YouSaid · the spoken record

Ekomo

lines on the record: 24
first: 2019-10-29
most recent: 2022-06-22
sittings or episodes: 2
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

“It would also be important to give civil society access to such a framework for consultation and offer an opportunity for women to play a leading role in the interests of the people. Civil society’s contributions must be taken into account, and it should be called upon to participate in the peace process and in initiatives supported by our partners in the context of that peace process.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“I would urge it also to remind armed groups of the need to respect the commitments they have undertaken by signing the peace agreement and to be able to implement the sanctions imposed by the Security Council. In addition, I urge it to create a framework for consultation between the active forces of the nation and the rulers on the crisis situation in the Central African Republic. That would be an emergency consultation among the people of Central African Republic, on that country’s territory, and with observers from the United Nations and the African Union. That initiative would enable the people of the country themselves to find solutions in a democratic manner and to block the way to ramped-up attempts to seize power by force.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“Civil society cannot continue to be excluded from substantive discussions, negotiating tables and high-level meetings that address issues that impact their lives and those of their children, their communities and their country. With a view to revitalizing the peace process, I would urge the Security Council to consider the Central African Republic as a country in an emergency situation for which emergency measures must be taken. Among those measures, it would be important to challenge the national authorities on the mode of governance, which is characterized by widespread violence against the people, political opposition actors and civil-society leaders.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“In fact, most peace initiatives exclude civil society in its entirety, including women and young people, who make up the majority of the population. The exclusively political approach focused on the national authorities has shown its limits, and we must all acknowledge the difficulties facing the peace process in the Central African Republic. Some signatory armed groups have withdrawn from the peace agreement and have resumed hostilities, sowing fear in the hinterlands. In addition, the non-inclusive nature of initiatives is a real handicap in moving towards an effective peace. Since the beginning of the peace initiative in the Central African Republic, the practice has been that civil-society actors and women in particular are consulted only for long-distance exchanges or by missions visiting the country.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“Scandals involving corruption and vote-buying of deputies have become a commonplace practice, including as concerns the revision of the Constitution. The Parliament is not playing its proper role to protect the interests of the people. All those political, socioeconomic and security factors are combining to plunge my country back into chaos, despite the existence of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic, and despite the many efforts undertaken by the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and other partners that support peace efforts in the Central African Republic.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“Several actors have left the country for their safety. At the social level, all indicators are in the red. Poverty has set in in the provinces, fields are no longer being cultivated, and, as the Council is aware, more than half of the population of the Central African Republic is facing food insecurity. Access to primary health care is difficult. Schools are not operating in several regions. Humanitarian assistance is scarce in those areas impacted by armed violence. We regularly receive distress calls from women in the hinterlands, but we cannot convey their messages, because all requests to meet with the national authorities have been ignored. The National Assembly largely supports the current political regime.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“Unfortunately, at the conclusion of that republican dialogue, the political message that prevailed, as it still does today, is the regime’s determination to revise the Constitution with a view to extending the presidential term. The republican dialogue was therefore a missed opportunity to be able to bring together all the people of the Central African Republic. Today there is no dialogue between Governments, opposition parties and civil society. It just does not exist. It is violence and terror, maintained by the regime and the armed opposition, that prevail. All opposition politicians, their close relatives, supporters and collaborators, as well as civil-society actors, are under threat and reduced to silence. What that means is that civil society cannot play its opposition role freely.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“I condemn those massacres, and I beg the Council not to minimize the risks. The danger is there and will very quickly plunge the country into chaos unless robust and concrete measures are taken urgently to help the people of the Central African Republic. Last March, civil society participated in the republican dialogue in hope of being able to contribute to easing sociopolitical tensions. However, the non-inclusive nature of that dialogue did not foster substantive discussions about the country’s real problems through exchanges of differing views. But civil society took that opportunity to denounce the deterioration of the social, political and security context and to propose some solutions.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“Faced with this situation of massive human rights violations and regular attacks on the aforementioned civilian populations, civil society notes that the collaboration of the United Nations and its partners with our country on the peace process is proceeding as if the Central African Republic were a normal State. Civil society is indignant at the denial of the extremely dangerous sociopolitical and security situation that prevails in the country. In the name of this civil society, I launch this cry of indignation for the many innocent victims — women and children tied up and slaughtered with their family members, and young people caught in their small businesses, on mining sites, in their fields, hunting or fishing, murdered after humiliating treatment by death squads.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“The sharks use the State media and social networks to openly issue death threats and threats of physical abuse against opposition leaders and the population at large. They kidnap and murder their victims as well as the relatives of their targets. The deployment of the regime’s allies in the provinces was welcomed by the population, who saw in it the hope of end being put to the activities of armed groups transformed into criminal thugs who have subjected women, children and men of all ages to all kinds of violence. But very quickly, this hope turned into a serious concern. Young men are systematically executed, thereby bring grief to many families.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“It is an honour for me to address this august gathering. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the opportunity given to civil society to make its voice heard. My country, the Central African Republic, is in bad shape because a real culture of criminal violence has taken hold. The population is caught between the rebellion, the national army, mercenaries and militias that sow terror and death. Massive killings target the populations of the hinterlands, particularly certain ethnic groups. Armed groups of the Coalition des patriotes pour le changement have killed people and burned homes. The national army, along with its allies and the regime’s militias, called sharks, do the same.”
2022-06-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9074 (2022) · source
“Lastly, I remain convinced that such collaboration, if it is indeed to be effective, will make it easier to monitor performance indicators, promote the ownership of initiatives by the population and consolidate the effectiveness of assistance to the Central African Republic in terms of peace and security. In conclusion, we women leaders of civil society working on questions of peace and security in the Central African Republic need to work more closely with partners to alleviate the suffering of the population, including women and young girls.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“In such an environment, it is important to rapidly come up with a strategy allowing for women's leadership to play a substantial role in calming tensions, promoting a cessation of hostilities and initiating dialogue among the parties to the conflict. As part of cooperation with civil society, it is important to develop a more strategic approach to be able to capitalize on the investments by partners in the area of training by involving civil society in negotiations, mediation and lobbying. Such collaboration should also allow for balance and consistency to be established between the national tools and the operational agendas ofpartners in the country and also take into account the level of financing needed for civil society actors.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“These women leaders organized joint missions to all of the provinces of the country and saw first-hand the suffering facing populations in conflict areas. The women leaders who are members of AWLN must work in their civil society role as partners for the implementation of urgently needed assistance programmes for women in remote areas. With regard to the implementation of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic, the participation of women remains limited to raising awareness of the Agreement itself, but there are substantial difficulties in terms of implementation owing to the active presence on the ground of the signatory armed groups.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“As one displaced woman in the town of Bria in the north-western part of the Central African Republic asked, "How can I go and speak of peace when I am not even living in peace - after the murder of my son, the burning down of my house that made me lose everything I owned, and the rape of my daughter - and I am receiving no assistance to rebuild my livelihood after those tragedies?" Indeed, thousands of families simply want to receive a minimum amount of assistance to return home and begin a new life. The establishment of the national chapter of the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) allowed for the establishment of a coordination framework for all the leaders of women's organizations in the Central African Republic.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“Furthermore, support for victims and prevention initiatives need to be bolstered in the provinces. To this end, it is necessary to increase the number of women Blue Helmets deployed on the ground in the communities. With regard to providing assistance to conflict- affected populations, the Central African Republic has more than 4.5 million inhabitants, and a half of the country's population is in need of emergency assistance, according to reports from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Central African Republic. The majority of displaced persons say that they feel abandoned to their tragic fate without the necessary assistance to enable them to restore their human dignity. Frustration is increasing on a daily basis and could generate social tensions.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“Moreover, the challenges faced are many and can be clearly seen across the pillars set of resolution 1325 (2000) - conflict prevention and the protection of civilians. In this regard, cooperation between women and young people was created through the contribution of those groups to the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) and 2250 (2015). This momentum forjoint actions needs to be underpinned not by sporadic support, but as part of a long-term programme framework to change mindsets and thereby achieve a lasting impact. With respect to gender-based violence, the situation is well known and documented with alarming indicators, but there remains an absence of an expanded programme for providing psychosocial support for either victims or communities that continue to live with their traumas.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“Re-establishing security in remote areas of the country is urgently needed so that the elections can be effective. There is a constant need to strengthen cooperation with civil society to take into account the real aspirations of women and girls, rather than prioritizing institutional partnership, which does not always ensure that the assistance delivered to populations is efficient. Indeed, there is a genuine gap between the commitments made by partners and the Government with regard to the universal vision for the participation of women in the peace process. The absence ofa comprehensive and coherent support programme for women's civil society organizations in a country in conflict where everything must be done to restore women's dignity and hope is a relevant indicator.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“To that end, the Government must be encouraged to create the necessary conditions to foster positive inclusive dialogue that will promote genuine ownership of the Agreement and diffuse the already discernible social and political tensions in the country. In terms of perspective, I would respectfully call the Council's attention to the following challenges. The holding of peaceful elections in 2020 and 2021 will be a significant challenge for lasting peace in the country and will not be possible without the support of women. Within the framework of civil society organizations, we have begun to train women to be both voters and candidates, but the majority of women live in remote areas of the country that are the strongholds of armed groups and therefore difficult to access.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“Seven months after the signing of the Political Agreement for Peace, we are seeing 60 to 70 violations committed every week by armed groups, according to the report of United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic. The armed groups remain very active on the ground. They are preventing the deployment of State authorities, imposing hardship on the population and continuing to procure heavy weapons. In general, the fulfilment of their obligations as set out in the Political Agreement for Peace is showing extremely weak progress. The worrisome situation that I just described requires overhauling strategies for implementing the Political Agreement.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“In the name of the implementation of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic, the social dimension seems to have been relegated to the background, because in prioritizing the interests of armed groups, all the policymakers forget that there are people who are suffering; that fires in villages have led to the deaths of hundreds of people and the displacement of thousands of families and left many others without roofs over their heads, living in inhumane conditions; that women and girl victims of rape and sexual violence have been abandoned without assistance; that hundreds of young people have been tortured and are living with disabilities; that women can no longer farm their fields; that heads of households can no longer carry out their daily tasks, as they are all afraid of being abducted, tortured, raped and even killed; and that young women, who are living in hiding for fear of being abducted and raped, can no longer go to school.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“Its implementation is not living up to the expectations of the population. In particular, women and other victims of armed groups find it hard to understand how their tormenters are officially promoted within the country's ruling class without any legal vetting as to their eligibility under the principle of impunity, as recommended by the National Forum of Bangui. The justice that the population yearns for is therefore being sorely tested. The Special Criminal Court has clearly been weakened in carrying out its mandate, and the same concern applies to the Commission on Truth, Justice, Reparation and Reconciliation, were it to become operational.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“Nevertheless, women have persisted in their advocacy, resulting in United Nations and African Union support for efforts to disseminate in the prefecture capitals the peace initiative and the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic, and to integrate women into implementation and monitoring mechanisms. However, the women who are involved in the monitoring of the peace agreement were not involved in the negotiations. Their involvement in implementation monitoring mechanisms does not yet give them the right to participate in assessments or decision-making on policy and strategy. The peace agreement signed by the Government and the 14 armed groups is a political document that includes concessions on the part of the leadership to assuage the armed groups.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source
“On behalf of the Central African women leaders for peace, I would like first of all to extend my sincere congratulations to the Government of South Africa on assuming the presidency of this organ and to thank, in particular, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of South Africa, who kindly gave us the opportunity to make the voice of Central African women and girls heard in the Chamber. The Central African Republic has a national plan for the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). However, women have been excluded from the Central African peace initiative from the outset, despite the many pleas made by leaders of women's organizations to national authorities, guarantors and facilitators. Those who were invited to finalize the talks between the Government and the armed groups did not have access to the negotiating table.”
2019-10-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649 (2019) · source