YouSaid · the spoken record

Ghada Fathi Waly

lines on the record: 37
first: 2020-06-25
most recent: 2021-08-09
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

“We know that there can be no security without development, and no development without security, on land or at sea. Now, the global pandemic has exposed many fragilities and vulnerabilities of our societies and economies, and this is no less true of the maritime domain. To recover better and promote prosperity, we need to strengthen cooperation and capabilities. We must combat immediate threats to maritime security while building local capacities and empowering coastal communities to manage the problem sustainably in the long term. This requires meaningful investment, commitments and political will. Working together, we can keep our seas safe and free from crime.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Fourth and finally, I would like to highlight the need to tackle root causes and support all countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals as part of integrated crime prevention responses, most of all for affected coastal communities. The private sector can be our partner in these endeavours. Major shipping companies issued a declaration in May 2021 on the suppression of piracy, which also highlighted the importance of capacity-building and information-sharing. Pirates, criminals and terrorists exploit poverty and desperation to seek recruits, gain support and find shelter. To counter these threats, we need to raise awareness and educate people, especially young people, while providing alternative livelihoods and support for local businesses.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“UNODC works closely with the International Maritime Organization, INTERPOL, regional organizations, shipping operators, lawyers and insurers, as well as private security companies, submarine cable operators and seafarer organizations, to increase maritime domain awareness and improve law enforcement responses. Harnessing advanced technologies and data is a key opportunity and priority for UNODC across our mandate areas, and we are helping Member States to leverage technology in the fight against maritime crime, including through the provision of satellite imagery, radar systems and maritime domain awareness infrastructure.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“UNODC supports the Yaoundé maritime safety and security architecture, and we are providing experts to the Interregional Coordination Centre for t he Implementation of the Regional Strategy for Maritime Safety and Security in Central and West Africa. Our cooperation is also helping to tackle shared challenges of marine pollution in the Indian Ocean, and UNODC is working with States to develop nation al resilience frameworks to protect critical maritime infrastructure such as submarine cables. Public-private partnerships are essential to all of these efforts.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Both countries have worked to strengthen criminal justice capacities in close cooperation with UNODC and other partners, including to draft and revise legislation and to build the capacities of prosecutors and judges. Third, we need to keep strengthening international and regional cooperation, as well as public-private partnerships, to counter the expansion of maritime crime. UNODC continues to operationalize cooperation through platforms including the Indian Ocean Forum on Maritime Crime, the Southern Route Partnership, the Caribbean Forum on Maritime Crime and the Maritime Law Enforcement Dialogues in Southeast Asia. I would also like to note the work of UNODC with India through the information fusion centre for the Indian Ocean Region in New Delhi.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“UNODC works in coordination with United Nations entities, regional organizations and other partners to provide assistance to address the full range of maritime crime, including illicit trade supporting and financing terrorists; the smuggling of migrants at sea and forced labour onboard fishing vessels; drug trafficking; piracy and armed robbery at sea; and other threats. Our support, coupled with sustained political will and donor commitment, is starting to yield results. Not a single suspect had ever been convicted of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea until last month, when both Nigeria and Togo issued their first maritime piracy convictions.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Alongside the Organized Crime Convention, UNODC also supports Member States to implement the global counter-terrorism instruments, the international drug control conventions and the Convention against Corruption. Taken together, these instruments provide a solid basis for international cooperation against transnational maritime crime and terrorism, and we need to support all Member States to make effective use of this framework. Second, we need greater political will and more resources for technical assistance and capacity-building to do this. We need to enact domestic legislation as well as to enable cross-border law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation to share intelligence and to investigate and prosecute crimes at sea.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“This includes Security Council resolution 2551 (2020), which gives UNODC a leading role in supporting States to disrupt the trafficking of illicit and licit goods into and out of Somalia and to curb the provision of components for improvised explosive devices intended for Al-Shabaab. The framework governing the use of the oceans and their resources is further reinforced by the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols addressing human trafficking, migrant smuggling and illicit firearms. The Convention applies at sea as well as on land, and it has been strengthened with a new review mechanism.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Yet the challenges to maritime security continue to grow, and our responses must keep pace. To secure our seas, we need greater concerted international efforts to target challenges and reduce vulnerabilities. With this in mind, I very much welcome the holistic and comprehensive approach of this debate, and I encourage the Security Council members to build on this momentum and translate it into action. And here, I would like to highlight four areas of action for consideration by the Council: implementing the international legal framework; building capabilities; expanding partnerships; and promoting holistic crime prevention responses. Allow me to elaborate on these four points. First, we need more effective implementation of the international legal framework and Security Council resolutions promoting maritime security.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“The need to tackle piracy and organized crime at sea has been increasingly recognized by the Council and by Member States. UNODC has supported Member States to address transnational challenges to maritime security for more than a decade. Our Global Maritime Crime Programme began in 2009 with a budget of $300,000 to address the threat of Somali piracy. It has since expanded into our largest programme with a budget of over $230 million, providing capacity-building and support for legal reform, simulated trials, maritime training centres and more. This assistance is provided by some 170 personnel based in 26 Member States, who work in teams focusing on the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Some six pirate groups, with 30 to 50 members each, have developed the capacity to conduct attacks in deeper waters, and they are mostly targeting international vessels to kidnap crew members for ransom. The overall combined income resulting from the attacks has been estimated at some $4 million per year. The economic impact, however, has been estimated to be in the range of $800 million. The first half of 2020 saw a 20 per cent increase in incidents of piracy and armed robbery directed against ships, compared with the same period in 2019. Security needs, changes in routes, additional fuel, increased insurance, and other costs are estimated to be in the billions of dollars, with an obvious negative impact on global trade.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“As the Secretary-General’s report on oceans and the law of the sea highlighted, oceans also serve as transit areas for some 99 per cent of the world’s Internet traffic. During the COVID-19 crisis, usage increased by up to 50 per cent. This network of submarine cables represents a critical vulnerability, with some smaller island States relying on a single cable connection. Piracy and armed robbery at sea continued to be a major threat during the pandemic. The lives of seafarers remain at risk, particularly in the Gulf of Guinea, where some 90 per cent of kidnapping incidents have occurred. A new UNODC study has found that pirate operations in the Gulf of Guinea are becoming more sophisticated.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Climate change and marine pollution are adversely affecting billions of people, including 9.4 million fishers and two million seafarers. Hardship will leave mo re people vulnerable to crime and exploitation. As commercial air travel decreased and land border controls increased in 2020 owing to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, illicit drug trafficking on maritime and waterway routes accelerated in Europe, Latin America, North Africa and South-East Asia. According to the 2021 UNODC World Drug Report, record shipments of cocaine were seized in European ports during the pandemic. Preliminary data from 12 countries indicate that quantities seized in seaports were up 18 per cent last year.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“All countries, both coastal and landlocked, rely on the security of the world’s oceans. Freedom of navigation, confirmed by the United Nations Convention o n the Law of the Sea, is recognized as a fundamental principle of international law. This time-honoured freedom has come under increasing threat from piracy and armed robbery, terrorism, drug trafficking and trafficking in nuclear materials and firearms, human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants, illegal activities in the fisheries sector, waste trafficking, and intentional and unlawful damage to the marine environment: all represent acute challenges to global efforts to maintain international peace and security and to keep the world’s oceans accessible and safe for seafarers and for shipping.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“I am grateful for the high-level attention and comprehensive approach that India is bringing to this urgent priority. I am also thankful for the strong support sh own for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the presidential statement on behalf of the Security Council. India has demonstrated its steadfast commitment to enhancing maritime security, including through the Indian Ocean Rim Association and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. With 80 per cent of global trade carried by sea, and with major shipping routes along the Indian Ocean, such cooperative responses to maritime crime are essential. I also welcome the African Union’s continued focus on this issue, including through the Lomé Charter.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“In collaboration with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, the Global Compact and other partners, UNODC looks forward to putting this knowledge to use in working with States to deliver technical assistance and engage with communities, parliamentarians, civil society, the private sector, youth, women and all stakeholders in promoting comprehensive, integrated and victim-centred responses to linkages between organized crime and terrorism. I thank you once again, Sir, for this opportunity to brief the Council. UNODC stands ready to support you.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“My colleague Under-Secretary-General Voronkov will brief the Council on the efforts of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities to support Member States in addressing these complex and evolving challenges. As part of the Global Compact, UNODC remains committed to leveraging its experience and expertise on organized crime and terrorism. UNODC is uniquely placed to support Member States in addressing these linkages, as our Office serves as the custodian of the United Nations conventions on transnational organized crime and corruption, and supports the implementation of the international drug control conventions, the United Nations standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice and the international instruments against terrorism.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“Member States could also be encouraged and provided with support to bring all measures in line with relevant international legal frameworks, including international humanitarian, human rights and refugee laws. These observations correspond with the strategies and good practices that UNODC has noted in its years of working at the field level to counter organized crime and terrorism and that the Office promotes in capacity-building assistance to Member States. Finally, the report highlights the need for more research to better understand the nature of linkages between terrorism and organized crime and the vulnerabilities of different sectors to exploitation.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“Further necessary steps include strengthening land, air and sea border security through data collection tools, control systems and enhanced coordination and continuing efforts to deepen regional and international cooperation. The report also highlights the importance of measures targeting specific links between terrorism and organized crime, for example between drug trafficking and terrorism financing, or to stop the illicit exploitation and trafficking of natural resources, small arms, wildlife and other goods. More support is needed to comprehensively address all forms of trafficking in persons, including when such crimes are committed by terrorist groups.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“The report also identified several areas for intensified action to fully respond to resolution 2482 (2019) and to further develop and disseminate the good practices reported by Member States. National legal frameworks could be updated to include precise definitions of terrorism and organized crime offences and the criminalization of facilitation acts. More resources could be directed towards reinforcing national intelligence and criminal justice coordination and capacity through the establishment of specialized units and inter-agency mechanisms, as well as through a greater focus on intelligence-led policing and evidence collection and preservation, including for electronic evidence. Targeting entire organized criminal or terrorist networks when building criminal cases should also be a priority.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“States highlighted inter-agency and international cooperation as key enablers for success across all these areas. Building links between FIUs and counter-terrorism investigators was cited as a particular priority. The importance of joint task forces, operations centres and other coordination mechanisms among intelligence, border and criminal justice practitioners to detect and counter crimes in an integrated manner was also highlighted. Member States further emphasized the need for cross-border cooperation to address the transnational nature of crime and terrorism threats, including through regional platforms, bilateral information-sharing agreements, the exchange of law enforcement liaison officers, INTERPOL and regional organization databases and tools, and mutual legal assistance treaties.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“In their contributions, Member States emphasized the following measures: ratifying relevant legal instruments, including the global counter-terrorism instruments, the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the international drug control conventions; fighting money- laundering, terrorist financing and corruption by strengthening financial intelligence units (FIUs), complying with the relevant United Nations instruments and resolutions and Financial Action Task Force recommendations, as well as building public- private partnerships; strengthening border security and international coordination, for example by collecting and analysing advance passenger information/passenger name record data; implementing comprehensive responses to drug demand and illicit drug trafficking; improving prison management to prevent radicalization to violence and recidivism; and developing strategies that incorporate whole-of-society approaches to prevent and counter violent extremism.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“However, some Member States also observed that criminal organizations are increasingly disinterested in cooperating with terrorist groups, potentially to avoid additional scrutiny from national authorities. Actions reported by Member States to counter these threats show that many Governments have taken steps to adopt the legislative, policy and operational responses identified in resolution 2482 (2019).”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“Linkages between terrorism and organized crime may be opportunistic, based upon shared territory or other mutual interest. Alliances may also draw on personal connections, possibly developed in prisons in cases where terrorists have prior criminal backgrounds. Many States reported that terrorists benefit from organized crime, including trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling, trafficking in drugs, firearms, cultural property and other goods, kidnapping for ransom, robbery and other illicit acts. In some cases, returning foreign terrorist fighters have taken part in organized criminal activities, while in other States organized criminal groups have been involved in transporting terrorists across borders.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“It reflects the contributions of 50 Member States and 15 United Nations Global Compact entities and benefited from valuable United Nations system inputs, including from the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate and the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team. The report provides a valuable overview of measures taken by Member States and United Nations entities to address linkages between terrorism and organized crime, as well as recommendations for action going forward. In their contributions, Member States highlighted a range of linkages between terrorism and organized crime, often in connection with the financing of terrorism. Challenges vary by region and some States could not confirm the existence of links, citing limited terrorist activity in their countries or constraints with investigative capacities.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“In view of the broad criminal justice mandates of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) that address terrorism and organized crime, building the capacities to deal with those threats represents a key priority of our support to Member States, and I welcome the chance to discuss these issues with members today. It is an honour to join my colleague, Under-Secretary-General Voronkov, to present the findings of the report of the Secretary-General on action taken by Member States and United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities to address linkages between terrorism and organized crime (S/2020/754). The report was prepared by UNODC and the Office of Counter-Terrorism in response to the request contained in resolution 2482 (2019).”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to address the Council. I am grateful to the presidency of Indonesia and Minister Marsudi for holding this meeting on this issue of growing concern to the international community. As the Security Council has recognized, linkages between terrorism and organized crime are complex and multifaceted, posing a serious threat to international peace and security. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis poses a host of new challenges to national authorities. Organized criminal groups and terrorists may seek to capitalize on and exploit new vulnerabilities, and transit patterns are shifting in view of travel restrictions and lockdown measures, adding further challenges for border security. Comprehensive and cooperative responses are needed now more than ever.”
2020-08-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/791 (2020) · source
“I would like to thank President Ashraf Ghani for his attention to the importance of counter-narcotics for the future of Afghanistan, and I welcome his decision to establish and personally chair the High Commission for Counter- Narcotics and Intoxicants. I offer UNODC’s full support through our integrated country, regional and interregional approach, and I urge the authorities to ensure that counter-narcotic operations will continue throughout the peace process. In this way, they will be contributing to the achievement of a durable peace. UNODC stands with the people of Afghanistan, and I am committed to working with all our partners to forge new paths of cooperation so as to help Afghanistan build back better.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“Political will and donor support in Afghanistan must be matched with renewed investment in regional cooperation. UNODC supports several regional initiatives and mechanisms and urges Afghanistan and its neighbours to make best use of them to strengthen regional action. I hope we can rely on the support of Security Council members to help us reinvigorate regional cooperation. Finally, in scaling up and sustaining assistance to Afghanistan to address both supply and demand, our action must be tailored to address the emerging threat of synthetic drugs, which poses new dangers to the country, the region and the world at large.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“UNODC stands ready to expand alternative development initiatives as the security situation and resources allow, and I would like to highlight the contribution alternative development can make in putting women and girls at the centre of the COVID-19-response and recovery efforts, as called for in the report of the Secretary- General (S/2020/549). Our Office is ready to step up the integrated support we offer to Afghanistan to prevent and tackle drug trafficking and related organized crime and corruption, including in addressing illicit firearms, money laundering and financing of terrorism. I also appeal to the international community for increased support to help Afghanistan provide evidence-based prevention, treatment and other services for drug use and related diseases, in line with global commitments.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“Nevertheless, these efforts to create sustainable licit incomes face serious constraints, as many opium- growing areas remain outside the influence of the Government. The COVID-19 crisis has heightened many risks and vulnerabilities and could further drive illicit opium-poppy cultivation if we cannot take urgent action. First and foremost, we need to ensure that counter-narcotics policies are situated in broader development and security strategies, that such action is sustainably resourced by donors and reinforced by regional cooperation, and that it is tailored to meet emerging threats.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“Similar successes have been achieved through the port control units established under the global Container Control Programme of the World Customs Organization and UNODC. This demonstrates how a small seizure can trigger bigger operational successes if the advanced investigative techniques that UNODC promotes can be deployed. The question for the future remains: how we can scale up such success stories and have a real impact? The same holds true for UNODC alternative development initiatives, which we are pursuing in 66 of 407 districts. In the last two years, we have helped to create over 18,000 new jobs, including 7,600 for women, and nearly 2,000 hectares of agricultural land have been brought under licit cultivation.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“Only four grams of methamphetamine were seized in Afghanistan in 2008, while in 2019 total seizures reached 1.25 tons. The challenges I have briefly outlined are immense, and it will take the political will of Afghanistan, cooperation with its neighbours and the support of the international community to find lasting solutions. I would like to acknowledge the S/2020/597 efforts undertaken by Afghan law enforcement authorities to contain the trafficking threat, including through the mobile detection teams and precursor control units created with UNODC support. UNODC also helped to establish airport interdiction units, which assisted a controlled delivery operation that resulted in the seizure of seven kilograms of heroin. A follow-up investigation in India led to the seizure of 300 kilograms of heroin.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“There are 107 drug treatment centres in the country, including nine for women and children, with limited capacity for outpatient and outreach programmes, or for longer-term recovery support. Due to funding shortages and the conclusion of an UNODC project, five of the nine treatment centres for women and children, in five provinces, were forced to close this year. This is extremely concerning as amphetamine-type stimulants have emerged as a serious problem. While opium and opioids remain the most frequently used substances, use of methamphetamine is now being reported in nearly all provinces. Large-scale manufacturing of methamphetamine is emerging in Afghanistan. Seizures in and outside the country also confirm the scale of this new threat.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“The farmers compelled by poverty to grow opium poppy have seen their precarious incomes decline further, as the farm-gate value of opium production plunged by 33 per cent for the second consecutive year. The 33 per cent decrease follows a similar drop in opium prices, which are at the lowest level since systematic monitoring began, reflecting abundant supply. The illicit opiate economy is expected to continue fuelling instability and insurgency as well as funding terrorist groups. The availability of trafficked weapons, which supports the drug trade and terrorism in the country and the subregion, is making matters much worse. One in three households in Afghanistan has been affected by drug use, and up to 850,000 women are estimated to use drugs. At the same time, the availability of evidence- based drug-use prevention remains limited.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“Afghanistan remains the world’s biggest producer of opium, and production remains at record levels. Despite significant decreases in cultivation, which dropped by 38 per cent to 163,000 hectares last year, at 6,400 tons, production remained roughly at the same level as it was previously owing to high opium yields. The evidence so far suggests that opium poppy cultivation and drug trafficking have continued unabated despite COVID-19 and related travel restrictions. Labour shortfalls observed at the start of the harvest in the western and southern provinces were quickly addressed by engaging women living in poppy-growing households to lance the opium-poppy crop.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source
“It is indeed an honour to join the Council today, and I thank the presidency of France for this opportunity to brief the Security Council. I welcome this important opportunity to share with the Council the activities of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) that promote stability in our partner country Afghanistan. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has laid bare the fragility of our systems and institutions everywhere in the world, exposing stark disparities in social protection. For Afghanistan, the pandemic — compounding the current conflict, hunger, droughts and floods — is a burden too terrible to bear. Illicit drugs threaten to further compound those challenges. Earlier today here in Vienna, I issued the UNODC World Drug Report 2020. The findings are sobering.”
2020-06-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/597 (2020) · source