YouSaid · the spoken record

Cohen

lines on the record: 977
first: 2008-01-22
most recent: 2023-10-24
sittings or episodes: 157
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

“On that day, over 1,500 terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad infiltrated Israel from the south with a viciousness that exceeds even that of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS), killing more than 1,400 babies, children, women and men, and wounding more than 4,000. They went from house to house, slaughtering entire families and individuals in their beds, on the streets and on their way to the synagogue, raping women, burning them alive and dancing and chanting on people’s bodies. Members were not there, and have not seen the horror or smelled it. Let us pause for a moment and think about the many innocent people who woke up on Saturday morning. So many of them have not received a final burial. Let us recite the words of the Jewish prayer for the dead, the Kaddish:”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“[…] Do I want to remember this world upside down?” “Families vanished in the midst of the day. The mass grave steaming with vapor of blood. Mothers searching for children in vain. […] No. I have to remember and never let you forget.” That heart-wrenching poem was written in 1942 by Alexander Kimel, a Holocaust survivor. Five years later, the General Assembly voted in favour of the creation of the Jewish State — the birth of the State of Israel (resolution 181 (II)). Seventy-five years ago, a clear statement was made: never again. Never again. Saturday, 7 October will go down in history as nothing less than a brutal massacre. Saturday, 7 October is a wake-up call for the entire free world. It is a wake-up call against extremism and terror.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“As we meet here today, young babies and children are being held in Gaza. This is beyond imagination. It is a living nightmare: Ofri, 10 years old; Avigail, 3 years old; Maya, 17 years old; Raz, 4 years old; Aviv, 2 years old; Ariel, 4 years old; little Kfir, only 9 months; Yuval, 8 years old; and Ofir, 17 years old. They are just a few of the many children and babies that have not seen evil, have not caused evil, but are victims of evil. These children witness horror that words cannot describe. Mr. Secretary-General, what world do you live in? This is definitely not our world. “Do I want to remember, the creation of hell? The shouts of the raiders, enjoying the hunt. Cries of the wounded, begging for life. Faces of mothers carved with pain. Hiding children, dripping with fear? No, I don’t want to remember, but how can I forget?”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“Secondly, we are ready to do it again. Today’s companies are identifying and embracing the responsibilities and opportunities of geopolitics. We are not afraid to do so. And it is a necessity of doing business. Thirdly, we are looking to the Council for leadership and partnership. I ask that the Council put the private sector on the agenda during the high-level week. We are ready to take everyone’s calls.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“They provided equity hedging to insurance clients and foreign-exchange liquidity through the Group of Seven intervention. Those actions helped drive down the yen and supported Japan’s export-focused economy during a very trying period. The private sector cannot do what Governments do. That is not what I am suggesting, and neither are we substitutes for non-governmental organizations. I am not suggesting that either. But business is part of the solution, and economic growth is the foundation of sustainable recovery. I will leave members with three final thoughts. The first is that none of this is historic. It is the scale and the opportunity that are historic. We have done it before. During the Marshall Plan, businesses played a crucial role in Europe’s recovery, and we did it with far fewer companies in a much less globalized world.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“It is a platform to match American sponsors who want to help with Ukrainian refugees. And we built it to serve as a foundation for future refugee-resettlement initiatives. We have seen other companies, including Mastercard, rise to the challenge. The Council will be hearing more from Mr. Miebach, who I think is one of the great CEOs we have in this country. We can all do more. I want to underline one more way that we can do that. Our business is business. It makes everything that I have mentioned possible and is also part of our response to crises. In our case, we work through global markets to allocate capital where and when it is needed. One example is that after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, our 1,700-person staff in Tokyo were at the office, dealing with extreme market volatility.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“Some flew in from as far away as Frankfurt and even Hong Kong to aid in the response. We have also supported international organizations such as UNICEF and local non-profits such as Ukraine Global Scholars. Fourthly, expertise matters. If the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies were here, they would tell members that they can offer much more than funding. Their expertise sets them apart in business and in humanitarian response. As an example, the White House announced last March that the United States would welcome more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees — a historic objective. But the technological know-how to make that happen quickly is not always in Government. It is in the private sector. That is why, working with something called Welcome.US, engineers at Goldman Sachs — we have more than 10,000 — built Welcome Connect.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“To date, it has deployed more than $2.2 billion, working with 9,400 non-profits and with an impact in 140 different countries around the world. Thirdly, local connections matter. Goldman Sachs relies on its people. We have more than 45,000 employees in 42 different countries. Our second largest office outside New York City is in India, where we have more than 8,000 employees. They are our primary responsibility. When a crisis hits anywhere in the world, our people are often directly affected, but they can also help direct our response, and they do so. For example, we have many Ukrainian colleagues and approximately 800 staff in Poland. They have volunteered at refugee centres in Warsaw. They have donated medical supplies and first-aid kits and funded scholarships and food deliveries. They have sheltered Ukrainians in their own homes.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“I will therefore offer some principles for how we can fulfil those responsibilities during crises. First, we should not scramble to reinvent the wheel every single time. Drawing on institutional memory may be the difference between getting ahead of a crisis or thousands of people dying. We need more sustained partnerships with one another and the public sector. Secondly, we need to act with speed and innovate in real time. Resources are not always in the hands of philanthropists and non-governmental organizations. Governments have the principal responsibility, but they can be slow to respond, particularly when events are far away and complicated by perplexing geopolitical dynamics. At Goldman Sachs, our primary philanthropic vehicle for responding to humanitarian crises is something that we call GS Gives.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“A growing number of companies have global interests and responsibilities. The revenues of many multinationals rival the gross domestic product of some G20 countries. The largest employers in the world are businesses as well as Governments. Five American companies have more than 500,000 workers, as do many of their global counterparts. That means they have more employees than as many as 20 States members of the United Nations have citizens. Globalization did not just connect the world. It put the private sector at the geopolitical table. But that seat did not come with a clear playbook. Today’s global firms have responsibilities to our shareholders, clients, staff and communities, and to the rules-based international order that makes it possible for us to do business. It is a very complicated labyrinth for us to navigate.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“He linked peace and security in Eastern Europe to peace and security globally. In many instances, geopolitical swing States can accomplish things the great Powers cannot. They offer new leaders who better represent a changing world and have the flexible resources, diplomatic leverage and credibility that can enable them to play a meaningful leadership role, particularly within the Global South. And we have just seen India do that by hosting a successful Group of 20 (G20) Summit on the heels of Indonesia’s similar hosting the previous year. Those geopolitical swing States often function with the speed and agility of business and have become some of the most reliable partners for businesses looking to play a role in crisis management. That brings me to the second group that I want to highlight — the private sector.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“Whether it is because of their differentiated position with supply chains, their advantageous geography or resources or their particular leaders’ vision of their role in the world, those countries are having a tremendous impact while at the same time expanding their ambitions around the globe. My main message is that many of the biggest challenges in today’s era of great-Power competition will not be solved by great Powers alone. I believe it is a golden moment for geopolitical swing States to step up, lead and expand their roles. I have highlighted Qatar’s extraordinary role in Afghanistan and the difference that it made. Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan has not only pledged more than $7 billion in aid for Ukraine, his statements of support and visit to Kyiv have changed how much of the world thinks about the war.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“Our historic institutions must rise to today’s challenges. Ambassador McCain highlighted how the World Food Programme does that, in keeping with humanitarian norms and principles. I want to highlight two significant groups of global players that did not have the same potential when this body was founded 78 years ago. My hope in doing that is that when the Council thinks about public- private partnership and humanitarian response, we can broaden ideas about which public players matter and what private-sector stakeholders can do. The first category that I want to highlight is an emerging group of nations that I call geopolitical swing States. They are stable, thriving countries that, while they may not be permanent members of the Security Council, have global agendas and the will, agency and capacity to turn those agendas into realities.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“The world is facing the greatest moment of geopolitical uncertainty in more than two decades, perhaps since the Cold War. But we cannot let humanitarian crises become even more geopoliticized than they already are. The mission of this body is the maintenance of international peace and security. Many of today’s crises would look fairly familiar to the leaders who founded the Council 78 years ago — pandemics, food shortages, floods and of course the tragic 6.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Morocco just last Friday. Other challenges are much newer — cyberattacks, climate change, disinformation and misinformation and even lethal drugs such as fentanyl. And it is no secret that Russia’s war on Ukraine and the competition between great Powers are making the Council’s objective that much more challenging.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“I think the fact that I last addressed the Security Council more than a year ago as an executive at Google (see S/PV.9069) and that today, a year later, I am addressing it as an executive at Goldman Sachs, is just one small point that shows the breadth of private-sector commitment to humanitarian assistance and crisis response. What happened in Afghanistan was nothing short of a tragedy, and in many respects represented humankind at its worst, particularly considering that young girls are now no longer allowed to go to school. But responses such as those I have mentioned were a reminder to me, and I hope to everyone in the Chamber, that such moments can also bring out the best of humankind and what we can all achieve together. That is why I am here today. The task of crisis response is growing much more urgent.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania personally greeted Afghan refugees on the tarmac in Tirana. He transformed some of the country’s crown jewels, its precious resort towns, into new homes so that Afghans could rebuild their lives. I want to thank Albania for championing humanitarianism through its presidency of the Council and thereafter. Those are just a few examples of the people and countries that stepped up two years ago. Around the world, countless chief executive officers (CEOs), as well as individuals with no business interests and no connections, covered planes, resettlement, living expenses and so much more.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“It was Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, then Foreign Minister of Qatar and now Prime Minister, who mobilized his country. Qatar evacuated, resettled and transported tens of thousands of Afghan women, girls and civil-society leaders to safety. Sheikh Mohammed and his team did so with extraordinary attention to detail, and his staff worked through some extreme diplomatic complexities, as well as physical risks on the ground, to achieve those goals. After the evacuations, the then President of Iraq, Burhan Salih, brought hundreds of Afghan university students to the American University of Iraq in Sulaymaniyah. And in bringing those hundreds of students to Iraq, he managed to ensure that while the Taliban occupied their university campus, those students missed not more than two weeks of school.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“Mr. Cohen: It is a privilege to appear before the Security Council today. This meeting follows a crisis that happened 760 days ago, 7,000 miles away. It has largely faded from the headlines, but today is an important reminder of the ongoing plight of the Afghan people and continuing crises around the world. We all remember when Kabul fell to the Taliban. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans were put at risk. Most of them had nowhere to go, and a significant portion of the world’s countries closed their doors. But a few countries opened them up, including some represented around this table today. I remember at the time talking to journalists, philanthropists and a number of world leaders, asking what could be done. Overnight, that group formed what could only be described as a multisectoral, multinational network of goodwill.”
2023-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9418 (2023) · source
“We have no deterrence in the cyberdomain, and the world’s connected population is caught in the crossfire, getting hit by the digital equivalent of shrapnel on a daily basis. None of that can be put back in a box once it has been deployed, and it is not possible to control what ultimately happens to it. States must find a way to turn the volume down and settle on some kind of deterrence doctrine for the cyberdomain. Companies and technology experts have badly needed expertise, but there is no magical algorithm or single fix for this. It will take a lot of experimental efforts rather than a single grand effort to protect our digital world. My hope is that in sharing a little bit about Jigsaw’s work with the Council, it offers one small example of what that experimentation can look like.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Her lesson was profound about the dangers of mass mobilization and the type of powder keg that it can create, where a small trigger can bring the world to war. We understand the lessons associated with mass physical mobilization. We are seeing that play out in Europe at this precise moment, and that is why we all are here today. It is not clear to me that we understand the consequences and the implications of the mass mobilization of cyberwar. I am deeply, deeply concerned that we are bringing the country to the brink of a threshold that once we have crossed there will be no going back. My caution is that while cyberwar is less visible and harder to understand, it is far more contagious, harder to control and increasingly has physical-world implications.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“As we work to scale the programme globally, we will continue to explore emerging threats and what new tools should be built to tackle them. Finally, we have free and open-source tools that help protect against attacks at the network level. Those tools allow individuals who are experiencing a filtered Internet in a moment of crisis to be able to contact civil-society organizations in other countries that have set up a cloud server to allow a channel for people in those countries to be able to experience the Internet of a different country. That tool is being used by activists across the world. Let me finish with a note of caution and a call to action. In doing so, I want to reflect on one of my favourite authors, Barbara Tuchman, who wrote Guns of August, the seminal book on the causes of the First World War.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“We have developed a technology that encourages users to think carefully as they engage with low-quality content across the Web. Our prototype on YouTube resulted in a statistically significant increase in users’ ability to spot manipulation. We are exploring new techniques that protect people against misinformation by teaching them to spot and refute a misleading argument or tactic called prebunking. We are currently exploring prebunking campaigns in Central and Eastern Europe in response to the anticipated disinformation around refugee flows and look forward to reporting on its impact in the coming weeks and months. While the programme currently focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, it will eventually be available in more than 35 languages in the near term, including Polish, Czech and Ukrainian.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Google, Reddit, The New York Times and many other publications around the world leverage that API to promote healthy dialogue and discourse. We have also published an open-source tool called Harassment Manager, which helps users who are often targets of harassment, such as journalists, human rights defenders and civil-society leaders. It helps them document and manage the harassment that they receive on social media platforms, which can be voluminous and down to the second. In partnership with Twitter and Thomson Reuters Foundation, the tool will be freely available for the Foundation’s community of journalists this summer. Our behavioural research and product development teams are focused on helping users become more resilient to misinformation and disinformation while browsing and communicating online.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“We are protecting more than 150 government, non-governmental, publisher, and human rights organizations sites that are under repeated and daily DDoS threat. Project Shield was specifically recognized as contributing to Google’s receipt of the first Ukraine Peace Prize. Protect Your Democracy also aims to protect the conversation. Included in the toolkit is a multilingual product built by Jigsaw called “Perspective API”. The technology helps content moderators monitor and detect toxicity in text-based communications online. We do this by amassing a data training set of annotated and toxic comments and then training a machine-learning model to measure toxicity by literally showing it billions of examples in multiple languages of what other people have described and labelled as toxic.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Last month, we launched a new programme that we are calling “Protect Your Democracy”. Protect Your Democracy offers a suite of free tools to people and organizations to help protect their access to the free and open web, defend websites from cyberattacks, shield their accounts from hacking and safeguard the digital public square. In addition, Project Shield is a free service that extends Google’s DDoS protection services to websites not on Google’s cloud. Using what is called a “reverse proxy”, the tool functions as an insurance policy that protects the site when it needs it most. Deployed first in Ukraine in 2014, where we first got the idea, when we asked human rights and civil society organizations what they needed, Shield is again active at work in Ukraine.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Interestingly, when Russia annexed the occupied Ukrainian territory in 2014, it also took over their Internets, seizing the assets of incumbent telcos and routing traffic through Rostelecom. This “soft substitution” of one for the other began after the Russian invasion of Crimea. Today that model has been accelerated, and Donbas’ Internet is, for all intents and purposes, now a Russian Internet. Borders are still contested, but the digital frontier is now already frozen. Let us now talk about solutions. Each of these attacks now forms part of the rubric and strategy of war and has implications far beyond the current conflict in Ukraine. It is increasingly urgent for the Security Council to consider the digital implications of war and explore legal revisions to cover such threats. At Jigsaw, we are contributing in the ways we can.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Our team at Jigsaw has developed research that confirms the ability to leverage disinformation to motivate violence, especially to motivate animosity toward what is called an “outgroup”. The relentless Russian propaganda to its citizens that Ukrainians were “Nazis” likely served to dehumanize Ukrainians in the eyes of Russian soldiers, leading to the many war crimes now alleged against Russian forces. Efforts to reconstitute the Ukrainian Internet as the Russian Internet constitute the fifth and final vector of attack that I will speak about today. In the first major city to be captured by Russian forces, Kherson, targeted attacks on fibre-optic backbones and a power outage took them offline, but then their Internet traffic was routed through Crimea.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Authoritarian regimes develop sophisticated strategies to disorient digital conversations, and, if successful, they completely control the narrative. One of the more complex cases involved the creation of fake fact-checkers who sought to create confusion by “fact-checking” Ukrainian claims that were never made. In debunking fabricated false claims, the effort aimed to position Ukrainians as liars and sway public and political support towards Russia. Such attacks have been amplified by a combination of real-people trolls and enhanced chatbots and challenged many platforms’ ability to respond quickly and accurately. The fourth vector of attack has been the use of misinformation and disinformation to incite and justify extreme violence.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“It focuses on grass-roots movements to drive public and political support away from Ukrainian defence. As an example, in Poland, where the vast majority of refugees are women and where refugees are being housed in individual Polish citizens’ homes, there is a disinformation campaign targeting women of the households, encouraging them to protect their husbands against these refugees, playing on fears that some individuals might have. We have also seen attacks on the conversation more broadly, which constitutes the third vector of attack. Information warfare has made its way into the homes of ordinary people across the globe. Activist and political leaders now have a direct line of communication to organize around a cause. This has enhanced the voices of those living in societies where censorship is a dark reality and is most pervasive.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“The second vector of attack focuses on organized harassment through toxicity and deception. These attacks have targeted prominent individuals and whole classes of people. Deepfakes of alleged cocaine addiction were used to seed and feed a harassment campaign against President Zelenskyy. The aggression aimed to undermine President Zelenskyy’s mental stability while persuading public support towards Russia. In another broad effort, numerous campaigns have aimed at creating resentment towards Ukrainian refugees throughout Europe, with the obvious goal of creating change and havoc at the ballot box. Disinformation has spread across social media platforms on refugee-linked criminal activity and preferential treatment of refugees over countries’ own citizens. This strategy goes beyond Ukraine’s borders.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“In Ukraine, Russia has deployed DDoS attacks that have taken down overall connectivity by 15 to 20 per cent in the country, and, on multiple occasions, the attacks have become so ferocious that Internet connectivity dropped to close to zero. They have blocked access to essential services, financial institutions, the Government and critical non-governmental organization services. These attacks are not only targeting institutions in Ukraine. In May alone, many Government agencies around the world reported numerous DDoS attacks, including the Port of London Authority, Italy’s Supreme Council of Magistrates, its customs agency, Ministries for Foreign Affairs, Education, and Cultural Heritage, Estonia’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Germany’s Ministry of Defence, the Bundestag and the Federal Police.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“This has been among the most pervasive forms of attack since the mid- 1990s. Last month, Cloudflare mitigated the largest HTTPS attack ever reported. These attacks are not only getting larger; they are getting more sophisticated, and they are targeting a broader cross-section of society. As an example, 60 per cent of all DDoS attacks have targeted institutions of education, where the primary beneficiaries of those websites are young people, as well as entities critical to telecommunications. They are also developing so-called microfloods, which are low-throughput attacks, which have been harder to detect and have increased steadily, up by 123 per cent over where they were at the beginning of this year.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“These attacks target industrial capacities, government institutions and essential non-governmental organizations, and they often seek to take advantage of long-cultivated zero- day exploits to bring these institutions down. The term “zero-day” refers to the time where basically there are “zero days” to patch a vulnerability in a system, because the vulnerability is discovered at the precise moment of attack. Most of these attacks were mitigated in the early phases of the war. But, even now, attacks against Ukrainian institutions, individuals, and organizations continue to accelerate. Let us start with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which overwhelm a website with traffic coming from different compromised computers around the world, with the aim of censoring the website by knocking it off the Internet.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“As one example, Russia’s cyberattacks on Ukraine are so egregious that the Ukrainian elements of criminal ransomware groups made up of both Russian and Ukrainian citizens, when given the order to deploy ransomware, chose to defend Ukraine instead and leaked the logs associated with the ransomware. Let me attempt to highlight five key attack vectors that are illustrated in Ukraine. I have a rule that I am not going to articulate and capture problems, without subsequently offering examples of what can and should be done about them The first vector is attacks on critical infrastructure. This is what we typically think of as traditional hacking of systems and infrastructure.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“I believe this to be even truer today, but the types of attacks we see have unfortunately diversified and democratized. Nowhere is this more true than in Ukraine. Let me be clear about one thing: for all nations concerned about their cybervulnerabilities, there is absolutely nothing that they will see in their countries that will not be directed at Ukraine first and worse. It has been disproportionately targeted by the most advanced cyberattacks since 2014. It is essentially our crystal ball for what is likely to come. It is a testament to the Ukrainian effectiveness in deflecting and countering these attacks that it has become increasingly difficult to understand the full breadth of what is playing out.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Looking back to 2014, in the Donbas, before any tanks crossed the border or any physical weapons were fired, there was the systematic targeting of police officers in the eastern part of Ukraine, encouraging them over Telegram channels to defect, with result that, when the first shots were fired, the support and rule of law would be undermined. Narratives are amplified to mitigate a perceived threat or even topple democratic systems. From across the globe, combatants can gain access to and attack critical infrastructure that affects the livelihood of our communities. This has brought digital and information warfare to the forefront of geopolitical conflicts. In 2016, I wrote in Time magazine that all wars will begin as cyberwars. They will unfold silently, invisibly and relatively inexpensively.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“For example, if we look at the war in Ukraine, there are more hours of footage uploaded to YouTube, TikTok and other platforms than there are aggregate minutes of the entire war itself. But with great promise also comes new vulnerabilities. That is why I founded Jigsaw in 2010 at Google — because I wanted technology to address the future challenges that could potentially destabilize the Internet that was being created. Those challenges are here today and are impacting the most vulnerable segments of the world’s population, who are increasingly caught in the crossfire of inter-State cyberconflict. Like land, air and sea, the Internet has become a critical domain to occupy during war. For nations at war, their first strike is increasingly a cyberstrike.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“But missing from the discourse back then because of the state of technology were words like distributed denial-of-service attack, cyberattack, malware, virus, trolling, online harassment, doxxing, Domain Name System poisoning, hacking and so many other terms that we find ourselves grappling with today. But while these concepts are relatively new in the history of the Security Council, the motivations behind them and the potential consequences are as familiar as the history of war and conflict. The interconnectedness brought about by the Internet and social media has advanced humankind in ways we could never have deemed fathomable. It has also given us unparalleled visibility.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Mr. Cohen: It is truly a profound honour and privilege to be invited to speak to the Security Council today. I want to start by thanking the Government of Albania, in particular Prime Minister Rama and Foreign Minister Xhaçka, for the invitation. From Afghanistan to Ukraine and on so many other issues, Albania has stepped up to embody the best of what it means to embrace a moral imperative. When this Chamber was built and the Security Council was established, no one at the time could have conceived or imagined a future where nearly 65 per cent of the world’s population is connected to something as complex as the modern Internet.”
2022-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9069 (2022) · source
“Such efforts make peacekeeping safer by simultaneously protecting the lives ofboth peacekeepers and civilians. The United States will continue to press for improved peacekeeping performance reporting in MINUSCA and in all peacekeeping operations according to the standards set in the Action for Peacekeeping initiative and in resolution 2436 (2018). The meeting rose at 10.50 am.”
2019-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8646 (2019) · source
“Fourthly, during the recent trip of the Security Council sanctions committee to Bangui, it was clear that the Government of the Central African Republic now has sufficient arms to supply its troops but still needs to develop defence institutions to provide their troops with logistical support and salaries when deployed in the field. We hope that the Government of the Central African Republic can make more progress on the arms embargo benchmarks so that its military can be counted on to defend the borders and protect Central Africans. Finally, the United States would like to recognize the attention paid in the Secretary-General's report of 15 October (S/2019/822) to performance optimization, particularly the new short-loop casualty evacuation process and actions taken in response to violence in Alindao.”
2019-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8646 (2019) · source
“There is no contradiction between protecting civilians and using MINUSCA's good offices to support the success of the peace agreement. In fact, we believe that these two efforts are mutually reinforcing. Thirdly, we must break the cycle of violence in the Central African Republic by ensuring high standards for vetting, disarmament, demobilization and training for former combatants who choose to enter the mixed brigades or participate in other disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes. Vetting should complement the work of the Special Criminal Court, which the United States supports, to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes and atrocities, in keeping with the Bangui Forum.”
2019-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8646 (2019) · source
“I would like to start by thanking our briefers today. We offer Special Representative Ndiaye our condolences following the loss of four Senegalese peacekeepers in the helicopter accident last month. I will make five brief points. First, the United States is deeply concerned that some armed groups continue to violate the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic with impunity. We call for all signatory parties to commit to fully implementing the peace agreement. Secondly, we would like to highlight the fact that the top priority task of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) is the protection of civilians.”
2019-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8646 (2019) · source
“The United States welcomes UNISFA's efforts to stabilize Abyei through supporting local peace communities, establishing new checkpoints, resolving local conflicts and disarming the population. We also commend the work of non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies undertaking work in support of local populations in Abyei. We endorse the Secretary-General's call for Special Envoy Onanga-Anyanga and the African Union to increase their efforts to secure a resolution of the political conflicts in Abyei. We look forward to learning more on that. The United States remains committed to peace and security in Abyei. Supporting peace there will enable long-term stability for both the Sudan and South Sudan.”
2019-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8644 (2019) · source
“We remain concerned that UNISFA is not being allowed to fully implement its mandate. We call on both parties to ensure that UNISFA can operate as an effective and efficient peacekeeping mission, including by granting visas for United Nations police and allowing the appointment of a civilian deputy. While insecurity remains contained in Abyei, the situation is fragile, as evidenced by attacks on UNISFA personnel, rising criminality and ongoing incidents of cattle raiding and kidnapping. That is all unacceptable. In recognition of the vital role that women play in securing peace and security, we support UNISFA's efforts to encourage local peace committees to include women leaders. Their absence limits prospects for achieving a lasting peace.”
2019-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8644 (2019) · source
“I thank Under-Secretary-General Lacroix and Special Envoy Onanga-Anyanga for their briefings on the latest developments on the ground in Abyei and along the South Sudan-Sudan border. The United States would like to extend particular thanks to Ethiopia for its contributions to the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA). Without Ethiopia's efforts, the relatively stable situation in Abyei would not be possible. The United States recognizes that Abyei is a strategic crossroads between the Sudan and South Sudan, and resolving Abyei's political status is needed for a complete and lasting peace in the region. While the internal political shifts in the Sudan and South Sudan provide some momentum towards resolving ongoing disputes, unfortunately those developments have yet to prompt action to resolve Abyei's final status.”
2019-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8644 (2019) · source
“So long as all parties remain committed to doing the right thing, we are hopeful that they can arrive at a safer, better destination.”
2019-10-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8643 (2019) · source
“We strongly urge the Rapid Support Forces to turn over all previous UNAMID team sites to community- based institutions. Furthermore, after reading the report, my Government even more strongly urges the incorporation of gender-sensitive conflict-analysis and conflict-mitigation approaches in the peace process, the UNAMID mission and any potential follow- on mechanism. Finally, we call on all parties to ensure unhindered humanitarian access to vulnerable populations as well as respect for international humanitarian law. We encourage the transitional Government to work with United Nations partners, humanitarian actors and affected communities to devise durable solutions for displaced Sudanese. Although we are concerned that it has not been strictly adhered to, there is a viable path to lasting peace in the Sudan.”
2019-10-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8643 (2019) · source
“We were especially disheartened to read in the report of continued violations against children. The report mentions 84 children who were affected by "grave violations" in just four months, of whom 35 were killed and/or maimed. This is deplorable. As we all know, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) plays a critical role in verifying these kinds of human rights abuses in Darfur. So if these atrocities occur with UNAMID present, what will happen when it is gone? That is why, given UNAMID's impending mandate expiration, at the end of October, it is of such great importance that the transitional Government quickly inform the Secretary-General of its priorities for the mandate's extension. It is also of great importance that Government forces stop using UNAMID team sites.”
2019-10-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8643 (2019) · source
“We encourage the Prime Minister to ensure the full, effective and meaningful participation of women during all stages of the Sudan's political transition. We are also encouraged by the establishment of an independent national committee to conduct a thorough investigation into the violent 3 June crackdown on peaceful protesters in Khartoum. However, despite the hope that the international community has for the transitional Government, we are deeply concerned by accounts in the Secretary- General's report (S/2019/816) of increased criminality, internal displacement and kidnappings, including of non-governmental organization workers in Darfur. These incidents disrupt progress toward peace and diminish hope among the Sudanese people that they might be able to go about their daily lives without fear.”
2019-10-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8643 (2019) · source