YouSaid · the spoken record

Frogh

lines on the record: 27
first: 2017-12-21
most recent: 2021-09-09
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

“I pray that no Council member experiences losing his or her country overnight, as we did in Afghanistan. As a civil society leader in exile, I am doing all I can to save the lives of women in my country so that I can face my daughters in the years to come. Please ask yourself, Mr. President, given your power and position and privilege, can you face your daughters?”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“Also, I would like to thank international civil society partners in the region and internationally — organizations such as the International Civil Society Action Network and others — which have shown sisterhood and solidarity. We will never forget that in the difficult times. In 1994, United Nations predecessors sat in this Chamber and played politics while Rwanda’s genocide unfolded. Today, it is the Afghans who are at risk. We are told that some members of the Council do not like each other. We are told that they are competing with each other and that a resolution to enable action will not be adopted. But my plea to the Security Council is that its members put aside their political differences and act as one voice in support of the people and the women of Afghanistan.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“Well, why not ask them to demonstrate their commitment to peace through their actions? Ask them to stop beating women on the streets or shooting at them. Ask them to stop torturing journalists. Ask them to stop searching people’s homes and threatening them. Ask them to fulfil their responsibility to protect and respect all Afghans regardless of their age or sex or ethnicity. If they care for Afghanistan as much as we do, let them show it by preserving our culture and respecting our people. I would like to express my gratitude to the countries that have actually gone out of their way to evacuate and protect women activists and journalists at risk, notably, Canada, Germany, Norway and many other Asian and European Union countries, whose efforts are worth mentioning.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“Some 18 million Afghans are in need of humanitarian aid. Women and children constitute the majority of this population. To reach them, especially given the gender-segregated ideology of the Taliban regime, it is imperative that the United Nations ensures the protection of Afghan female aid workers and other civic professionals and community organizers, who are critical to the distribution and delivery of aid to the needy. It is entirely within the Council’s control. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and chart and other agencies must put in place a practical and clear gender-responsive aid plan. Without it, they and the Council are at the risk of increasing the harm. Finally, Mr. Griffiths and others say that the Taliban has asked for the world to be patient as they take charge.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“Council members can also facilitate meetings of delegations of women across different professions — peacebuilders, judges, security officers, educators, doctors, businesswomen — with the Taliban. Please do not stonewall us anymore. Secondly, thousands of women and men from civil society, media, former Government employees, judges and prosecutors, artists, musicians are at risk of reprisal. They are stranded inside Afghanistan and are in hiding. They need immediate protection and evacuation until and unless their security and ability to live peacefully is evident. Please welcome them, grant them visas, give them a chance for a productive life. If Council members do this, their countries will be receiving some of the Afghanistan’s greatest natural resources. Thirdly, the humanitarian crisis is looming.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“If we together do not act now — urgently — the repercussions will be felt across the region and globally. I have therefore come to the Security Council because I still believe that it has the power, the ability, and the responsibility to mitigate this damage. I have the following four immediate requests. First, as each of member of the Council is engaging with the Taliban caretaker Government, no matter what the strategic focus of his or her Government, I would ask that they remember that there are some 16 or 17 million women and girls in Afghanistan who do not know what tomorrow holds for them. These women can be included in Council members’ own mediation teams.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“My nation is young, with over 62 per cent of our population being under the age of 25. Our modern State was just 20 years old, but we had 500 women judges and prosecutors working throughout the country. We had some 12,000 women in the police and the army. Today, they are all in hiding, fearful for their lives and for their families. On 4 September, Nigar Banu, a police officer in Ghor province, eight months pregnant, was tortured and killed in front of her own children. Right now, I have in my phone at least 500 unread messages from women in the security sector. What do I say to them? I am trying to find words, because what I am fearing is that tomorrow or the next day I might not be able to find them alive. So much damage has been done — so much avoidable, unnecessary damage.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“In the end, we were betrayed by all, including the Afghan Government’s leadership. Where are we now that the Taliban has announced their caretaker emirate? All but three members are from one ethnic group. That means just three Cabinet members represent 60 per cent of the population — some 18 million people. If the voices of 18 million Afghans are suppressed, how long will such rule be sustained? We have seen that in other parts of the world already. Women’s lives have been flipped around since 15 August. Women are being erased from governance as we speak. Women have been told that they cannot go to work. Girls over 12 years of age have not yet started going to school. Female Government workers have been told to stay home. Thousands of women workers in non-governmental organizations are in hiding.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“That is why, when I was serving on the Afghan High Peace Council, the women members were the ones that actually reached out to communities, to the mothers of the Taliban fighters on the ground, and initiated the first national dialogue that brought all Afghans together. We worked for the ceasefire and a national peace process. We reached out to the Taliban leaders and we advocated for ensuring that the grievances of their youth and families who had suffered were taken into account. We wanted the Doha talks to result in an interim deal and transitional Government that reflected the true diversity of our nation — the men and women, ethnic diversity and political ideologies — and a process that would lead to democratic participation and the people having a say in who governed. We were stonewalled and kept away from the talks.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“We women and girls and our work have been the biggest achievement of the past 20 years that the United Nations and other members of the international community could actually claim credit for. Let me explain what we did. I, along with my local women peacebuilders network — which includes around 100 women in 34 provinces of Afghanistan — have been working for local peace and conflict resolution for over a decade. We were the ones who advocated for inclusive and meaningful peace negotiations. We have always been practical and realistic. We knew that a political settlement with the participation of the Taliban would be necessary.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“Those certificates, that resolution — they were meant to give her and millions of women an opportunity for life, peace, security and dignity. Today, her best chance of life is by burning those documents and disappearing. Why? It is because of what the world has unleashed on us and because the world did not listen to us women when we warned about the absence of a political settlement and a sudden military take over. The international community side-lined us when we begged for a chance to sit at the negotiating table; when we asked that the international community make the protection of civilians and civil society actors conditions for negotiations; and when we called for a conditional withdrawal.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“They have no food for their children, no medicine for the ill and no way to communicate to the rest of Afghanistan and the world about their ordeal. This week, the world saw brave women and men of Afghanistan coming out on the streets of Kabul and other cities showing their anguish about how they are being treated. The right to protest is now being taken away and the next is access to the Internet, which is being limited based on one’s location in Kabul. Just yesterday, a 25-year-old policy specialist in the now erased Ministry of Women’s Affairs had to burn her work and education certificates because the homes of women activists and Government employees — people like you and me — had been raided. She found a copy of resolution 1325 (2000) from a training that she had attended in New York years ago. She had to burn that, too.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“Ms. Frogh: I thank the Security Council for the opportunity to share my and my colleagues’ perspectives with the Security Council. I am grateful to Ireland’s presidency of the Security Council for inviting me, and I wish all members a productive meeting. Where should I begin? I come to the Security Council with a broken heart. Twenty years ago, I was a young woman who believed in this institution. I was inspired by resolution 1325 (2000), on women and peace and security, which spoke to me and millions of women like me who had witnessed war first-hand and wanted to dedicate our lives to building peace in our nations. As I sit here today, scores of villages — countless men, women and children — are stranded in the valleys of Panjshir following weeks of shelling and bombing.”
2021-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8853 (2021) · source
“Lastly, we call on the Security Council to ensure that the Afghan Government and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan develop, in consultation with the female members of the High Peace Council, clear procedures to engage and include Afghan women in the peace negotiations with the Taliban and other parties to the conflict at every stage in order to ensure meaningful participation. We look forward to our presence at the Kabul process and meaningful participation at other international and regional platforms from time to time.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“We call on the international community and members of the Security Council to ensure that specific funding is allocated for women organizations as part of the empowerment agenda and the implementation of the national action plan. Women's engagement in the peace and security sector is a priority for all of us, and the Security Council should call on the Afghan Government and its international partners to work alongside women's organizations to develop clear plans on how to increase the number of women and leadership in the management of the security sector and how to ensure a safe and enabling environment for women in the police and army.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“Women, children and the elderly in rural areas suffer from the ongoing violence perhaps even more than men in Afghanistan, yet women and civil society are excluded from the peace and security processes, especially when negotiating about the political peace being envisioned by the leadership of the Government. Lasting peace can be achieved only if women sit at the negotiation table with men so that communities can become the guardians of such an agreement. Women should be able to monitor the impact of settlements on communities. Civil society groups must be better supported and resourced. The number of women's organizations closing is alarming, given that it these organizations are the ones that are raising the voices of Afghan women and that need funding and support to continue functioning.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“There are no women in the leadership and management positions of these institutions, when so many young women are risking their lives for these institutions as police officers and within the army. There is no systematic institutional support yet. We women do not have a seat at the Government's National Security Council, where most of the political and security decisions are made. My recommendations follow. As the country is moving towards reforms and improving institutional capacities, the role and contributions of women should not be ignored. The national action plan on resolution 1325 (2000), if implemented properly and adequately, will bring women into national peace processes and help boost trust in the Government.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“While the Afghanistan High Peace Council is mandated to facilitate a national level peace process, the Council itself is sidelined from the major political decisions that are taken at the Government leadership levels. Therefore, public trust in the High Peace Council has not yet strengthened and the organization's relevance and importance is still being challenged. That was revealed by communities during consultations in 24 provinces, carried out by the High Peace Council. The security sector reform has started in the past few months within the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence. We are seeing tangible results. The bad news is that the participation of women is still not the priority of reform.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“There are reports that last week, French and Algerian fighters had arrived in the north of the country to support the ISIS affiliates. That adds to the already identified foreign fighters from Pakistan, Chechnya and many Central Asian republics that are fighting alongside the Taliban and ISIS. On the peace and security sector reform, while a negotiated settlement is the only solution for the end of ongoing armed conflict with the Taliban, the peace process needs to engage all Afghans from all walks of life and social groups to ensure the sustainability of the results. If insurgency is incentivized, many will resort to violence to get the same incentives.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“The younger generation does not have a place for meaningful participation in political and Government structures, and the lack ofjobs and justice is driving thousands of our youth to militancy and insurgency. My organization has been documenting and reporting on the impact of armed conflict on women in communities. We received reports in August that around 47 young women and girls between the ages of 11 and 12 had been taken away by a group of ISIS affiliates in the north to an unknown area. The families and provincial Governments continue to deny this disappearance because it would bring dishonour on the families and call into question the ability of the Government to protect its civilians. As ISIS affiliates are emerging in different parts of the country, their brutality against women and girls has shocked us all.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“We are seeing our previous achievements relating to women erode. However, Afghan women do not have a role in decisions on how to combat insurgencies at the national or local level. The changing nature of conflict is evident in Afghanistan - from an insurgency towards the brutal killing of civilians and women, in particular, to the radicalization of young men with violent extremist ideologies. And this continues at very local levels, where mothers and women can play a big role. Weak governance, the abuse of police and armed forces in communities, the lack ofinclusion in local and national processes and the impact of young boys are key to the recruitment processes of the insurgents.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“All of that happens while the pro-Government armed militant groups are still complicit in rape, abduction, forced marriages and the extortion of women in families in so many parts of the country. The political distance is widening between the centre and the provinces. Afghanistan's national action plan on women, peace and security, in line with resolution 1325 (2000), was adopted in 2015 and was internationally celebrated at that time. It is of great importance and relevance to the lives of Afghan women, and yet it has not been operationalized at the national and provincial levels. The ongoing war is not being fought on the borders. It is being fought in our communities, in our markets and in our mosques. The Taliban assert their presence in our communities and the first attacks are against women.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“The Taliban and now the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) affiliates are targetting women and children indiscriminately to create fear and control in Afghan communities. Just last week, a woman was shot dead in public by the Taliban in Sar-e Pol, a northern province, her brother having been accused of having links to the Government. The ISIS-affiliated militants in Jowzjan province, which is also in the north, have reportedly taken away more than 300 children from their families to unknown training camps, and reports of the provincial council members indicate that these children - as young as six or seven - are being taught how to become suicide bombers. This year, we had more than 10 attacks on Shia mosques in Kabul and other provinces that killed and injured so many men, women and children.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“Despite national and international commitments to women's empowerment in Afghanistan, only one woman in the Government of Afghanistan is female - the Minister of Women's Affairs - while the Afghan Parliament failed to elect another strong women as the Minister of Mines and Petroleum. Also, there is a small number of female Deputy Ministers and Director Generals. It is a question not of lack of capacity, but of lack of political will. In 2017, the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission reported more than 5,000 cases of severe violence against women in different parts of the country, while scores of such incidents go unregistered and unheard in areas where the Government and media have no access. Only one in three women can read and write.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“Afghans want an elected Government and elected members of Parliament and provincial and district councils, as those are important elements of checks and balance for effective governance. While every Afghan is asking for democracy and justice, the impact of local armed groups, Taliban, affiliates of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) and some political figures have hampered the process for transitional justice and civil liberties for Afghanistan. We are still considered to be one of the most dangerous countries for media freedom and for journalists, and have not seen due processes to prosecute those elements that put the life of Afghan men and women journalists at risk.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“1 am currently one of the 12 women at the 70-member Afghanistan High Peace Council, but I am speaking as a civil society activist today. The National Unity Government has appointed a number of Afghan women to leadership and management positions in the Cabinet and as governors, judges and prosecutors, and has increased efforts to increase the number of women in the police and army. I would like to recognize the efforts of Afghanistan's First Lady in standing in solidarity with Afghan women. Many Afghans, and I myself, see Afghanistan moving in the right direction. However, there are major concerns, especially about the convening of parliamentary and presidential elections on time.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source
“Ms. Frogh: Iwould like thank you, Sir, the Japanese Ambassador and President of Security Council this month, for inviting me to participate in this meeting. I would like to congratulate the members of the Security Council on standing for peace and justice around the world. The people of my country have great hopes of this important institution on global justice. In light of the ongoing armed conflict and sustained violence against civilians, especially Afghan women, it is particularly significant for me to be here. I have been advocating for women's participation in peace and security processes for the past 20 years, having previously worked for gender and human rights at the Ministry of Interior and Defence.”
2017-12-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8147 (2017) · source