YouSaid · the spoken record

Fore

lines on the record: 64
first: 2018-07-09
most recent: 2021-08-23
sittings or episodes: 6
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

“UNICEF and our partners are ready to work with the parties to ensure that the salaries of civil servants are paid regularly — a step that would put money back in the pockets of millions of people, helping families to survive. It would also support the functioning of the basic services that are essential to a successful humanitarian response. Likewise, we must also take steps to boost people’s incomes. That means protecting remittances, which are a lifeline for millions of families and constitute Yemen’s largest source of foreign exchange. Ultimately, children in Yemen need a comprehensive and lasting peace. Parties to the conflict must work to reach a negotiated political solution. They must prioritize and uphold the rights of children.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“The last time I addressed the Security Council on Yemen was before the pandemic (see S/PV.8525). As Mr. Griffiths has noted, COVID-19 has further complicated this already dire humanitarian situation. The health system is hanging by a thread. So is the economy. Vaccination campaigns across the country must be urgently expanded, especially with the emergence of highly transmissible COVID-19 variants. I also take this opportunity to urge the international community to increase its financial support to help meet the immediate needs of children and make longer-term investments to prevent the complete collapse of health, water, sanitation, nutrition, protection and education systems — all of which Yemeni children need now and over the years to come.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“All parties have regularly failed to take the necessary precautions to protect civilians. This must end. In addition, UNICEF and our partners need sustained, unconditional and uninterrupted humanitarian access to people in need wherever they are in Yemen — no matter who controls the areas in which they live. Bureaucratic hurdles should not get in the way of our ability to deliver aid. We value support from donors and Member States in resolving those challenges. We need help to safely and effectively carry out the crucial demining work needed. Yemen imports nearly everything, including humanitarian supplies. We must reopen the port of Al-Hudaydah to commercial imports and fuel. Millions more could be plunged into famine if vital imports remain restricted.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“I once again call on them and the members of the Council to make every possible effort to keep children safe and to abide by their legal obligations to keep them out of the line of fire. That includes sparing from attack the essential infrastructure on which children depend, such as health facilities and water and sanitation systems. I want to emphasize that respecting and protecting education, including schools, students and teachers, is of the utmost importance for Yemeni children and youth. We remain gravely concerned about the severity and frequency of threats and attacks against education and the use of schools for military purposes. The implications of such attacks on the safety of students and their ability to enjoy their right to education cannot be overstated. All parties bear responsibility for killing and maiming children.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“Across the country, UNICEF is supporting the treatment of acute malnutrition in more than 4,000 primary health-care facilities and 100 therapeutic feeding centres. We are working to rehabilitate schools and have provided financial support and supplies so that secondary-school students can sit for national exams. But none of that is enough given the scale of the humanitarian needs amid the ongoing violence. There have been glimmers of progress on the political front and occasional signs of hope that this nightmare could soon come to an end. Yet there are no tangible signs of peace on the ground. In fact, hostilities have increased significantly in places such as Ma’rib. All the while, children continue to suffer. After six years of war, when will parties to the conflict and those with influence over them place children first?”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“Fighting around their communities means that it may be impossible for children to get vaccinated against polio or other diseases. And if they do get sick, there may be no hospital or clinic for them to safely visit. Being a child in Yemen is the stuff of nightmares. We are doing everything we can to help children get through this ordeal. Shoulder to shoulder with our local partners, we are providing access to clean water and sanitation along with health, nutrition, protection and education services. Those efforts include delivering vaccines and supporting primary health-care centres and hospitals to remain operational. We are responding to COVID-19 and are providing emergency cash transfers to 1.5 million households every quarter, benefiting approximately 9 million people.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“Being a child in Yemen means watching one’s parents struggle to provide enough food for the family to eat in order to not starve. It means that a child who is fortunate enough to have a school to go to could be killed by a bullet, an explosion or by stepping on a mine walking along the road simply to get to school. It means possibly being one of the children recruited to join the fighting, used by a party in a non-combat role or forced into marriage the family is out of options. Being a child in Yemen means probably experiencing or witnessing horrific violence to which no child should ever be exposed. Children who survive the war might carry physical and emotional scars for the rest of their lives, undermining their development and happiness as adults.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“Two thirds of teachers — more than 170,000 teachers in total — have not received a regular salary for more than four years because of the conflict and the geopolitical divides. That places approximately 4 million additional children at risk of disrupted education or of dropping out, as unpaid teachers quit teaching to find other ways of providing for their families. Children who do not finish their education are trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty. If out-of-school children or those who have dropped out recently are not properly supported, they may never return to school, so we are deeply worried. These are the numbers. But the numbers do not really tell us what it is like to be a child growing up in Yemen today.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“There is food in Yemen, as Martin Griffiths just said, but those who cannot afford it are at risk of starvation. Today in Yemen, almost 21 million people, including 11.3 million children, need humanitarian assistance to survive. There are 2.3 million children who are acutely malnourished and nearly 400,000 children under five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and are at imminent risk of death. More than 10 million children and close to 5 million women cannot properly access health services. In Yemen, one child dies every 10 minutes from preventable causes, including malnutrition and vaccine-preventable diseases. As Mr. Griffiths said, children’s education in Yemen has also been gravely impacted by the war. Two million children are out of school and one in six schools can no longer be used.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“Basic services, such as health care, sanitation and education, all of which are vital to the humanitarian response, are incredibly fragile and on the brink of total collapse. The widespread lack of access to safe and sufficient water is of the utmost concern. Those who are internally displaced are particularly vulnerable to the ongoing water cuts taking place across the front lines. As both Mr. Griffiths and Mr. Khiari thoughtfully outlined, Yemen’s economy is in a frighteningly poor condition. The gross domestic product has dropped by 40 per cent since 2015, causing jobs to disappear and family incomes to plummet. Approximately a quarter of the population, including many doctors, teachers and sanitation workers, rely on civil servant salaries, which are paid erratically, if at all.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“Ms. Fore: More than six years ago, adults started a war in Yemen. They did so despite knowing the terrible toll that violent conflict exacts on children. The war in Yemen, now in its seventh year, has created the largest humanitarian crisis in the world — one made worse by the public health and socioeconomic consequences of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Since I last spoke to the Security Council about Yemen in the Chamber two years ago (see S/PV.8525), little has changed for the country’s civilian population. Each day, the violence and destruction wreak havoc on the lives of children and their families. This year has seen growing displacement, with 1.6 million children now internally displaced because of the violence, particularly around Al-Hudaydah and Ma’rib.”
2021-08-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8840 (2021) · source
“Peace and prosperity — in the short and long terms — cannot be separated from a child’s ability to learn and build a future for themselves. Finally, we urge the Council to continue making this issue a priority, and give Mohammed — and every child living through the horror of conflict — a chance to build their future and contribute to the lasting peace that we all seek.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“Let us match words with consequences. I call on members to demand that all States endorse the Safe Schools Declaration — as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines did yesterday, becoming the 105th state to do so — and to take steps to fully live up to their commitments. There is no excuse. We must protect education from attack and end the military use of schools now. And finally, I call on members to follow the lead of Niger and encourage future Council Presidents to make education under attack a regular thematic topic for the Council’s deliberations — not just around the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, but on a sustained basis during the year. The security of countries and our world is directly tied to the education and protection of the children within these countries.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“Treating the disease means going beyond what we have done so far. Otherwise, how can we — who have the power to change this — look a child like Mohammed in the eye and tell him we are doing everything we can to make life better for him and his classmates and teachers? In short, we need the Council’s help to treat the disease itself. I call on members to lend their voice and influence to condemn all attacks on schools and students alike — whether through resolutions or presidential statements, such as the one we are uniting behind today; to take concrete measures to fulfil obligations and commitments to protect education from attack; and to end impunity for those who violate international law — both parties to conflict and individual perpetrators — whether at the national level or through international tribunals.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“Around the world, UNICEF is using the pandemic as an opportunity to accelerate the development and use of these tools worldwide — tools that can provide an excellent alternative to traditional classrooms for children living under conflict. To support all of this work, we call on our generous donor Governments to commit to multi-year, flexible funding to help communities rebuild education systems over the long term. This area of work is critically underfunded in the Sahel — with a UNICEF funding gap of 66 per cent across seven countries in the region. This is one of the biggest funding gaps for education globally — a gap that must be urgently closed before countries lose an entire generation of young minds. But we must also recognize that this work — as vital as it is — treats only the symptom, not the disease of attacks on education.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“Along with our humanitarian partners, UNICEF’s teams on the ground are doing all that they can to respond to the needs of out-of-school children — from providing essential learning materials, such as school kits and textbooks in Burkina Faso, the Niger and Mauritania; to supplying tents for temporary classrooms; to re-building learning spaces and training teachers; to providing counselling and psychosocial support to children who have witnessed the worst of humankind; to working with governments across the Sahel to provide distance-learning opportunities, including through the use of radio, television and online tools.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“His experience reminds us that protecting schools from attack and providing education in the midst of emergencies is more than a humanitarian need — it is a moral obligation. To children and communities alike, in the 30 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is clearly a moral obligation that we are failing to meet, because the reality is that our words about protecting schools from attack — our policies, pronouncements and normative frameworks, and even our laws — do not reflect the situation on the ground for students, for teachers, for schools.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“They are at a higher risk of recruitment by armed forces or groups, gender-based violence, child marriage and early pregnancy, abuse and trafficking. And numbers cannot capture the heartbreaking cost to the spirits of these young people when their schools are attacked. For one moment, look through the eyes of Mohammed, a 12-year-old. Mohammed was forced to flee Banki in north-east Nigeria, because his school was attacked and set on fire. He explains: “I was at school when I heard shouting, and we ran. A classmate of mine opened the gate. They destroyed everything we worked on in our books, and they burned them. One of my teachers was killed.” Mohammed has seen things that no child should ever see.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“Conflict-related insecurity, combined with the pandemic, resulted in the closure of over 2,500 schools as of August. This leaves nearly 350,000 girls and boys without an education. In the Niger, over 340 schools have been closed owing to insecurity — more than a three-fold increase since the start of 2020. It is important to remember that the Sahel is already home to a disproportionate share of the world’s children who need humanitarian protection and assistance. About one in four who need support live in 10 countries in West and Central Africa, including the Sahel. But the denial of education is just part of the challenge faced by these children. Out-of-school children — and children living in conflict generally — face a world of danger.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“This week, as schools around the world prepare to open their doors in the midst of the pandemic, we have an opportunity to once again shine a light on those places where going to school can be dangerous and even deadly. Last year alone saw 494 verified attacks on schools, and there have been more than 13,000 since monitoring and reporting began. These attacks are seemingly designed with one purpose in mind: to rob children, communities and countries of any semblance of safety, hope or optimism for the future. One-fifth of last year’s verified attacks took place in West and Central Africa, including in the Sahel region. And year over year the number is rising. In Burkina Faso, 55 schools were attacked in just the last year and a half.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“Ms. Fore: On behalf of everyone at UNICEF, we welcome the adoption of this important presidential statement (S/PRST/2020/8) to protect education from attack. We thank Permanent Representative Abdou Abarry for making this issue a priority during the Niger’s presidency of the Security Council. The coronavirus disease has disrupted learning for over 1 billion children worldwide. But at the same time, we must remember those who have no education waiting for them, including many of the 75 million children who live in countries in conflict. Today’s armed conflicts are increasingly protracted and complex in cause, consequence and character. They are also increasingly violent and marked by an alarming contempt for international humanitarian law by parties to conflict — State and non-State alike.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“Next year we will mark the tenth anniversary of the Syrian conflict, an anniversary that none of us wants to see. Millions of Syrian children are crying tonight, from hunger and cold, from wounds and pain, from fear, loss and heartbreak. They and their families face a brutal winter and an uncertain year ahead. We must stand with them. We must tell them that we choose peace. History will judge us harshly — and justly — if we do not.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“More neighbouring countries will be under pressure to accept more refugees when they have already been so generous in hosting them. And with each passing month, prospects for the ability of Syria and the region to recover grow more hopeless. Schools bombed, communities flattened, bodies broken, minds shattered, families torn apart, futures and hopes stolen — and still the fighting continues. The message is clear: we cannot afford to greet another year with the same carnage, the same flouting of international humanitarian law, the same inhumanity with which we began 2020. A child born at the start of this war is now 9 years old. Are we forced to admit to her that peace is beyond our grasp? That we are unable, or unwilling, to stop this destructive war?”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“We also call on authorities to remove all children from detention and place them in appropriate care. Fifthly, we renew our call to the Council to lend its support and influence to a negotiated political solution that ends this war once and for all. As the Secretary-General said last week, there is no military solution to the Syrian crisis; the only possible solution remains political. Investing in the children of Syria is the best investment that any one of us can make — an investment in the future and an investment in peace. Yet we are letting this opportunity slip through our fingers as another year begins. The longer the war continues, the more children are going to die on the world’s watch. More will be forced from their homes to make long, perilous journeys to safety.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“That includes allowing road access for humanitarian convoys delivering medical supplies from Damascus or cross-border into north-east Syria, as well as visas and travel permits. Fourthly, we urge all Member States to honour their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to repatriate children in a safe, voluntary and dignified manner. The conditions under which many children are living, in particular children formerly living in territory held by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, do not provide the necessary care and protection to every child. When in the best interest of the child, family unity must be maintained so that children can be repatriated with their siblings and primary caregiver, usually their mother.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“First, we call on parties all over Syria to protect children and the essential civilian infrastructure that they and their families need so desperately, such as schools, hospitals and water systems, which Syria will need to rebuild when the fighting stops and a political settlement is under way. Secondly, we desperately need a cessation of hostilities in north-west Syria. In the meantime, we need regular humanitarian pauses to allow civilians to move safely out of harm’s way if they can and wish to do so. This would also give aid workers the room that they need to provide urgent care for people in need and conduct impartial assessments, including across borders. Thirdly, we need greater humanitarian access across the board to reach people in the most effective and timely manner, from within Syria and from neighbouring countries.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“We helped 1.8 million children continue their education. We provided winter clothing and blankets to more than 37,000 children, and we vaccinated almost 600,000 children under the age of 1. This is on top of the thousands of children whom we have reached, and continue to reach, across Syria over the last nine years. But the needs are overwhelming and rapidly outpacing our resources. I will be travelling to Syria and the region this weekend to meet with officials and our humanitarian teams on the ground to see what more must be done to meet these urgent needs. We know that we need more funding and more resources to support these lives and give Syrian society even a chance at a better, more peaceful future. But we also need the Council and its members to stand up for the children of Syria and to speak with one united voice.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“Thousands, Syrian and foreign alike, are confined to camps that are not fit for children. Armed groups have recruited and used boys to fight on the front lines. Girls as young as 9 have been raped, and one in four children is at risk of severe mental disorders. The horrific scale and speed of the crisis has multiplied the humanitarian needs. UNICEF, our sister agencies and our partners are doing all we can. Last year we screened 1.8 million mothers and children for malnutrition and delivered health consultations to more than 2 million. More than 7.4 million people across Syria received water and sanitation services, including improved access to water, hygiene kits and purifying tablets. We provided almost 400,000 women and children with psychological counselling to help them cope with the trauma that they have endured.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“A total of 6.7 million refugees have fled Syria since the war began, and 6.2 million — and counting — are internally displaced. Almost a decade of war has forced nearly half of the country’s population from their homes. Most of all, we measure that global failure in the innocent lives lost and broken by the conflict. In 2018, more than 1,100 children were killed in the fighting — the highest number of children killed in a single year since the start of the war. Last year was scarcely better; 900 were killed and hundreds maimed. And these are only those we could verify; the true number is much higher. As the Council learned last week from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, children have been detained and used as bargaining chips.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“It is measured in the daily lives of the people — of the 11 million people across Syria who still require urgent humanitarian assistance, almost half of whom are children; of the 6.5 million Syrians going hungry every day because of food insecurity. The price of essential food items has risen 20 times since the war began, which is devastating for a country in which 80 per cent of the people already live below the poverty line. Families are forced to sell off their household assets or send their children to work, just to meet basic necessities. Children are going without vital immunizations, medical treatments or other health services because of high costs or gaps in service. One in three Syrian children is out of school.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“Seventy-two have suspended services because of the fighting. But the situation in the north-west is just the latest entry in the war’s devastation. Across the country, the nine-year war has decimated public services. More than half of all health services and facilities and three out of 10 schools are non-functional. The economy is in free fall, with the destruction of physical capital costing an estimated $120 billion and half a trillion dollars in economic losses. The Syrian pound has lost nearly 50 per cent of its value over the past year. But the true cost of the carnage is not measured in lost infrastructure or economic devastation.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“When wood runs out, families burn whatever they can find — plastic bags, garbage and discarded furniture — just to provide a flicker of heat against the cold, or a simple fire to cook whatever food they can find. In those informal settlements, children and women are at particular risk of violence and exploitation. Makeshift toilets offer no safety or privacy. Landmines and improvised explosive devices dot the landscape. Every step people take is a risk. In the north-west, 280,000 children have had their education cruelly snatched away. An estimated 180 schools are out of operation — destroyed, damaged or being used for shelters; another blow to children’s hopes and futures. Access to health care is almost non-existent or financially out-of-reach. Hospitals continue to be targeted.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“Many have fled to north-western Idlib, while others have scattered to Afrin, A’zaz and Al-Bab, near Aleppo and the Turkish border. Tens of thousands now live in makeshift tents, public buildings, in the open air, huddled under trees — exposed to the rain, snow and the sub-zero cold of the harsh Syrian winter. The recent strikes on those makeshift camps in Idlib and on the children and teachers horrifically killed just two days ago as 10 schools were attacked are both reprehensible and morally repugnant. Those acts also clearly demonstrate the terrifying daily conditions of those living through that nightmare. We have heard and read reports of children freezing to death.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“Ms. Fore: Another year, another decade — another grim chapter in the Syrian catastrophe that has left the country and its people reeling from the decimation and destruction of a seemingly endless war. The year 2020 is barely two months old and, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, some 300 people have been killed in Idlib and Aleppo since the start of the year. The situation is worsening by the day. The escalation of fighting in the north-west since December has pushed more than 900,000 people, including more than half a million children, away from their homes and into danger — a staggering mass movement of people in such a short time. For some, this is the sixth or seventh time they have been displaced.”
2020-02-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8734 (2020) · source
“Authorities should exercise maximum restraint in such situations. Otherwise, they risk killing children or causing grave injuries that lead to permanent disabilities. Protecting the lives and futures of children affected by armed conflict is not just the right thing to do; it is in our collective self-interest. In conflict and post-conflict situations worldwide, we must engage actively with young people to prevent spiralling violence and achieve lasting peace. They are the adults and the leaders of tomorrow. In the spirit of the thirtieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, let us do better - let us do more - to protect vulnerable children. Our global future will depend upon it.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“UNICEF calls on all Member States to reintegrate children associated with armed groups into society and support holistic, evidence-based reintegration programming. We commend the States that are already doing so. Member States - indeed, all Governments and their militaries 4 are themselves accountable for preventing the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict. UNICEF continues to provide a strong voice on the issue. As we speak, UNICEF is supporting an age-verification workshop with the Sudanese military and Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum. Next week, our teams will conduct age verification with the Rapid Support Forces in Nyala, Darfur. At the same time, we remain concerned about the excessive use of military force against civilians, including children, who engage in peaceful protest.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“That means all children, not just children under a specific age, including those who may have committed crimes. They should never be deprived ofliberty solely because of their alleged or actual association with armed groups. Boys and girls often join or support armed groups under extreme duress, coercion, fear or manipulation - or simply as a matter of survival. The evidence suggests that they are rarely driven by ideology. Rather than being detained they should be reintegrated into society, with a holistic approach to address their complex needs. Along with many others working on child protection, UNICEF has developed sustainable and evidence-based reintegration programmes to do just that. As Special Representative Gamba said, those programmes take time but carry great rewards.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“UNICEF remains especially concerned about the mental health, physical security and basic rights of children associated with armed groups. Tens of thousands of those children languish in camps, detention centres and orphanages in Syria, Iraq and other countries. They are shunned by their communities because of perceived or actual links with groups designated as terrorists. When children leave those groups they should receive urgently needed protection and humanitarian assistance after the harrowing experiences they have endured - often for years. Instead, they are ostracized, rejected or locked up. Under resolution 2427 (2018) - a critical achievement of the Security Council last year - children associated with armed groups should be treated primarily as victims.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“In 2018, UNICEF reached 6.9 million children and adolescents like Saja with emergency education in humanitarian crises. We focused greater attention on the needs of children living with disabilities in the midst of conflicts. To help prevent disabilities from explosive remnants of war, we worked on risk education programmes in places such as Syria, Mali and Myanmar. Simple posters and leaflets could mean the difference between life, death or disability for children in conflict areas. Also last year, UNICEF provided 3.6 million children and adolescents like Fatima with psychosocial support to help them cope with trauma and regain the childhood that they deserve. But we must do even more to meet the mental health needs of children affected by armed conflict That is an area that cries out for more robust and sustainable funding.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Saja says that her most prized possession is her prosthetic leg. She was an aspiring gymnast before losing her leg and still practices flips in her family's tiny apartment. Her wonderful new dream is to compete in the Paralympic Games. Then there is Fatima, a young girl I met at a social support centre in Aden where we provide psychosocial support for young people. Fatima talked to me about fleeing the terrible violence in her hometown. She said she was now learning to reconnect with her peers and showed me a drawing that she had just made. It was a picture of a girl and her girlfriend sitting in a park on a sunny day. Staff members at the centre later told me that, when Fatima first arrived she drew pictures of only guns and blood, but that she had begun to heal.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Ten years after the Security Council adopted resolution 1882 (2009), the facts tell us that we have miles to go to end grave violations against children in armed conflict. But they do not tell the whole story. There is so much we can do, and so much we are doing, to come to the aid of children at risk. Day in and day out, UNICEF and our many partners work with courageous and resilient children and young people in conflict zones around the world. They give us hope for the future - theirs and ours. Let me tell members about two of them. Saja is a 13-year-old from Aleppo who has spent half her life living in conflict. In recent years, she lost her home, her brother and several other loved ones. She also lost her left leg to a bomb. But she has not lost hope. Every day, she makes the long walk to school to continue her education.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Air strikes, landmines, improvised explosive devices, rocket attacks, cluster munitions and artillery shelling cause the great majority of child casualties in armed conflict today. We know too that children account for more than two thirds of all civilians killed or maimed by explosive remnants of war. Their bodies are small and fragile and they are attracted by the shiny coloured metals. Not only are children harmed in disproportionate numbers because of their size and other factors, the severity of the harm must be borne in mind. They are also much more likely than adults to be disabled or killed as a result of blast injuries. Those appalling facts speak for themselves.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Ms. Fore: I join the members of the Security Council today in our shared and steadfast commitment to protect children affected by armed conflict, prevent their physical and psychological harm and provide them with a future. First, however, we must face facts. As Special Representative Gamba noted, there were more than 24,000 documented violations against children in armed conflict in 2018 - up from 21,000 the year before. Half of those violations involved the killing or maiming of children. Those are just the verified incidents; the numbers are higher. We must do better. We at UNICEF are deeply distressed about the continued and rampant use of explosive weapons and their impact on children.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“I witnessed heart-rending struggles to survive - a newborn baby struggling to breathe in an incubator after all power was lost in the emergency room, a distraught mother with a child, thin and malnourished, begging for food, and a father weeping, with so little money that he was forced to choose between keeping his wife alive or his children. Is that how we show our humanity to others? Yemen is a test of our humanity, and right now, we are badly failing that test. Time is running out. We will not get another chance. Fifteen million children in Yemen are asking the Council to save their lives. Please help them. They need peace.”
2019-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8525 (2019) · source
“We call on the Council to speak with one voice to protect the children of Yemen and stop the grave Violations against them. We urge all parties to the conflict to open doors to immediate, long-term humanitarian access and allow for days of tranquillity in order to vaccinate and help children. If we cannot reach them, we cannot keep them alive. We must also redouble our support for the efforts of the United Nations Special Envoy to reach a negotiated political solution 4 one that puts children first - because the longer that this war continues, the more children will die on the world's watch. As we fail those children, we fail more than their basic rights; we fail humankind itself. When I was in Sana'a and Aden, I visited hospitals and clinics shattered by the conflict.”
2019-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8525 (2019) · source
“We are delivering safe drinking water to more than 5 million people every day - including 1.7 million children - in the 15 main cities through municipal water systems. We are providing cash incentives to 7,000 health workers and 135,000 teachers and school staff, as many have not been paid in more than two years. And with key donors, we are helping to keep alive almost 9 million of the most vulnerable Yemeni people with emergency cash assistance. But that work addresses only the symptoms of the catastrophe in Yemen. To truly shape a better future for Yemen and its children, we need the Council's engagement and influence to end the war on children now. Yemen is spiralling perilously close to the brink - to the tipping point.”
2019-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8525 (2019) · source
“What happens now that the water table is so low that the wells are dry and that the small aquifers are below the required well depth? In some ways, that can be worse than famine, as the lack of water can sicken and kill children quickly. Are we prepared to subject a generation of children - and perhaps their children - to a bleak future? How long will we continue allowing Yemen to slide into oblivion? Our teams are working around the clock to prevent that from happening. As Mr. Lowcock said, last year UNICEF and our humanitarian partners treated 345,000 severely malnourished children - children whose mid-upper arm circumference is less than 11 centimetres or three adult fingers in circumference.”
2019-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8525 (2019) · source
“In short, the systems that every child and family needs are failing. At the same time, Yemen's economy is in free fall. A new report commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme shows that Yemen - already one of the least-developed countries before the war - has lost an additional two decades' worth of development gains since the war began. We are at a tipping point. If the war continues any longer, the country may move past the point of no return. As a global community, we must ask ourselves: Can Yemen afford losing a generation of children? Can the region - and indeed, the world - afford the instability and crushing poverty that will result? What will happen if Yemen descends into a full-blown famine?”
2019-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8525 (2019) · source
“And as always, the children die first. The United Nations has verified the recruitment and use of more than 3,000 children by all parties to the conflict since the conflict began. That number is likely much higher - a flagrant and outrageous violation of international humanitarian law. As children's lives are at risk, so too are their minds. More than 2 million children are out of school, and one in five schools has been damaged or destroyed in the fighting - a huge blow to their future potential. The situation has only gotten worse. While the ceasefire has largely held in Al-Hudaydah, other areas are seeing a rise in violence, such as in Abs, Haj jah, Taiz, Al-Dhale'e and elsewhere. Hospitals, clinics and water systems are in ruins, with half of the country's hospitals and clinics destroyed.”
2019-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8525 (2019) · source
“Every 10 minutes, another child will die from a preventable cause, like the lack of food, with 360,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. In fact, half the children under five years old in Yemen - 2.5 million - are stunted. And stunting, as the Council knows, is irreversible. They will die from the lack ofa simple vaccination - 151 children have died of diphtheria since last August - or from cholera and severe acute watery diarrhoea. Despite the best efforts of the humanitarian community, including the more than 2 million doses of oral cholera vaccines delivered over the past year, there are 135,000 suspected cases reported so far this year among children. More than 3,300 people have died of cholera since 2017, including 153 children since January alone 4 a number that will increase as we head into the rainy season.”
2019-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8525 (2019) · source