YouSaid · the spoken record

Cook

lines on the record: 38
first: 1997-09-25
most recent: 2018-08-23
sittings or episodes: 4
sources: un-security-council

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“This moment presents both exceptional challenges for us as an international community as well an opportunity. We now have an evidence base that recognizes that women and minors, as two distinct and nuanced groups, must be accounted for in our understanding of contemporary terrorist and violent extremist groups. Only by having a stronger evidence base, both qualitatively and quantitatively, will we be able to develop more effective, holistic and sustainable responses.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“There is evidence that male-child and teenage "cubs" have already been engaged in suicide attacks beyond Da'esh's immediate territory, and the group's propaganda continues to call for, and inspire its soldiers of all ages to conduct, guided and independent attacks overseas. However, we also recognize that many women and minors are unlikely to become security threats, and may instead seek to disengage from the group and its ideology. Our research has reaffirmed the critical importance of integrating considerations related to gender and age in assessing the range of threats posed by Da'esh and its affiliates, while ensuring that is reflected in common vulnerabilities and exposures, and military, criminal justice, rehabilitation and reintegration efforts.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“We believe that women are poised to play an important role in carrying forward the ideology and legacy of Da'esh. That view is based on a number of considerations, including the motivation of some to pass on that ideology to their children, the nefarious and support roles they held in Da'esh, shifting discourses related to women's roles within the group, and the combat training some women received under Da'esh. Numerous attacks - both successful and foiled - have served to demonstrate the security risk some women can pose. Minors have likely been largely traumatized by the Da'esh violence they witnessed and, in some cases, actively conducted.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“In contrast, up to 1,180 f 17 per cent i of total returnees are recorded as minors, suggesting that some Member States have prioritized the repatriation of minors. The current status of the significant number of women and minors beyond returnees also requires immediate attention and clarification. We have identified women and minors as detainees in Iraq and Syria, in internally displaced persons camps, as persons still associated with Da'esh in Iraq and Syria, as those in third-party countries, and some who have been killed. More concerning perhaps are the vast numbers whose status remains unknown. We also highlight important concerns related to the status of orphaned and stateless minors, whose only identity may have been one affiliated with Da'esh and who require particularly targeted and tailored interventions.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“These categories are infants under 4 years of age, many of whom were likely born inside Da'esh territory; children aged 5 to 14, who mostly appeared to be taken by their parents or guardians; and teenagers from ages 15 to 17, some of whom travelled independently. The physical fall of the so-caliphate represented a significant turning point for the group. However, we do not believe this to be the end ofits relevance or activities, only a period of evolution, and therefore a particularly important time to assess the current and future status of its affiliates, including women and minors. An estimated 7,366 Da'esh affiliates, or 20 per cent, have now returned to their countries of departure, or appear to be in repatriation processes to do so. However, only 256, or 4 per cent, of total returnees are recorded as women.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“For boys in particular, enrolment in military training camps was mandatory, with the aim to psychologically and physically recondition young recruits to fight and engage in violence. Through such efforts, Da'esh has sought to project an image of strength, bolster its fighting force and even weaponize minors. Similar to women, minors are not a homogeneous group. They experienced diverse recruitment pathways into Da'esh and held varied roles. Those roles range from passive citizens of the so-called caliphate and child brides, to spies, combatants and executioners. We therefore recommend three sub-categories of Da'esh-affiliated minors in line with gender and age considerations as an indicator of the various levels of individual agency and, therefore, accountability.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“The factors that pushed individuals out of their societies and pulled them towards Da'esh and its ideology are diverse, complex and have to be understood and assessed on an individual basis. We also recognize that levels of agency and motivation differed for each person. Some women were ideologically committed and actively sought to support Da'esh, travelling independently or with their children or families, while others were subject to varying levels of coercion. Da'esh also sought to promote the recruitment of minors within and beyond its physical territory, raising its "cubs" as the future fighters and ideological guardians of its caliphate project. The group's propaganda has displayed systematic indoctrination of boys and girls throughout its education system.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“Women within that territory and abroad also sought and carried out more nefarious roles and acted as police, recruiters, fundraisers and disseminators of propaganda, mobilizing both men and women for Da'esh. Da'esh achieved the support of women through targeted, gendered recruitment efforts in its multilingual propaganda, which utilized language and imagery that emphasized women's rights, empowerment and a sense of purpose and belonging offered by their caliphate. It also exploited their personal and political grievances, framed their participation as a religious obligation and promised services ranging from free health care and education to marriage arrangements, among others.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“As such, they risk being neglected in all assessments and full- spectrum responses related to Da'esh. Why were so many women drawn to Da'esh? By presenting itself as an ideologically pure, State-building project and holding and administering territory between 2014 up to late 2017, it gave women an opportunity, a perceived stake and sense of purpose in building that proto-State. It drew persons as diverse as schoolgirls to grandmothers from five continents. Those women expressed feelings of discrimination, oppression and disenfranchisement in the communities they left behind, and believed Da'esh offered them something meaningful through roles ranging from citizens, mothers and wives, to public sector workers.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“Women and minors therefore represent one in four recorded foreigners to become affiliated with Da'esh. These figures are unprecedented for a terrorist organization, and also serve to emphasize the need to consider the broader networks of persons affiliated with such groups beyond only fighters. We believe this to be a vast underestimation, based on current gaps in data. Of the 80 countries reviewed only 26 provide publicly reliable figures for both women and minors. We therefore still do not have a full understanding of the scale and scope of this concern. Thos statistics also exclude those who were prevented from traveling to Iraq and Syria and local women and minors within the conflict zone who may have become affiliated with Da'esh -whether willingly or coercively. Women and minors are vastly underestimated and underanalysed groups.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“Ms. Cook: I thank the Security Council for inviting me here today to discuss the report I recently co-authored with Gina Vale. It is an honour for me to present our research on the strategic, tactical and operational engagement of women and minors by Da'esh, an issue which we believe requires immediate and urgent attention. While this is a critical concern related to Da'esh in particular, it is also increasingly reflected in otherjihadist groups today. Our research has demonstrated the scale of this concern. For the first time, we are able to demonstrate with evidence that across 80 countries and of the estimated 41,490 foreign citizens that became affiliated with Da'esh, 13 per cent are women and 12 per cent are minors. That includes at least 730 infants born in-theatre to foreign parents.”
2018-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8330 (2018) · source
“The illicit trade in firearms is just as deadly as the drugs trade and needs an equally vigorous international response. Finally, rising to the challenge will require concerted action by all involved, from producers to purchasers; from businesses to bureaucrats to border guards. To achieve that cooperation, one element is essential: a clear signal from the international community of our resolve to act and the priority we attach to this problem. Today's debate in this Council provides that signal. That is why I welcome and commend the initiative of the Netherlands presidency, and I give it Britain's full support.”
1999-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4048 (1999) · source
“The European Union has since agreed a joint action which commits member States to promote the principle that we do not equip groups outside legitimate government with military arsenals. The ownership of military firepower must be the preserve of legitimate Governments. If the second task is to regulate the legal trade in firearms, the third and last task must be to halt the illicit trade in firearms. Britain will strongly support the work on a firearms protocol. We should explore the feasibility of an international legal basis for the marking of firearms, so that their origin can be traced, and a comprehensive method of recording data on firearms to make sure that, having traced their origin, we can track their movement.”
1999-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4048 (1999) · source
“That is why the second task is to reduce the flow of firearms. I warmly welcome regional initiatives, such as the moratorium agreed in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). But the countries that manufacture firearms have an equal responsibility to take the initiative among themselves. In Europe, we have adopted a code of conduct which requires all member States to inform each other when they have refused the sale of weapons because of concerns that those weapons could be used to violate human rights or to fuel tension. It also requires us to consult among ourselves before any other member takes up that contract which has been refused by any of us.”
1999-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4048 (1999) · source
“There are probably more firearms in the world than there are personal computers. And ready access means they are cheap. Five million dollars will buy approximately 20,000 assault rifles - enough to equip the army of a medium- sized State. We need to find new, imaginative ways of securing the surrender of some of those firearms. In Albania the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is showing an imaginative way of doing so by providing roads for communities in return for weapons surrendered. That is a double benefit: more development and less insecurity. We need also to make sure that disarmament and weapons amnesties feature in all peace settlements. We must halt the recycling of firearms from one conflict to another. But destroying firearms is not going to make any difference if they are simply replaced by fresh supplies.”
1999-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4048 (1999) · source
“Most of the conflicts have taken place in the developing world, but most of the firearms were made in the industrialized world. We have a common problem, and we need to be partners in finding the solutions. I believe there are three main areas on which we should focus our work together. We need to impound and destroy the firearms that are out there and out of control. We need to regulate and make more transparent the official trade in firearms. And we must drive out of business the illicit traffic in firearms. The first of these tasks is to reduce the total volume of firearms in the world today. It is a measure of the problem that none of us round this table know how many firearms there are in circulation. I have asked my officials, and I have been given estimates from 100 million to 500 million weapons in circulation at the present time.”
1999-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4048 (1999) · source
“It is a tribute to those efforts that nuclear weapons have never been used for half a century and that chemical weapons have been rarely used. However, as our French colleague has already noted, over the same period it is the assault rifle that has become the weapon of mass killing. Small arms have both continued to proliferate and to escalate in their use. In the last decade alone, conflicts fought with only small arms have killed over 3 million people, overwhelmingly unarmed civilians. Against that enormous death toll, we really need a different phrase than "small arms". There has been nothing "small" about the misery they have brought to families or the disruption they have brought to societies. We must all accept our responsibility for this situation.”
1999-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4048 (1999) · source
“Let me at the outset congratulate the Netherlands on initiating this debate. It is inevitable that this Security Council is often preoccupied with immediate and pressing crises. But if we are to do our job of securing peace throughout the world, we must also find time to consider some of the underlying causes of conflict. The starting point for our discussion today is that one of the clearest underlying causes of conflict is the plentiful supply of small arms. Ready access to small arms provides the means and the temptation to start conflict, and it fuels the tension and the suspicion which sustain conflict. The dramatic threat to human life from weapons of mass destruction has prompted great diplomatic effort and grand international conferences to bring them under control.”
1999-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4048 (1999) · source
“Those ties rest on a long shared history between Britain and Africa; I confess, that history has not always been based on shared equality. So my final assurance is that we approach our shared future in the spirit of partnership. We want the same relationship with African countries as we are forging with the rest of the world: relationships based on equal partnership and mutual respect. If all of us from other continents approach our relations with the countries of Africa in that spirit, then together we can ensure that the new century will see a new African renaissance.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“The way to achieve that is for Libya now to respond to the fair offer we have made and to surrender the two suspects for trial, at which point we are willing to start the process of lifting sanctions on the country of Libya. I am glad that Mr. Salim recognized the case for accommodation, but accommodation cannot be achieved simply by concessions by one side only. We have made a fair and detailed offer; it is now up to Libya to respond to that offer. Finally, let me end with two further assurances. The first is that Britain will remain fully engaged with the regeneration of Africa. Both I and Prime Minister Blair plan to visit Africa next year. Britain and Africa have close community ties between our peoples and strong commercial ties between our economies.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“I can also say that we have also set aside appropriate prison facilities in Scotland should the accused be convicted; we are confident that their treatment in those prison facilities will be humane and will be fair. Those prison facilities were also inspected by the observers who were sent to us by the Secretary- General; they confirmed the humanitarian nature of the detention there. We are open to other observers and monitoring from any Member of the United Nations or any organization attached to it, because we are confident that we can satisfactorily pass any reasonable test of whether our court proceedings are fair or our prison conditions humane. I agree with Mr. Salim that it is important that we make progress now in ending the sanctions and in ending the delay for the relatives of those who died, who are still waiting for justice.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“Salim on the settlement that we have offered to enable a trial to take place of the two suspects accused of the bombing of the Pan Am flight over my country of Scotland. May I assure the Secretary- General of the Organization of African Unity that we are confident that a trial before Scottish judges, under Scottish law, under Scottish rules of evidence and procedure will indeed be a just and fair trial. It is only six months ago that the Secretary-General, at my invitation, sent United Nations observers to observe Scottish courts in action; those observers confirmed that a trial under Scottish procedure and Scottish law would be just and fair.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“It is easy to look at the difficult areas in Africa, but we should not forget those areas where progress has been made. Nigeria is a current example of progress towards democracy. Since June, Nigeria has embarked on a remarkable process of transformation. General Abubakar's willingness to listen and respond to the many shades of Nigerian opinion is impressive. With the support of the Nigerian people, he has redefined Nigeria's political and economic landscape. The progress now being achieved in Nigeria is good not just for its people, but for the whole of West and North Africa, where the Nigerian economy could become an engine of growth for the region. Before concluding, let me respond briefly to the observations by Mr. Salim A.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“But all Members of the United Nations are committed to hold firmly that certain principles and values are universal, such as the people's right to choose their leaders; human rights; basic freedoms; and the rule of law. Britain will support the democratic process through funding of voter education and the supply of election monitors. With our friends in the Commonwealth, we will work for observance of the Harare principles of human rights and democratic government. And we will support human rights through our development aid. We understand that, in the modern world, the wealth of nations lies in the talents and skill of their people, and that those human resources cannot be promoted when their human rights are suppressed.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“I would urge more of my colleagues here to join us in this essential task. And we will be responsible in our own policy on the export of arms. We will not allow our sales to fuel other countries' conflicts, and we will support initiatives to control the trade in small arms and to stamp out the illicit market in firearms. On their side, the countries of Africa could do more to promote restraint and transparency in weapons levels. It is particularly disappointing that the report before us confirms that only eight African countries last year submitted an entry to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. My third and final commitment is that we will be a friend of democracy in Africa. Africa is a diverse continent, and we respect the continent's political diversity.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“As has already been said by the Secretary- General of the Organization of African Unity, Africa's problems require African leadership to find the solutions. But there is much that countries with greater resources can do to make those solutions work. Britain will support the Organization of African Unity in its peacekeeping initiatives. In support of those initiatives we have helped establish military training centres in Ghana and Zimbabwe to develop Africa's own capacity for peacekeeping. We will fund the process of rebuilding peace where war has destroyed it. For example, in Sierra Leone, Britain is supporting the cost of demobilization and demilitarization. If we want the armed parties to a conflict to lay down their arms, then realistically we must demonstrate to them that they also have a better economic future in peace.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“Forty per cent of that aid budget already goes to Africa, and Britain will thus be increasing our aid to Africa. And we will encourage sound economic management. All the development assistance in the world will not help any country which mismanages its economy. The second commitment I give the Security Council is that we will make it the priority of our diplomacy in Africa to build peace and to prevent conflict. Without peace, nothing else is possible - no development, no prosperity, no improvement in the lives of ordinary Africans. Yet in one single year, as the report before us details, one in four countries in Africa experienced conflict and half of the worldwide deaths from conflict were in Africa. The days have long gone when anyone could think of imposing solutions from outside the continent.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“We will reduce African debt, so that African economies are not crippled by having to pay extravagant proportions of their income to countries far richer than themselves. Britain has already played a leading role in the Mauritius initiative to reduce the debt of the poorest countries, so many of which are in Africa. We will act to promote African development. Britain has refocused its development assistance so that it makes a real difference to the poorest people and gets through to the rural areas which, as the report before us demonstrates, have received a small minority of aid although they may have a large majority of the population. We will be increasing our development budget dramatically over the next three years to an extra $1.6 billion over those three years.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“As a Government we are determined to reduce poverty at home. That confers on us a moral obligation to help fight poverty abroad. And we also have a hard-nosed self-interest in seeing Africa wealthy and prosperous. The richer Africa becomes, the better it is for the rest of the world as well. The global economy is not a zero-sum game. If we are all prosperous, we all win. If there is widespread poverty, we all lose. There are four key steps that Britain is prepared to take to encourage economic growth in Africa. We will promote African trade, by demanding that African countries get a fair deal in international trade negotiations and that Africa benefits from the globalization of the economy. Free trade must also be fair trade.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“I welcome this opportunity to take part in our debate on the Secretary- General's report. I would first of all say that I regard that report on promoting peace and prosperity in Africa as lucid, compelling and directly relevant to the work of the Security Council. Kofi Annan has laid a firm foundation for our work on Africa. However, I am sure Kofi himself would be the first to say that praise is not a sufficient response to his powerful report. Only action by the Security Council and its members will adequately reward the Secretary-General for the work that has gone into it. The Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) has called for us to meet the report with commitments. This morning I commit Britain to three goals which are central to the report before us today. First, we will help build prosperity in Africa.”
1998-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3931 (1998) · source
“It should be a major objective of the Security Council to enable the African lion to follow the Asian tiger into a modern world of prosperity and peace.”
1997-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3819 (1997) · source
“The main reasons why their people live in poverty are poor government and self-interest on the parts of those who have ruled them over past years. I welcome, then, the growing pressure from within Africa and African organizations for support for universal rights. The Harare Declaration, which obliges the Commonwealth to take human rights criteria into account, is an African declaration. We must all work to ensure that such declarations, including those of the United Nations, the OAU and the Commonwealth, are observed and practised. Finally, can I say that there are challenges ahead, and there are problems for the present. But with a genuine partnership, with the commitment of African Governments and with the international community playing the part I have described, then the future can be bright for Africa.”
1997-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3819 (1997) · source
“That is why we have recently invited Libya, the Organization of African Unity, and any other country around this table that so wishes to send international monitors to attend any trial in Scotland. Justice, we know, must be seen to be done, but justice must also be carried out. A fair trial which protects the innocent but provides for justice against the guilty is an important basis for universal human rights. That brings me to the third area in which the international community can be of assistance to Africa, namely, human rights. The compelling lesson from the recent history of Africa is that honest, open and democratic government is crucial to success. Nigeria and the former Zaire are countries rich in resources.”
1997-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3819 (1997) · source
“All of us around this table travel frequently by air. We above all people have an interest in stopping aeroplanes' being used as a vehicle for terrorism. The charge sheet against the two Libyan nationals who have been indicted is a full one which compellingly sets out the evidence that they must answer and can answer only if they appear on trial. I welcome the statement by President Mugabe that he wishes that trial to take place under Scots law. The only place they can face trial under Scots law is in Scotland. There is no legal authority for a Scots court to meet outside Scotland; there is no legal authority in the law of the Netherlands for a court of another jurisdiction to sit in The Hague. We are then conscious of the international interest in this case.”
1997-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3819 (1997) · source
“The second way we can help is with conflict prevention and peacekeeping. Britain is pleased by the new determination of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to tackle Africa's problems in conjunction with the United Nations. The tragic recent history of the Great Lakes shows how important and also how difficult this is. We cannot be complacent about the United Nations own record. Historians will ask why it was that we did not separate refugees from armed militias and allowed refugee camps to become bases for military adventures. The only answer we can give is that we will never again stand back in the face of genocide. Nor should we ever condone mass murder. Let us be clear about the intent of those who placed the bomb on the Pan Am flight which exploded over Lockerbie. Their intention was to wipe out every passenger on that plane.”
1997-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3819 (1997) · source
“The war on terrorism must be fought on three fronts: better security, political mediation and also economic development. And there are three important ways in which the international community can be of help to Africa. First, the eradication of poverty. Africa needs our aid. The new Labour Government in Britain is committed to reversing the decline in British aid. Our Chancellor announced last week in Mauritius a new initiative on debt relief which will benefit 300 million of the poorest people, a high proportion of whom live in Africa. Economic development is the theme of next month's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Britain. We must all, as bilateral donors, as Members of the United Nations and as members of the international financial institutes, use all the instruments at our disposal to promote development in Africa.”
1997-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3819 (1997) · source
“Indeed, some analysts claim that sub-Saharan Africa will be a net loser under the recent Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It need not surprise us that the continent with the least economic progress has produced also the greatest conflicts. Where people are poor and becoming poorer in real terms, inevitably tension thrives. We all share the same shock at the appalling atrocities that are occurring nightly in Algeria. We all roundly condemn such terrorism and call for improvement in the security of the lives of the ordinary people. But we also need to acknowledge that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) package in Algeria over this decade has had the effect of reducing the standard of living of many of its people.”
1997-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3819 (1997) · source
“President Mugabe began the discussion by referring to the renaissance throughout Africa, and it is right that at the outset we should recognize the improvements in that continent. Democracy is spreading, good government is taking strong roots in many countries, and the peaceful dismantling of apartheid in South Africa is one of the world's great success stories of the decade. However, progress in some countries should not hide from us the real problems which remain. Africa is the only continent where there has been no increase in per capita income over recent decades. We in Britain are proud of our reputation as free traders, but, in truth, Africa is the continent which has benefited the least from the opening up of the global economy.”
1997-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3819 (1997) · source