YouSaid · the spoken record

Gnaedinger

lines on the record
19
first
2002-12-10
most recent
2007-11-20
sittings or episodes
2
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “Their protection needs can best be understood and addressed through direct contact and presence in the field. Only strict adherence to the fundamental principles of impartial, independent and specifically neutral humanitarian action enables the ICRC to maintain that dialogue and that access. The ICRC is committed to being part of the collective effort to protect civilians caught up in armed conflict, a cause that unites us all. Our failure to act would be intolerable.”

    2007-11-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5781 (2007) · source

  2. “For its part, the ICRC has a mandate under humanitarian law to remind all those using armed force - be they Governments or non-State actors - of their obligations under the law and to seek access to people affected by armed conflict. The ICRC's specific contribution to protecting civilians is thus complementary to protection efforts by other actors, in particular the many measures taken by the United Nations. In practice, ICRC protection activities are at the core of a constant dialogue with all parties to conflict. Every day, hundreds of ICRC staff have contact with Government representatives, military officers and local authorities, as well as with leaders of armed groups, in order to preserve the life, health and dignity of civilians and detainees.”

    2007-11-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5781 (2007) · source

  3. “By means of Article 89 of Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions, the High Contracting Parties have also committed themselves "to act jointly or individually, in cooperation with the United Nations and in conformity with the United Nations Charter", in the event of serious violations of international humanitarian law. States must employ all appropriate means, including political, legal, economic and security measures, to honour this commitment. Security Council resolutions now indeed tend to incorporate protection of the civilian population as a standard aspect of peacekeeping operations. In this respect, it should be kept in mind that protection of civilians by United Nations peacekeepers implies a military and security dimension, which must be clearly distinguished from protection activities carried out by humanitarian actors.”

    2007-11-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5781 (2007) · source

  4. “During the thirtieth International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which is to convene in Geneva next week, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions will be called upon to reaffirm the relevance and validity of those principles. Achieving the broadest possible support for and compliance with the law must be our priority. Article 1 common to the four Geneva Conventions clearly stipulates that States have an obligation to both respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law in all circumstances.”

    2007-11-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5781 (2007) · source

  5. “We call on Governments to ensure that such companies operate in full compliance with international humanitarian law. The ICRC would like to stress that today, international humanitarian law is as relevant as ever in armed conflicts. The main impediment to protecting civilians remains the lack of political will to make sure it is respected by all. Far too often, parties to conflicts disregard humanitarian law and deliberately target civilians. We are seeing a dangerous erosion of distinction and proportionality as the cardinal principles governing the conduct of hostilities. The ICRC believes that the fundamental values underlying these principles are timeless.”

    2007-11-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5781 (2007) · source

  6. “The plight of rape victims still stands in stark contrast to the all- too-frequent impunity for their aggressors. Likewise, the ICRC joins the Secretary-General in voicing humanitarian concern over the impact of cluster munitions. Such weapons have severe consequences for civilians both during conflict, owing to the large areas affected by them, and as explosive remnants of war long after the fighting has ended. The ICRC calls on States to immediately end the use of inaccurate and unreliable cluster munitions and to negotiate a new treaty of international humanitarian law to prohibit their use. Private military and security companies are increasingly involved in activities that bring them close to the heart of military operations.”

    2007-11-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5781 (2007) · source

  7. “On the basis of what the ICRC observes in the field, it must be stressed that, right now as we speak, hundreds of thousands of civilians are being driven from their homes. Many are killed at random or simply disappear. Protecting and assisting displaced people therefore constitutes the major part of ICRC field operations today, including measures designed to prevent displacement in the first place. Despite recent initiatives, both at the operational level and in the realm of international legal norms, the world's response to scourges such as forced displacement, forced disappearances and sexual violence remains inadequate. The Secretary-General rightly points to the collective failure to tackle the issue of sexual violence, including in cases where rape is deliberately used as a method of warfare.”

    2007-11-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5781 (2007) · source

  8. “Let me first thank you, Mr. President, and the other members of the Security Council for the opportunity to address the Council on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. That issue is at the heart of the mandate and the operational priorities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC would like to congratulate the Secretary-General on his report (S/2007/643), which takes an incisive look at the protection of civilians in armed conflict. He presents a sobering picture, emphasizing the disparity between our collective aspiration to protect civilians and the harsh realities. The ICRC both shares his concerns and concurs with the priorities that he establishes.”

    2007-11-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5781 (2007) · source

  9. “Finally, let us stress that that effort must be accompanied by preventive measures. Indeed, if harsher punishment for serious violations of humanitarian law can have a decided deterrent effect and may therefore prevent violations of humanitarian law, respect for that law must be built before crises emerge, during times of peace, through mobilizing and informing public opinion each time the rights of victims are seriously disregarded or flouted, through humanitarian education programmes in schools, by teaching humanitarian law at universities and by providing proper instruction at military training centres. I believe that it is very important that we finally realize that providing protection for victims of war cannot just be reduced to an emergency strategy, which we know is often doomed to failure.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  10. “It is not only incumbent on the parties to the conflict, but it is also incumbent on all members of the international community, which, pursuant to the Geneva Conventions, have undertaken to respect them and to ensure respect for them in all circumstances. That involves the need to punish violations. To borrow the language used by a famous philosopher, disregarding the crime means abolishing the law. One could add to that maxim that disregarding the crime is also oneself being guilty of denial of justice to victims of violence, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In View of that, the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a major advance in an environment that until now has been dominated by impunity. However, that dimension can only supplement the legislative and institutional work done at the national level.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  11. “The effectiveness of humanitarian action, however, can never be a substitute for political inaction. Humanitarian action is ad hoc in nature, working to relieve the consequences of conflict. Political action, working upstream, seeks to prevent those conflicts and, later, to resolve them, opening the way to reconstruction and development. Allow me to conclude with two observations. If law exists and remains relevant, it then follows that the major challenge for us is applying it. That is primarily the responsibility of States. The ICRC can only encourage them to promote a culture of respect.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  12. “It, therefore, coordinates its approaches at the thematic and operational levels with other humanitarian actors through various structures and mechanisms, while respecting the mandates, principles and operational methods of each organization. Turning more specifically to the question of protection, the ICRC tries to promote a harmonized approach by humanitarian actors. Since 1996, it has undertaken the initiative of organizing four workshops on the problems associated with the protection of victims of armed conflict in order to try to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian and human rights organizations. We must agree on the concept of protection, as understood by humanitarian law, human rights and the law of refugees. The effectiveness of humanitarian organizations can definitely be improved.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  13. “The ICRC will share the outcome of that discussion with States at the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in December 2003. Without ignoring the possibility of improving the level of protection provided by existing law, the ICRC believes that the greatest challenge now is not so much to develop new norms as to ensure greater compliance with existing law. Is it the humanitarian organizations that are not up to the task? Given the complexity of so many situations of armed conflict, as well as the magnitude and the diversity of humanitarian needs, it is not possible for a single organization to respond adequately. Coordination has therefore become essential to make humanitarian action effective for victims. The ICRC has integrated it into its operational strategy.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  14. “Those norms, contained in the Geneva Conventions and the additional Protocols, are a consistent whole that clearly establish a right to protection and assistance. Furthermore, far from being static, humanitarian law has constantly evolved over time. Many instruments have supplemented and strengthened the 1949 Geneva Conventions to prohibit or restrict the use of certain weapons or to establish legal institutions to punish serious violations of humanitarian law. For the ICRC, recalling that evolution in no way signifies that the law cannot be improved. This year, which is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC has embarked on an important discussion about the appropriateness of humanitarian law with regard to new types of conflict.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  15. “That approach means that we focus on particularly vulnerable categories, including displaced persons, children, missing persons and their families, but without losing sight of the big humanitarian picture. Why are these populations - protected by a body of law which has been universally ratified, with humanitarian organizations working to guarantee humane treatment for civilians - subjected to so much suffering? Is the law not properly adapted? We think that it is. It must be noted that the great suffering that civilians endure on a daily basis is already the subject of those legally binding rules whose essential principles we have referred to. Humanitarian law, therefore, remains an essential frame of reference to guarantee effective protection and assistance to civilian populations that have been trapped in conflicts.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  16. “The ICRC strives to protect civilians in armed conflict by intervening directly with all parties, whatever the cause they claim to defend. This means that, of necessity, we must engage in dialogue with a great variety of actors, including non-State actors. Such an approach is essential when it is a question of gaining access to persons protected by the law, regardless of which authority controls them. Not to do this would be tantamount to discriminating between "good" and "bad" victims of conflicts, and to denying some of them relief and protection. The operational philosophy of the ICRC is to try, in a comprehensive and consistent way, to respond to the needs of all civilian populations, giving priority to those needs which are most urgent, according to the principle of impartiality.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  17. “This same principle applies also to the means of combat and prohibits the use of weapons that strike indiscriminately. Furthermore, when civilians are in the hands of a party to a conflict, they must be treated humanely. Yet humanitarian organizations are working tirelessly to try to provide at least minimum protection of civilians in armed conflict. Specifically with regard to the ICRC, such protection activities are the very essence of the mandate conferred to it by the 190 States parties to the Geneva Conventions. For the ICRC, the concept of protection encompasses all activities that seek to ensure full respect for the rights of the individual which are granted by the spirit and the letter of the body of applicable law, meaning all activities that would seek to prevent, halt or limit the effects of violations of the law.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  18. “This suffering includes acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, forced displacements, indiscriminate attacks committed by regular armies or other armed elements, terrorist acts, starving populations, women who have fallen victim to sexual violence, child soldiers, families that have been separated without news of their loved ones and forced disappearances. Yet such situations are precisely the subject of international humanitarian law, one of whose pillars is the protection of civilian populations. With regard to methods of combat, the key principle of the entire body of humanitarian law is indeed that of distinction. This principle prohibits any attack against civilians and stipulates that at all times the parties to a conflict must draw a distinction between civilians and combatants. Combatants alone may be the target of attack.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source

  19. “Allow me first to thank you, Madam President, for having invited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to state its concerns about the important item on the Council's agenda, the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The ICRC broadly agrees with the alarming analysis provided by the Secretary-General in his three reports on the protection of civilians in armed conflict (5/1999/957, S/2001/33l and S/2002/1300). Through our some 10,000 staff in 80 delegations and missions, the ICRC, sadly, is in an excellent position to attest to the unspeakable suffering inflicted during armed conflicts on civilian populations that are often the prime targets of these conflicts.”

    2002-12-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4660 (2002) · source