YouSaid · the spoken record

Ka

lines on the record: 138
first: 1992-07-15
most recent: 2002-06-13
sittings or episodes: 14
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

“That week coincides with 16 June - the Day of the African Child - and is aimed at raising public awareness of the terrible plight of children and African children affected by war. These regional and subregional initiatives deserve support from the United Nations system, development partners, international institutions, non-governmental organizations and other interested actors from civil society. I am familiar with and welcome the outstanding work done by Mr. Otunnu in this area. He should be further supported, encouraged and backed by the United Nations and in particular by the Security Council. In fact, we should give further thought to the question of the reintegration into society of child soldiers.”
2000-07-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4176Resumption1 (2000) · source
“The Accra conference drew up a set up measures dealing with the demobilization, disarmament, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers. It also elaborated measures on education; preventive measures; measures aimed at raising the awareness of the media; and measures on early-warning systems. Among the planned regional initiatives, I should like to emphasize here the integration of the child protection dimension in ECOWAS peace initiatives and peacekeeping operations; the appointment, within ECOWAS missions in the field, of a Child Protection Adviser; the establishment within ECOWAS of an office for the protection of war-affected children; and the establishment in all States members of ECOWAS of a West African week of truce for war-affected children.”
2000-07-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4176Resumption1 (2000) · source
“In April 2000, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held a conference in Accra, Ghana, on war-affected children, in cooperation with the Canadian Government. That conference adopted a Declaration and Plan of Action that deserve the support of the entire international community. An appeal has been launched to all Member States to respect the provisions of Security Council resolutions 1261 (1999) and 1265 (1999); the four Geneva Conventions and their Protocols; the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and in particular the International Labour Organization Convention (No. 182) on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour.”
2000-07-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4176Resumption1 (2000) · source
“My delegation therefore welcomes the adoption by the General Assembly of the Optional Protocol to the Convention concerning the involvement of children in armed conflict. The Protocol demands that all States parties see to it that members of their armed forces under the age of 18 do not participate directly in hostilities and that they are not the object of obligatory recruitment. It also raises - and it is important to emphasize this - the principle of voluntary enrolment before the age of 18, a principle that is subject to a number of strict conditions designed to guard against forced recruitment, including such recruitment by non-State armed groups. In Africa, the question of child soldiers remains a major concern of the Organization of African Unity and of subregional organizations.”
2000-07-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4176Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Africa is paying the heaviest price in this regard as a result of the resurgence of domestic armed conflict and regional conflicts. The situation has become even more serious with the emergence of armed bands that are different from regular armed forces. These bands are proceeding systematically and without consideration for ethnicity, morals or international norms to recruit, train and use children in hostilities, even beyond national boundaries. This situation cries out to our universal conscience, to the world's political leaders, to the international community, to the United Nations and to the Security Council in particular. It is gratifying that this issue has been directly taken up by our Organization, which continues to call for respect for the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
2000-07-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4176Resumption1 (2000) · source
“It is true, as Mrs. Graca Machel noted in her 1996 report on the impact of armed conflict on children, that armed conflicts cause more deaths and injuries among children than among military personnel. According to available statistics, since the beginning of the 1990s over 2 million children have been killed and over 6 million have been wounded or maimed in the course of armed conflicts. In nearly 60 countries children are living in mine fields, and over 10,000 of them are killed or maimed every day largely due to anti- personnel landmines. Beyond these statistics, we should also take into account traumas of all types affecting children impacted by war and the impact of those traumas on them, their families and society as a whole.”
2000-07-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4176Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Mr. Ka (Senegal) (spoke in French): Allow me first of all to express to you, Madam President, our great appreciation for the Council's initiative, under your dynamic presidency, to hold a public debate on the issue of children and armed conflict. The Council's increased attention to this matter should be resolutely welcomed and encouraged. My delegation welcomes the outstanding work carried out by the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, Mr. Olara Otunnu. My delegation is also pleased at the important campaign undertaken by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and its Executive Director to end the use of child soldiers, protect children from the effects of sanctions and to draw up special codes of conduct on the rights of the child for all civilian, military and peacekeeping personnel.”
2000-07-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4176Resumption1 (2000) · source
“The resources provided to the Secretary-General through Article 99 of the Charter should also be often used in situations which could imperil peace and security throughout the world. In our View, the Council should encourage and more firmly support future initiatives of the Secretary-General in this area. Today's discussion and the document which doubtless will crown this debate should allow us to lay the foundations for a mechanism without which no system of prevention worthy of that name would be able to function properly.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“There are several areas, specifically, in which the role of the Security Council in preventing armed conflict could be strengthened: the sending - and the more frequent sending- of good offices missions made up of members of the Security Council, as was recently the case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or of outstanding individuals having great political and moral prestige, to draw the attention of the parties to the conflict to the need for restraint in situations which can be more or less explosive; increased cooperation of the Council and of the bodies involved in the United Nations system with regional organizations, in order to set up an integrated warning system under Chapter VIII of the Charter; and finally, consideration and adoption by the Security Council of a series of measures allowing countries which have emerged from an armed conflict to set about forging a culture of peace and reconciliation in order to prevent the outbreak of further conflicts.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that one of the major challenges to be met over the next few years is that of the capacity of the United Nations and its various bodies to establish a flexible mechanism entrusted on a standing basis with warning the international community of potential crisis situations throughout the world and recommending appropriate emergency responses. Thus, we could replace our culture of responding to crisis with another culture, that of preventing crisis. In our joint efforts to build this culture of prevention, the Security Council, endowed with primary responsibility for maintaining peace and security in the world, should for its part respond more expeditiously in the future to tragic situations which clearly can spawn humanitarian disasters.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Moreover, at the OAU summit in Algiers in 1999, the Heads of State of Africa wished to lay down the first bases for a culture of conflict prevention in Africa, declaring the year 2000 the year of peace on the continent. This unprecedented determination and this effort at peace deserves to be supported by the international community. Here, therefore, we would like to thank France, the United Kingdom, the United States and several other developed countries for their initiatives to strengthen the African capacity for conflict prevention and management.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“My third comment proceeds from a logical assumption that the Council needs to establish a special fund designed solely to support strategies for preventive diplomacy and which would finance mechanisms for prevention that are already in operation in other regions in the world. This fund would avoid obliging the United Nations to sink enormous sums into peacekeeping operations or post- conflict peace-building. The Organization of African Unity (OAU), believing that Africa now is paying a heavy price for armed conflict, decided as of 1993 to establish a conflict prevention, management and settlement mechanism which has a fund for peace, designed specifically to finance the strengthening of the African capacity in conflict prevention and settlement.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“This is why the Council should support the efforts of numerous countries or groups of countries that have taken bold and timely action to this end, and here I would like to cite the example of the States of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which in November 1998, fully aware of the extent of this scourge, decided to impose a moratorium on importing and exporting these types of weapons. More, however, should be done, by finalizing within the United Nations a binding legal instrument for the elimination, or even a total ban, on illicit transfers of light weapons. This is one of the great goals at stake for the United Nations conference planned for next year on the illicit trade in light weapons and small arms in all of its aspects. Preparatory work for this conference has already begun.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“My second comment is that the Security Council can play a leading role in the question of the illicit trade and spreading dissemination of light weapons and small arms, which is of concern to all of us. Today, unquestionably, the mass flows of such weapons is fuelling and magnifying insecurity and helps to trigger conflicts. To control, restrict and eliminate the illicit trade in light weapons is, therefore, in our view, a high priority objective for conflict prevention. But for there to be genuinely effective conflict prevention, there is a need not only to control a dissemination of weapons, but above all to eradicate the source of weapons in order to do away with these weapons once and for all.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“The Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs recently stated, and very much to the point, that poverty fuels war. Unfortunately, poverty, illness and epidemics such as AIDS, hunger and oppression, violations of human rights are raging today throughout the world, as is demonstrated by millions of refugees, people who are ill or displaced. These numerous problems, which are both a source and a consequence of armed conflicts, require unflagging attention by the Security Council and that the efforts devoted to them be of the highest priority. Allow me to emphasize here that we are gratified by the leadership you have demonstrated at the beginning of this week, Mr. President, by allowing for an important debate within the Security Council on the subject of AIDS in peacekeeping operations.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“In his report of 13 April 1998 devoted to the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa, the Secretary- General rightly and relevantly recognized that prevention of conflict is not an end in itself and that it must take into account, by combining them, the different functions of post-conflict peace-building and of political, economic, social and humanitarian activities designed to eliminate the underlying causes of conflicts, in particular economic destitution, social injustice and political oppression. It is in that context that I would like to make several comments. First, that today the Security Council should unanimously acknowledge that there is a close relationship between the need for peace and the demands for sustainable economic development.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“In this untiring search for a solution to what seems to be a global threat, for the countries of the North as well as for those of the South, the question which continues to occur is whether today it is possible to give thought to an effective policy for the prevention of conflicts without first tackling head on other significant issues which are organically linked to it.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“To that end, aware of the fact that armed intervention means a failure of prevention, the international community then came out in favour of a strengthening of the prevention capacity of the United Nations. Today, the tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia are considered here as new, powerful instruments for deterrence. Tomorrow, when the International Criminal Court is operational, it will mark a particularly decisive turn in our common effort to reject further faits accomplis, injustice, indifference and impunity.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“As I said last November here in the Council, when the concept of preventive diplomacy was introduced it was closely linked to the threat of a nuclear escalation between the two super Powers. Over time the scope for such action has considerably expanded, following the proliferation of inter-State and internal conflicts, which today are the main cause of the destabilization of States. More recently, the terrible and tragic events in Rwanda and, to a lesser extent, in Somalia, have contributed to raising the awareness of the international community about the urgent need to attach priority to conflict prevention so as to avoid a recurrence of these tragedies and at the same time create conditions for lasting peace in Africa and throughout the world.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Mr. Ka (Senegal) (spoke in French): I should like first of all to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for the month of July and to thank you in particular for your timely initiative to place the important issue of conflict prevention, and the role of the Council in this respect, before the Council for consideration. Since the creation of the United Nations, the subject of conflict prevention has, because it is an essential element in the preservation of international peace and security, continued to remain at the heart of the international community's concerns, even though the subject has undergone a considerable evolution as circumstances have changed.”
2000-07-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4174Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Vigilance must be the rule, for the history of these diseases teaches us that when vigilance drops, the infectious agents profit. I should like to pay tribute to our international multilateral partners - notably, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) - and our bilateral partners, who continue to support us in our struggle against AIDS. I am convinced that we will be able to rely on the fame and the influence of the Security Council to be our interpreter to all our partners and tell them how determined we are to ensure that future African generations will see a horizon free of the spectre of this pandemic that seriously compromises the chances for development, peace and stability on the African continent.”
2000-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4087Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Senegal has also been at the forefront of this new struggle against AIDS, from the very outset of this thinking about introducing new strategies throughout the continent. This thinking has led to the UNAIDS initiative that has worked to the benefit of two African countries. Out of concern for cohesiveness and continuity, Senegal has given supplementary financial assistance to make it possible for people who have AIDS to receive treatment. Because of the encouraging results obtained by my country in the crusade against AIDS, President Abdou Diouf was honoured by UNAIDS, together with his brother and friend, President Yoweri Mouseveni of Uganda. They received the first prize for excellence in the struggle against AIDS. By way of conclusion, I should simply like to say that these efforts must be supported and reinforced.”
2000-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4087Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Insofar as information, education and communications are concerned, beginning in 1992, Senegal had included sex education for youth in primary and secondary school instruction on the spread of the AIDS virus and more than 130,000 schoolbooks devoted to the information, education and communication on AIDS were distributed in 1997 in public and private educational institutions. Hundreds of non-governmental organizations and associations of people living with AIDS were set up and have been participating in the struggle against AIDS. Political dialogue, training seminars and discussions led by community leaders, religious leaders, parliamentarians, professionals and journalists are some of the strategies in combating AIDS.”
2000-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4087Resumption1 (2000) · source
“My country committed itself very quickly to a broad, multisectoral and multidisciplinary response by setting up a national programme to fight AIDS. That programme benefited from a favourable structural situation in dealing with the disease and was fortunately supported by a Senegalese society imbued by moral, traditional and religious values. From the health standpoint, the real preventive strategies were realized just after setting up the National AIDS Committee. Need I recall that it was in Senegal that researchers proved the existence of the HIV type 2 for the first time? In 1990, there already was general access in Senegal to condoms, the sale and distribution of which increased tenfold over the past ten years.”
2000-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4087Resumption1 (2000) · source
“It is good that the United Nations and the Security Council today have grasped the full magnitude of the threat posed by this disease to the human development of the people of the continent and has decided to coordinate their efforts and those of United Nations agencies to tackle the problem. Africans have not given up in the crusade against AIDS. They have deployed tremendous efforts to eliminate this disease, as was recalled by the Minister of Namibia a few moments ago. Upon the initiative of Senegal in 1992, at the summit meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Dakar, a resolution was adopted that acknowledged AIDS as a real threat to the continent's future and called upon the African States to do their utmost to curb the spread and impact of this scourge.”
2000-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4087Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Mr. Ka (Senegal) (spoke in French): I would firstly like to thank you, Mr. President, for having taken the initiative of including the important question of AIDS on the Council's agenda. Everything has been very well said by the Vice-President of the United States, the African Ministers, the United Nations Secretary-General and the previous speakers. My privileged position as the last speaker means that I can be very brief at this very late hour of our discussions. There can no longer be any doubt that the AIDS epidemic is far from being a simple public health problem. For our continent, which pays the heaviest price, this epidemic also poses a development problem, maybe even a problem for the future of the continent.”
2000-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4087Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Today's discussion must help us delineate the contours of this important matter, which in our view must remain on the agenda of the Security Council.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“It requires a comprehensive, concerted and resolute approach and the participation of the various United Nations bodies, each operating in its area of competence. One of the major challenges to be faced in the next century and one of the key sectors where Member States must pool their ideas in order to strengthen the credibility of the Organization in the twenty-first century definitely relates to the capacity of our Organization to establish a flexible, open mechanism, responsible on a permanent basis for alerting the international community to potential crisis situations in the world and for recommending appropriate emergency measures. At the end of this twentieth century, we must recognize ultimately that our culture of reaction to crises that shake the world must be replaced by another type of culture, one of crisis prevention.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“I wish to pay tribute here to the many donor countries that have lent assistance to the OAU in pursuit of this goal. I should also like to thank the Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom and France for their commitment to African countries, under the tripartite initiative known as RECAMP, designed for swift, effective intervention in peacemaking and peacekeeping operations, as well as in emergency humanitarian relief operations. Other such initiatives will always be welcome if they remain open to any African State that wishes to participate in them. Conflict prevention is a very complex field. It requires both the mobilization of various actors and the combination of various political, economic and social factors.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The third comment I would like to make is based on a logical approach. In order to prevent armed conflict, should we not establish a special fund with the sole purpose of supporting strategies of preventive diplomacy? Such a fund would finance prevention mechanisms that are already operational in various subregions of the world, rather than spending vast sums on peacemaking, peacekeeping and post-conflict peace-building operations. Conflict prevention has become an absolute priority for the African continent, which is paying a high price for its armed conflicts. That is why in 1993 the Organization of African Unity (OAU) established its Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, which also has a Peace Fund designed precisely to finance African capacity-building for conflict prevention and settlement.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Obviously the ideal approach would be to develop within the framework of the United Nations an international treaty limiting conventional arms transfers. That is why my country, Senegal, strongly supports the convening in the year 2001 of an international conference on all aspects of illicit trafficking in and proliferation of small arms and light weapons. It is useful to recall here that in his "Agenda for Peace", published in January 1995, Mr. Boutros Boutros- Ghali, Secretary-General at that time, proposed the establishment of "micro-disarmament", based on the collection and subsequent destruction of stockpiles to prevent their reuse. In November 1998, the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States, aware of the magnitude of this scourge, decided on a moratorium on the import and export of small arms.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“In this respect, it is undeniable that today everyone agrees that the flow of weapons feeds and increases insecurity and leads to the outbreak of conflict. The increasingly systematic use of weapons causes the militarization of part of the civilian population, which ultimately creates a new equation of force between the various groups and takes them, de facto, away from the framework of negotiation. These new armed civilian actors often weaken existing institutions and pose a long- term threat to peace and stability in the regions where they operate. Controlling, restricting and limiting the illicit trafficking in weapons is therefore a priority within the context of conflict prevention, and the international community must give special attention to this problem.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Likewise, the results obtained in the development process may easily be jeopardized by instability or lack of peace. Poverty, disease, famine and oppression are still ravaging the world, as evidenced by the millions of refugees and displaced persons. These problems are both the source and the consequences of armed conflict. The attention given to them by the Security Council must not slacken, and efforts devoted to them must remain an absolute priority. The thorny question of illicit trafficking in and increasing circulation of small arms is a challenge to us all, and we need to move beyond sterile debates about the misleading question of whether these arms are the cause or the consequence of conflicts.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“In his report of 13 April 1998 on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa, the Secretary-General rightly recognized that the prevention of conflict was not an end in itself and that it must take into account and incorporate the various functions of peace-building and political and humanitarian activities designed to root out the underlying causes of conflict: economic destitution, social injustice and political oppression. In this context, I wish to make the following comments. Today we all recognize the close correlation between the need for peace and the objectives of sustainable harmonious economic development. We agree that development can only be effectively attained in an environment of peace, security and stability.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“African leaders increasingly believe that the international community must give substantial support to their laudable efforts to prevent African crises and that it has no choice but to react to existing crises. It is in this context that we welcome the initiative taken by Japan, which organized in January 1998, in Tokyo, a conference on preventive strategy, whose recommendations need to be revisited, pursued and amplified. In the ongoing search for a solution to what appears to be a global threat, because peace and security are a concern and a challenge for both the South and the North, the recurrent question is whether it is possible to think today of an effective conflict-prevention policy to prevent conflicts without directly tackling other important questions intrinsically linked with it.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“In view of the emergence of new intra-State and inter-State conflicts, and given the re-emergence of old conflicts, with their aftermath of displaced persons, and the need to preserve political stability and ensure the economic development of the African continent, nothing, we feel, is more important than to focus on the prevention of conflicts in order to create the conditions for lasting peace in Africa. However, this awareness of the need to prevent the outbreak or worsening of violent conflicts led African leaders to organize flexible mechanisms for the prevention and management of conflicts at the continental and subregional levels.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The push towards joint coordinated action, which emerged at the end of the cold war, is gaining ground and strength at all levels: international, regional and subregional. The need to act is becoming increasingly imperative as the list of the new generation of intra- national conflicts, particularly in Africa, is growing with the ever-lengthening procession of civilian victims, refugees and displaced persons. The painful and tragic events of Rwanda, and to a lesser extent in Somalia, have also helped make the international community more aware of the urgent need to consolidate domestic peace and to prevent the risk of violent conflict breaking out again.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“When the idea of preventive diplomacy was introduced by a former Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold, it was closely linked to the threat of a nuclear escalation between the two super-Powers. Today we must recognize that this idea of preventive diplomacy is no longer, mutatis mutandis, the monopoly of professional diplomats and military experts alone. Over the years its scope has expanded considerably, following the proliferation of inter-State and domestic conflicts, which are in many respects the main causes of the destabilization of States and the causes of humanitarian disasters. Therefore, the United Nations - particularly the Security Council, which bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security - has sought to improve considerably its methods and strategies for conflict prevention.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“By organizing this discussion you have sought not merely to stimulate discussion about the activity and the role of the United Nations in the maintenance of international peace and security, of which prevention is an essential part, but also to create a climate conducive to improving transparency in the work of the Council, something rightly sought by many countries that are not members of the Council. This debate arises from one of the relevant issues raised by the Secretary-General in his report (S/1998/318) on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa, which was that since the establishment of the United Nations conflict prevention has been, as it remains, a source of major concern, even if circumstances have considerably changed its nature.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Mr. Ka (Senegal) (spoke in French): As this is the first time I have addressed the Security Council under your presidency, Sir, I should like first to congratulate you on your assumption of your important post, and repeat my delegation's commendation of your personal commitment and the commitment of your country, Slovenia, to the attainment of the noble objectives of the United Nations Charter. Your welcome and timely initiative to include on the Council's agenda the item we are discussing today stems from that commitment.”
1999-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4072Resumption1 (1999) · source
“It hopes, lastly, that the Council will take timely measures, with the support of the sponsors of the peace process, to put an end to the unilateral decisions concerning control over the Holy City of Jerusalem, which, I reiterate, must remain the living symbol of peaceful coexistence between religions and peoples that are different yet complementary.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“It must be the birthplace of love and coexistence between all peoples and their beliefs. Finally, allow me to express our deep gratitude to all the members of the Council for having made the decision to convene this open meeting on such an important and delicate matter. In so doing, the Security Council remains loyal to its calling and to the role entrusted to it by the United Nations. The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People hopes that at the conclusion of this debate, the Security Council will demonstrate to international public opinion its willingness to contribute to making this sensitive region of the world a zone of peace and cooperation.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The Committee, through me, would lastly like to call on the Israeli Government to commit itself to the implementation of the agreements already concluded with the Palestinian Authority in order to create the necessary conditions for the resumption of the peace process and the full and effective implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions, particularly Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973). It must be recalled that Jerusalem belongs to both the Palestinians and the Israelis, to Muslims, to Christians and to Jews. That city is a mosaic of all cultures, of all religions and of all the peoples that have enriched Jerusalem from time immemorial up to this day. Jerusalem must remain the city of peace, made up of present and future emotions, dreams and realities.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The Committee therefore joins its voice to those of the States Members of the United Nations in inviting the Israeli Government to reconsider its decision and to put an end to the policy of fait accompli with respect to the Holy City, whose future must be determined solely within the framework of the final status negotiations. The Committee launches an urgent appeal to the authorities of the occupying Power to renounce the measures already taken or envisaged to change the geographic, demographic, religious and institutional characteristics of the city of Jerusalem, as well as of the other Arab territories occupied since 1967.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The recent Israeli decision concerning greater Jerusalem represents, in our view, a fresh example of such illegal measures. The establishment and expansion of settlements, the isolation of East Jerusalem from the West Bank, the measures taken against Palestinian residency status, and the archaeological excavations are all ongoing sources of concern to the international community. Our Committee is deeply concerned at the non- respect by the occupying Power of the Fourth Geneva Convention and of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, including the 16 resolutions adopted by the Council on the city of Jerusalem. The Committee considers that the decisions taken by the occupying Power regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“Such unilateral decisions represent not only a provocation for the Palestinian people but also major setbacks in the peace process, which has been on hold for more than a year. Our Committee strongly denounces that decision, which is a clear violation of international law, of the Fourth Geneva Convention and of the relevant Security Council resolutions. That decision by the Israeli authorities also violates the letter and spirit of the relevant General Assembly resolutions, particularly those adopted during the tenth emergency special session. The United Nations and several intergovernmental organizations have repeatedly reaffirmed the special status of Jerusalem as well as their position that Israel's occupation is illegal and its actions therefore null and void under international law.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“Hundreds of people are being expelled from their land with the precise objective of preserving a permanent and uncontested majority of Jews in the city. Let us not forget that these expelled Palestinians are not immigrants. They were born in Jerusalem, and their houses and families are in Jerusalem. Their fundamental rights can never be disregarded. Other provocations include the sealing off of territories, torture, punitive expeditions, administrative detention, and the violation of the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinians. The recent adoption of a quota system as part of a plan concerning Jerusalem aims to ensure that by the year 2020 Jews will constitute 70 per cent of the population of Jerusalem and Arabs only 30 per cent.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The Government of the occupying Power, through the policy of fait accompli, has set about modifying unilaterally and in violation of international law the religious, cultural and historical characteristics as well as the Arabic, Islamic and Christian identity of Jerusalem. It will stop at nothing to achieve its objective of Judaizing Jerusalem. It has resorted to the destruction of houses; the confiscation of land; the illegal extension of settlements, particularly in East Jerusalem; the encircling and isolation of the Holy City by armed settlers; and the confiscation and destruction of the identity papers of Palestinians citizens, who have been expelled from their own city. Indeed, for more than 18 months, a silent deportation of Palestinians from East Jerusalem has been taking place before our eyes.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people has consistently drawn the attention of the General Assembly and the Security Council not only to the massive and repeated violations on the part of the occupying Power of the relevant resolutions of the Assembly and the Council, but also to the numerous obstacles that Israel has set up to impede the peace process, which had given us all so much hope. The question of Jerusalem is at the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and any unilateral attempt to alter the status of the Holy City, its demographic composition and its geographic and institutional structure represents a grave violation and a threat to the security and stability of the region.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source
“In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I should like to express the firm condemnation of our Committee of the illegal decision taken by the occupying Power to extend the borders of the municipality of Jerusalem, thereby consecrating, through unacceptable administrative and legal ploys, its authority over territories that do not belong to it.”
1998-06-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3900Resumption1 (1998) · source