YouSaid · the spoken record

Diouf

lines on the record: 36
first: 2005-02-23
most recent: 2023-05-16
sittings or episodes: 3
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

“The cost of adaptation remains very high for the Sahel countries, whose State budgets cannot fully cover it. It is all very well to talk about how vulnerable the Sahel region is, but ultimately if it does not receive adequate funding for addressing the various challenges, the crisis there is likely to stagnate. We do not want that. And our communities do not deserve that. In conclusion, I would once again like to commend and thank Switzerland and the members of the Council for taking the time to listen to me. May peace, security and serenity return to the Sahel.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“Addressing the multiple crises affecting the Sahel in a sustainable manner requires coordinated responses. It is no longer relevant to address the crisis in the Sahel on the basis of security issues. We need multisectoral responses that take into account current and future climate issues. The solutions provided must also be built with and by the communities to ensure sustainability and ownership. The local level is a good entry point for integrating the climate change and security dimension into community-based policies and projects that are suited to the populations’ needs and do not harm their rights. Those initiatives should be inclusive and put both young people and women and the centre. Finally, it is crucial to provide the necessary climate financing to facilitate adaptation with a view to strengthening community resilience.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“In both countries there are a number of underlying sources of conflict that could potentially be triggered or exacerbated by future climate stress. In addition, the continued insecurity and conflict have led to increased displacement in the region. For example, in Burkina Faso, more than 2 million people have been displaced, the majority of them women and children. The massive displacement of the country’s population has put additional pressure on its already limited resources and threatens to ignite intercommunity rivalries. The current situation in the Sahel clearly shows that terrorism feeds on conflict, despair and the vulnerabilities of communities, especially those that are caused by climate change. Before I conclude, I would like to make some recommendations.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“In Mali, for example, reports of Islamic extremists and transnational criminal networks in the Sahel region are raising concerns that the Sahel could become an area where terrorism will take root and flourish if appropriate measures are not taken to address the security and climate crises simultaneously and very rapidly. The Niger and Burkina Faso have both experienced episodes of drought and food insecurity and are marked by factors that analysts believe are strongly correlated with instability and conflict, in that they are landlocked and have very low revenues. All those factors add to the complexity of the challenges that they face in building resilience to climate change and ensuring the security of their citizens.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“Insecurity and cross-border conflicts in the Sahel countries are driven by many actors and by complex factors. Some of those are related to poor governance, discrimination, inequities, the scarcity of resources and poverty, which contribute to insecurity and the intensification of civil conflict and violent extremism. There is a worrisome possibility that the tensions and conflicts could be inflamed by the increased competition over resources — land, water and food — as well as the ongoing degradation of the land, while some of those factors could be further exacerbated by climate change. Because of its arid climate, recurring droughts and humanitarian crises, the threat of climate change is ever present in the Sahel.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“Another important factor for conflict in the Sahel region is that the percentage of fertile land is diminishing and causing farmers to migrate, often to lands belonging to nomad pastoralists, who are being prevented from using their traditional transhumance routes. In some cases, the herders then take over private or protected property in order to keep their animals alive. The situation in the Sahel is therefore a prime example of the various problems that can arise from intensified competition for resources, including conflicts between nomadic herders and farmers, migration, radicalization and the exploitation of resources. The Sahel’s climate and security crises are acute. Strengthening the capacities of communities and local actors to respond and adapt to shocks is essential and urgent.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“For example, it was not many years ago that Lake Chad provided sufficient water for the populations of the Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, but since the lake has been gradually drying up, entire populations have been migrating towards Chad to continue to benefit from it. As resources become scarcer, the struggle for access to them increases — a context in which Boko Haram prospers. This large lake, which is shared by five countries with more than 43 million inhabitants, has seen its water levels fall by 80 per cent in 40 years, making the communities vulnerable and increasing poverty. That creates a potential recruiting ground for men, and sometimes even women, as well as desperate young people who are ready to do anything to earn a living, including joining a terrorist organization.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“The climate of the Sahel is characterized by extreme temperatures, fluctuating rainfall and severe drought. According to the United Nations, the region is particularly vulnerable to climate change, with temperatures rising 1.5 times faster than the global average. Almost all Sahelian countries are affected by multiple phenomena — droughts, water stress, land degradation and declining yields. Problems of access to water and food are also the cause of health problems and migration. In recent years, the impact of environmental problems on the stability of some African territories, in particular in the Sahel, has become clear. Competition over access to water or natural resources is the source of tensions among communities.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“First of all, I would like to thank Switzerland for giving me the opportunity and honour to brief the Security Council on the issues of climate change and security in the Sahel. The issues of climate change and security are closely linked, as climate change is the cause of phenomena that provoke tensions, violence and conflicts. The risks and impacts are particularly acute in exposed, unprepared and vulnerable regions such as the Sahel. The Sahel is one of the areas most exposed to climate risks and one of the most vulnerable due to its fragile institutions and low resilience. Some studies recognize the Sahel as one of the three ecological hotspots, which include areas under increased environmental stress and more likely to collapse.”
2023-05-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9322 (2023) · source
“We could also refer to the separation of powers, independence of the legislative branch, the right to free association, participation of women and young people in the development and reconstruction process and in the peace process, the role of the army in a democratic society and, finally, combating the proliferation of weapons. Those are a set of guidelines that should be followed in order to bring about an environment conducive to good economic and social development in the subregion, and those are the points I wanted to share with you.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“We would stress here that ECOWAS also attaches special importance to prevention as a major way to combat cross-border problems. This is why ECOWAS adopted the Additional Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and the Protocol for the Establishment of a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security, as well as a protocol relating to the free movement of goods and people. Those protocols tackle the main causes of conflicts in the region and provide clear indications with regard to the process to be implemented and respected in establishing a favourable context for sustainable peace.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“ECOWAS has identified three main strategic approaches to implement those instruments. First, there is the political dimension, which is intended to restore dialogue among belligerents while insisting on the need to respect the basic laws of the country concerned. ECOWAS has continued to emphasize that political approach in order to avoid rewarding rebellion. Second is the legal approach, which seeks to facilitate the deployment of a rather strong security force within the context of a comprehensive peace agreement. In this regard, cooperation with institutions having jurisdiction over war crimes has been helpful. Thirdly, aspects related to development are taken into account through the process of building, rebuilding and restoring infrastructure with the participation of our development partners.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“In light of the situation, ECOWAS, which is very concerned about the well-being of our population and the impossibility of development without peace and security, has established a number of instruments in order to prevent and combat those negative activities. Those instruments include, for example, the Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, the Convention on Extradition, the Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, the Protocol to Combat Illicit Trafficking in Drugs, a protocol against money- laundering and the Intergovernmental Action Group Against Money Laundering, the Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Small Arms and Light Weapons in West Africa and, finally, the Protocol for the Establishment of a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“It is that modus operandi which encourages, inter alia, the participation of children in armed conflicts and their use as soldiers. The porousness of our borders, the spread of poverty, underemployment, the weakness of security forces and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons that I have mentioned are all factors that lead to the entrenchment and expansion of those armed gangs, who may be based in a country neighbouring their theatre of operations. In West Africa, as we have noted, the modus operandi of those armed gangs is based on violence and terror directed against civilians.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“Most of those gangs survive by means of arms and drugs trafficking, money-laundering and human trafficking, and very often they control the richest areas of the countries in crisis. Within the ECOWAS area, such armed gangs are often both numerous and complex. They have political roots and, depending on the situation, may mutate into criminal gangs. Their composition is diverse, even where, as in most cases, one ethnic group constitutes the group's core. And even if they have roots in a political party, they very often escape the control of the party, particularly when attempts are made to end a crisis. There are also foreign citizens in those gangs who have been recruited or who have freely joined the movement.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“As the Council knows, the cross-border problems that we face in West Africa - including human trafficking, small arms and light weapons exportation and proliferation, money-laundering and illicit drug trafficking - are all threats to peace, security and stability. Those threats stem from the fact that today there are organized gangs with networks in several countries of the subregion and even outside the region who control the entire process linked to those activities. In recent years, the region has experienced a number of political, ethnic and religious crises, which have jeopardized the economic progress made in some of the Community's member States. Non-State armed gangs very often prolong armed conflicts, thus leading to massive destruction of infrastructure and to economic collapse.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“The main purpose of ECOWAS is to foster economic regional integration through policy harmonization by adopting a community-based approach to development and socio- economic problems. However, the emergence of crises in West Africa forced ECOWAS to review its agenda and revise its work in order to include questions of peace, security and stability. That means that when we looked through the interim report of the Secretary- General, we were particularly struck by his exhaustive coverage of those problems and the relevant solutions that he has proposed throughout the report, which we completely support.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“First of all, I should like once again to transmit to you, Mr. President, the warm wishes of the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who has been following our work very closely and is very pleased at the debate we had the day before yesterday on child soldiers. The Executive Secretary also asked me to convey his congratulations to the Security Council and to say how pleased he is by the special importance that the members of the Council have given to questions of peace and security in Africa, particularly in West Africa. With regard to today's debate, this is something that the Executive Secretary holds dear because, as the Council knows, at its beginning, ECOWAS did not include peace and security on its agenda.”
2005-02-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5131 (2005) · source
“We also know that the rights to development, survival and participation require less political involvement, but that with respect to child protection we need to adopt, ratify and implement protocols. In that regard, Governments are called on to act and must make child-related questions a policy issue, because it is thereby that such issues will become a choice of society and a political lodestar. In the near term, we must work to see to it that West Africa ceases to be the world's laggard in the protection of children and their rights. The economic and social development of our region depends on it.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“The Executive Secretary therefore intends to make the issue of children a priority in the context of conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. In conclusion, ECOWAS' child-protection programme was designed in a subregional context and to provide a lasting alternative in the creation of an environment conducive to a culture of non-violence and peace. We must place the issue of children and their rights at the heart of the political agendas of our decision-makers. To that end, we must be able to ensure that all children enjoy all their rights in all circumstances. While ECOWAS focuses its activities on protection, we also know that the issue of children's rights are intimately linked to four areas: development, survival, participation and protection.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“The Executive Secretary wishes thereby to ensure better participation by the member States in the implementation of the programme, particularly since the ECOWAS foreign ministers meeting, in Accra on 18 January, agreed to convene this year a conference of ECOWAS ministers for foreign affairs on child soldiers and to proclaim a week of truce in solidarity with children affected by war. We commend the spontaneity with which the Government of Benin agreed to host the conference. With respect to the first feedback received from that Government, I believe that we can look forward to an excellent conference. The conference and the week of truce are key activities that will enable us better to mobilize ECOWAS' partners on behalf of children.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“Finally, the lack of resources ensures that many of these projects remain in the planning phase. In terms of prospects, given the will expressed by our heads of State and Government to give greater attention to child-related issues in the programmes and policies of ECOWAS, and taking account of the great gains achieved in the implementation of the current child-protection programme, the Executive Secretary intends to incorporate child protection into its agenda and to expand its mandate to other categories of children in need of protection.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“Such monitoring includes site visits that have enabled ECOWAS to assess the situation of the 11,780 demobilized children in Liberia, 11,673 of whom have been returned to their families in neighbouring countries. Among those, some 2,000 girls have been demobilized. The visits have allowed ECOWAS to take part in UNICEF's "Back to School" programme and to identify specific child-protection programmes. The programme's weak points are its ongoing focus on children and armed conflict and its failure sufficiently to address the issue of child trafficking. The picture of the situation in West Africa clearly shows that there are other categories of children who need protection and that, if such protection is not provided, conflicts will clearly make those children more vulnerable still.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“A training workshop has been held to establish core groups of 26 officers designated as trainers. The higher-ranking officers, of at least the rank of colonel, are key in that field. Increased numbers will allow us to establish broader core groups among the West African forces of some 300 officers who are currently training the trainers. The programme, which began in 2002, is currently reaching some 6,000 peacekeeping soldiers in the ECOWAS region and elsewhere. There are a number of ECOWAS elements operating in the Sudan, the Congo and other countries that have already received such training and awareness-raising. Our monitoring of the situation of children is another of the programme's key points.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“Our current activities include the training of West African armed forces in children's rights and protection in armed conflict; ensuring that child-related issues are taken into account in peace agreements, as I mentioned earlier; sending fact-finding missions to conflict zones in Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea- Bissau; the training of security personnel, judges and social workers in children's rights and the protection of child victims of trafficking; the establishment of reintegration programmes for child victims of violence and other crimes; and the establishment of links with child-protection agencies. One highlight of the programme that I wish to share with the Council is the training of West African armed forces in the area of the rights and protection of the child.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“With respect to the promotion of conflict- prevention mechanisms created during the negotiation of the Accra peace agreements on Liberia, we can see that the issue of child protection has been taken into account in those agreements. Similarly, we are now involved in the peace process in Cote d'Ivoire to ensure that the Government to be established after the elections in that country takes the issue of child protection into account in the peacebuilding process.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“On that basis, ECOWAS has established a Child Protection Unit directly under its Executive Secretariat. Its mandate is very straightforward, and involves four basic goals: to monitor the situation of children affected by war, to ensure the promotion of conflict- prevention mechanisms, to take part in child rehabilitation and reintegration efforts in the context of peacebuilding and to set up an early warning and emergency assistance mechanism. With respect to monitoring the situation of war- affected children, we have undertaken a number of joint activities with UNICEF that have allowed us to participate in the "Back to School" programme established by UNICEF in Liberia.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“182 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), concerning the elimination of the worst forms of child labour and the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography - we are proud that much progress has been made in West Africa. ILO Convention No. 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour has been either ratified, signed or adopted by 12 of the 15 member States of ECOWAS. The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict has likewise been either ratified, signed or adopted by 11 of the 15 member States. And the Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography has been ratified, signed or adopted by 12 of the Community's members.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“I would like to mention several of them here. They include the April 2000 Accra Declaration on War-affected Children in West Africa, the 2000 decision on combating trafficking in children, the Declaration on the Decade of a Culture of the Rights of the Child in West Africa and our peer- review mechanism to address the situation of children. That commitment on the part of ECOWAS heads of State or Government has also benefited from the present environment, which has led to all its member States having ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. All ECOWAS member States have also submitted their initial reports to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, and several are submitting periodic reports. With regard to the core child protection instruments - Convention No.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“We know that the absence of a sustained protective environment jeopardizes any rehabilitation effort. It was necessary to establish such programmes in West Africa in the light of the use of the first child soldiers in Liberia in the 1980s, a phenomenon that continued with the war in Sierra Leone. Moreover, field visits to Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau revealed that children were also involved in the armed conflicts there. That is why ECOWAS heads of State or Government took action to ensure that ECOWAS was one of the first regional economic communities to place on its political agenda the overall issue of protecting children, especially those who have been the victims of conflict. For that, we commend them. ECOWAS has put in place a number of mechanisms that today enable it to monitor the instruments it has adopted.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“We have noted that such situations are quite simply the result of the existence of armed non- State actors who are resolutely opposed to the cessation of conflict and who continue to use children in combat. While we have noted that some children in West Africa have been forcibly enlisted, others have voluntarily joined warring groups due to hunger, the desire to play the hero or a longing to find a second family. In that connection, it is very interesting to note that studies are being carried out to determine possible links among children who are victims of trafficking, children who easily fall prey to recruiters and street children seen in various West African cities. Generally speaking, therefore, ECOWAS supports the establishment of a protective environment and shares the concerns of UNICEF in that regard.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“Children who find themselves in the midst of conflict must also fend for themselves if their parents are killed of if they are separated from them. We have seen that phenomenon in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire. The problem of children affected by war is also evidenced by the large number of children in refugee camps. The main result of the participation of children in armed conflict in our subregion is that their normal development is hampered because they are deprived of access to educational systems and training institutions. Children are very often left behind at the end of hostilities, forcing them to resort to criminal activity for survival.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“Rima Salah with regard to the overall state of children in armed conflict. That is a situation that West Africa shares with other regions of the world experiencing conflict. With the Council's consent, I would like to dwell a bit on the characteristics we have noted in our subregion, in particular with respect to countries that have experienced conflict, namely, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and, more recently, C6te d'Ivoire. Generally speaking, as we have worked out our programme on the ground, we have realized that children are actually victims of wars in several ways. Children are not merely directly involved in conflicts as combatants; they are sent to the front as soldiers specifically because they are completely unaware of the dangers facing them. Once injured in combat, such children are left to their own devices.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“As I begin my statement, I would very much like to thank the Government of Canada, which for years - from the outset - supported ECOWAS in the establishment of its child protection programme, namely, from 2002 to 2004. I would also like to thank UNICEF and its Regional Office for West and Central Africa, which since 2004 has been ensuring the development, operation and organization of the programme. It should be said that, overall, the situation of children in West Africa is not exactly brilliant. Given the goals set out at the World Summit for Children, the first of its kind, West Africa today is among the regions in which there has not been significant progress in the field of child protection. I therefore fully endorse the comments made by Mr. Olara Otunnu and Ms.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“Allow me further to welcome and commend the Council's commitment to issues of peace and security in general and, specifically, to the protection of children, especially those affected by conflict. That commitment is reflected in the Council's adoption of various resolutions, in particular resolutions 1261 (1999), 1314 (2000), 1379 (2001) and 1460 (2003). In accordance with the President's request regarding what he would like us to address today - namely, our thoughts concerning future prospects for the situation of children in Africa - I would like to share with the Council the current experiences of ECOWAS in the field of child protection.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source
“At the outset, I would like to convey to the Council the sincere regrets of Mr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who was unable to make the trip here today due to severe constraints on his time, as well as to share with the members of the Council our common concerns with regard to ensuring a protective environment for children. I would also like to express my gratitude for Benin's invitation, as well for its Government's excellent initiative. I say that in particular because Benin is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that has already demonstrated its commitment to protecting children, even though it is a country that, thank God, has not yet experienced conflict.”
2005-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5129 (2005) · source