it is the root cause of insecurity for hundreds of millions of people inside and outside of situations on the Council’s agenda, and is by no means limited to Africa.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“As acknowledged in the concept note for today’s debate, “effects of climate change can lead, inter alia, to food insecurity, largescale displacement and social tensions, exacerbating, prolonging or contributing to the risk of future conflicts” (S/2020/725, enclosure, para. 2). Indeed, we see these dynamics today in situations on the Council’s agenda, including in Yemen, where the decreasing ability to grow food and access clean water caused by climate change is exacerbating suffering; in the Lake Chad basin, where diminishing water supplies have led to conflict between farmers and herders and spurred migration; and in Somalia, where increasing droughts have led to an absence of livelihood options and to greater poverty, in turn sparking and prolonging conflicts.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for using your presidency of the Security Council to bring the key issue of our time to our attention today. We hope that this open video-teleconference will advance the Council’s consideration of the climate and security nexus, which is badly needed. In order to understand how delayed the Council is in taking account of the climate and security nexus, it is worth considering how the other principal organs of the United Nations have expressed themselves on this linkage. The Secretary- General’s report on climate change and its possible security implications (A/64/350), submitted to the General Assembly nearly 11 years ago, forecasted increased involuntary migration, intra-State conflict over water resources and territorial disputes, as well as food and water insecurity as a result of climate change.”
2020-07-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/751 (2020) · source
“The International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism’s diligent work is a constant reminder of the central role of criminal accountability in any political process aimed at sustainable peace and genuine reconciliation in Syria. Liechtenstein welcomes the clear commitment to that effect by the participants of the fourth Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region and remains fully aligned with it.”
2020-07-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/736 (2020) · source
“Despite the fact that the membership has predominantly and clearly expressed itself on the need to ensure accountability for the worst crimes committed in Syria, the Security Council continues to ignore the call for a referral to the ICC. In that context, the decision to create the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 in late 2016 is increasingly relevant in the quest to bring about a measure of justice for the atrocities that have been committed in Syria.”
2020-07-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/736 (2020) · source
“In contrast, the use of the veto by two permanent members of the Council to block two previous draft resolutions put forward by the co-penholders, and subsequently ensure an end to aid deliveries through the Bab Al-Salam and Al-Yarubiyah border crossings, is deplorable. We are concerned that people in northern Aleppo and north-eastern Syria will suffer due to these actions, just as they have done as a result of the 14 previous vetoes regarding the situation in Syria over the past seven years. It is long past time that such flagrant use of the veto be met with a response from the wider membership, including through action in the General Assembly.”
2020-07-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/736 (2020) · source
“However, the process of arriving at the resolution demonstrated once again that the Council was unable to muster the political will to prioritize the protection of the Syrian people, even if the humanitarian necessities are perfectly clear, and to agree on measures that are commensurate with the challenge at hand. Based on the information available, we must conclude that the agreement found within the Council is likely to exacerbate the humanitarian suffering in the country, falling short of bringing more permanent relief. We thank those members of the Security Council who put their collective weight behind achieving this minimal solution for the continued cross-border delivery of aid, in particular the co-penholders.”
2020-07-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/736 (2020) · source
“The JCPOA was a milestone achievement of multilateral diplomacy that strengthened the international rules- based order and achieved concrete results in terms of nuclear non-proliferation. Full compliance with its terms needs to be restored. Liechtenstein also recalls that resolution 2231 (2015) remains in force and therefore continues to be binding on all States, with a special responsibility for all members of the Security Council. We closely followed the process leading to the adoption of resolution 2533 (2020), which will allow millions in north-western Syria, particularly in and around Idlib, to continue to receive aid.”
2020-07-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/736 (2020) · source
“Such proceedings by a standing and authoritative international court are the expression of an effective international rules-based order, as consistently advocated by a large part of the United Nations membership. Political attacks against the ICC can only intend to weaken the rule of law, undermine multilateralism and strengthen the rule of might — a trend that we are determined to oppose, along with many others. We will therefore continue our support for the ICC in providing justice undeterred and with confidence of its broadly supported mandate. Liechtenstein regrets the withdrawal of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — decisions that undoubtedly make the world a less safe place.”
2020-07-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/736 (2020) · source
“Far from making Israel more secure, annexation undermines the prospect of a two-State solution based on applicable international law, in particular international humanitarian law, and the relevant Security Council resolutions, which remain the only viable pathway to a sustainable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In all situations Liechtenstein will implement its policy, in accordance with international law, not to recognize as lawful any annexation of territory. Liechtenstein notes the ongoing proceedings in Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with regard to the situation in Palestine and looks forward to its decision in due course.”
2020-07-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/736 (2020) · source
“Not for the first time this year, Liechtenstein approaches the quarterly open debate on the Middle East in an atmosphere of grave concern. Foremost among today’s issues is the continued spectre of the annexation of parts of the West Bank by Israel. Liechtenstein reiterates its long-held position that the annexation of territory, or any decision to change or amend the border between Israel and Palestine without the explicit consent of both parties, is in violation of international law and the relevant Security Council resolutions. Such actions are illegal regardless of the scale or speed of annexation.”
2020-07-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/736 (2020) · source
“We will continue our strong support for the accountability mechanisms created by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council. We remain committed to strengthening criminal justice and accountability for sexual and gender-based violence in conflict, including by supporting the important work by UN-Women and Justice Rapid Response.”
2020-07-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/727 (2020) · source
“Last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) found warlord Bosco Ntaganda guilty of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is a milestone verdict, as sexual violence crimes committed against men were held to the same standard as those committed against women. The ongoing proceedings at the International Court of Justice against Myanmar’s military and security forces in the context of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is another promising development to strengthen accountability for sexual violence crimes. In too many instances, perpetrators of sexual violence continue to enjoy impunity, and victims and survivors are left without assistance. We call upon the Security Council to refer situations such as in the Syrian Arab Republic and Myanmar to the ICC.”
2020-07-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/727 (2020) · source
“That is of the utmost relevance, as sexual violence against men and boys in particular continues to be underreported owing to a lack of legal frameworks, cultural taboos and fear of stigmatization. In a time of quarantines, lockdowns and other restrictions on movement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is particularly important to ensure that survivors of conflict- related sexual violence have access to reporting mechanisms and necessary services. In addition to ensuring the implementation of resolution 2467 (2019), we call on the Council to include conflict-related sexual violence as a designation criterion in targeted sanctions regimes. Accountability is an essential part of the fight against conflict-related sexual violence. The international criminal justice system has done groundbreaking work in that regard.”
2020-07-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/727 (2020) · source
“The annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the work of the Liechtenstein-based human rights organization All Survivors Project document rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys in a large number of conflict situations, many of which are on the Council’s agenda. Resolution 2467 (2019) and its survivor-centred approach are an important step forward in the women and peace and security agenda. Monitoring, analysis and reporting focus more consistently on the gender-specific nature of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations against all affected populations in all situations of concern, including men and boys.”
2020-07-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/727 (2020) · source
“As important as the protection pillar remains, the participation dimension is also essential, as it emphasizes women’s agency to address and prevent such violence. As a contribution to further strengthening the participation pillar of the women and peace and security agenda, Liechtenstein has commissioned a research project from the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security on the impact of female peacekeepers and members of armed forces on respect for international humanitarian law. Harmful gender stereotypes and abusive power dynamics are the root cause of sexual and gender-based violence. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by sexual violence, but men and boys are also targeted.”
2020-07-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/727 (2020) · source
“This year is a pivotal one for the women and peace and security agenda. In addition to marking the twentieth anniversary of foundational resolution 1325 (2000) and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the visionary Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, it also marks 75 years since the advent of the United Nations itself, with its founding promise of gender equality. While some progress has been made since then, gender inequality and discrimination remain major challenges. Had we more effectively addressed such inequalities and discrimination in past decades, we would find ourselves in a better place today to respond to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Discussions on conflict-related sexual violence have been dominated by an approach that looks at women and girls primarily as victims and survivors.”
2020-07-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/727 (2020) · source
“With global guidelines for reporting to the monitoring and reporting mechanism unaltered, it is vital that monitoring staff be urgently trained to explore options for remote verification of incidents of violence. While we acknowledge the challenges the Special Representative’s mandate is currently facing, we reiterate that the protection of the Office’s independence and integrity is crucial to its effectiveness and credibility, which also includes the objective, consistent and transparent practice of listing parties that have committed grave violations against children, as well as those that have or have not put in place measures during the reporting period to improve the protection of children.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“We reiterate our strong support for the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to shed more light on marginalized victims and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, in line with resolution 2467 (2019). Upholding the security, privacy and confidentiality of survivors and witnesses is key, as are ethical considerations in documenting and verifying information of child survivors of sexual violence. In the light of the pandemic, it is all the more important to prioritize the development and remote roll- out of gender-specific training tools to conduct the safe and ethical documentation of cases of conflict-related sexual violence against girls and boys.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“The Secretary-General’s call for an immediate global ceasefire is an opportune moment to put armed conflict on lockdown and to focus together on the fight against COVID-19 and on protecting the most vulnerable. Liechtenstein remains deeply concerned at the high occurrence of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children. Such violence is often underreported owing to the fear of stigmatization and cultural taboos, in particular when perpetrated against boys, as also documented by the All Survivors Project. A culture of silence continues to impede accountability and justice and contributes to further cycles of violence and persistent harmful gender stereotypes.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source