YouSaid · the spoken record

Louis Straker

lines on the record

22

first

2020-05-27

most recent

2020-09-24

sittings or episodes

4

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

1. “From Haiti to the Horn of Africa to the Middle East, the peace and security implications of climate change must be comprehensively acknowledged and robustly addressed. As we embark on the decade of action to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, integrated and coherent strategies that bring together S/2020/953 S/2020/953 all United Nations organs and specialized agencies, within their respective mandates, are urgently needed. Only through a renewed multilateralism that places people at its centre, considers the needs and perspectives of all Member States equally and fully respects the guiding principles of international law can we effectively address the challenges of the twenty-first century.”

   2020-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/953 (2020) · source

2. “In order to tackle the root causes of insecurity and ensure that conflict- affected countries are able to restore trust in public institutions, repair their social fabrics and advance political processes to achieve national unity and reconciliation, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines emphasizes the need for predictable and reliable development financing. We reiterate our calls to developed countries to honour their overseas development assistance commitments. We also reiterate that a lack of meaningful action by some States to curb their emissions and to set and honour ambitious pledges for climate adaptation and mitigation serves to perpetuate climate-driven security risks in many fragile contexts. To those that suffer the effects of climatic hazards, this failure by major emitters is an act of hostility.”

   2020-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/953 (2020) · source

3. “COVID-19 has laid bare the undisputable fact that today’s complex challenges will not be solved by military strategies. Nor can they be effectively addressed in siloes. Moreover, this pandemic has presented incontrovertible proof that, in our increasingly interconnected world, the uneven development of economies, health- care systems and governance institutions produces vulnerabilities that affect us all. We can protect ourselves only by protecting each other. In this regard, we can, and we must, do better to build capacities for the most vulnerable among us, and to promote inclusivity, peace and resilience in accordance with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This remains the primary blueprint for a peaceful, just and secure world.”

   2020-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/953 (2020) · source

4. “It is therefore of critical importance that we adapt our systems of global governance to this extremely challenging contemporary reality. Turbulent times bear disproportionately on the vulnerable — on refugees, displaced persons and those made stateless due to painful cycles of violent conflict; on women and children, who shoulder an unequal share of the social and political burdens; on the communities and families that become fractured due to instability and unrest; and on conflict-affected countries that struggle to safeguard their social contracts as emerging threats such as COVID-19, and existing risk multipliers such as climate change, present themselves in novel ways posing unprecedented security, humanitarian and political challenges.”

   2020-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/953 (2020) · source

5. “At the outset, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines extends our compliments to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. We thank them both for their insightful remarks, and we commend the Republic of the Niger for convening this important and timely discussion. The overlapping health, socioeconomic, political and security risks precipitated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have converged to present our multilateral system with its most complex challenge since the Second World War. This pandemic will claim more than 1 million lives, as it destroys the livelihoods of millions more globally. Given these profoundly altered conditions for life, living and production, our world will never be the same again.”

   2020-09-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/953 (2020) · source

6. “We must therefore work diligently, as an international community, to integrate environmentally sensitive strategies across the peace-security-development-humanitarian nexus. That is the surest way to better protect the most vulnerable to environmental degradation and to safeguard the biophysical environment on which all life depends.”

   2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source

7. “Moreover, we reiterate that all States must commit to the terms of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and take all necessary actions to keep temperature rise at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. If they fail to do so, global environmental degradation and ecological destruction will continue. We also reiterate our concerns over the FSO SAFER oil tanker, which represents a looming environmental disaster that would exacerbate the humanitarian suffering of the Yemeni people. An explosion of the tanker could cost lives and an oil spill would destroy the marine environment and the livelihoods that depend on it. Urgent action on this issue is therefore needed.Conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities must be informed by a holistic, longer-term approach in order to be effective.”

   2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source

8. “Climate change and environmental degradation are inextricably linked, and both have dire consequences for peace and security in many contexts. We therefore reiterate the importance of incorporating the humanitarian and security concerns of climate change and environmental degradation in all mandated reports for situations on the Security Council’s agenda. Additionally, we call for the delivery of capacity-building initiatives to improve land tenure and strengthen environmental governance as a means of building resilience in environmentally vulnerable and conflict-affected countries. Developed countries must also honour finance pledges for climate adaptation and mitigation, at a minimum.”

   2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source

9. “Moreover, the increased presence of risk multipliers, such as hate speech and disinformation, serves to further compound the already challenging situation as intercommunal tensions rise, political polarization increases and trust in public institutions erodes, thereby impairing governance capacities. In order to effectively address these multidimensional challenges, we need an integrated and coherent approach that leverages the technical capacities of all United Nations organs and specialized agencies, within their respective mandates. The three international conventions concerning biodiversity, desertification, land degradation and climate change are a composite and integrated whole for which Saint Vincent and the Grenadines reiterates its unwavering support.”

   2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source

10. “With the livelihoods of approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide depending on agriculture, the secondary effects of environmental degradation, such as reduced land fertility and biodiversity loss, threaten further suffering. Across the Sahel region, the Lake Chad basin and numerous countries, including Haiti and Afghanistan, environmental degradation has significant humanitarian, socioeconomic, political and security implications. Inequalities are heightened, development is undermined and scarce financial resources are diverted towards adaptation and mitigation, with significant opportunity costs for affected populations.”

    2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source

11. “At the outset, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines commends you, Sir, for convening this important discussion, and we thank the briefers for their pointed and sobering remarks. The scale of human suffering wrought by climate change and its attendant hazards demand firm political will and decisive collective action in order to urgently and comprehensively address this crisis. Millions have been displaced as a result of drought, desertification, floods, coastal and river erosion and other environmental hazards. Millions more suffer due to acute food and health insecurity, fractured social contracts and painful cycles of violence initiated by competition over increasingly scarce resources.”

    2020-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/929 (2020) · source

12. “On issues as complex and consequential as the fragile peace process in the Middle East, we can ill afford the ongoing repudiation of the bedrock principles of our multilateral system. The political independence and territorial integrity of all States must be safeguarded as we cast our collective gaze towards the urgent challenges of the coronavirus disease and the ever-growing climate crisis. During this seventy-fifth year of our United Nations, we must remain candid and upright in our pronouncements. Continued silence in the face of grave injustice, wheresoever and by whomsoever committed, is in itself the blank canvas upon which immense human suffering is rendered. At this critical juncture, we cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose; we must stand together resolutely and demand peace and justice for all.S/2020/596”

    2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source

13. “To that end, we encourage all members of the international community to facilitate this much-needed dialogue as the critical first step towards an equitable solution. We also encourage renewed international financial support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides vital humanitarian assistance and social protection to millions of Palestinian refugees. As such, we welcome the recently convened pledging conference to mobilize political and financial support for UNRWA. Today we stand at a dangerous crossroads. The core principles upon which our United Nations was founded are gradually eroding.”

    2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source

14. “History has taught us that lasting peace can be achieved only through sincere attempts at reconciliation, and reconciliation is only possible when justice and fairness pave the way for mutual satisfaction and harmony. As unilateral annexation of the West Bank looms, the narrow window for a sustainable peace is rapidly closing. Annexation would permanently alter the security landscape and destabilize the region. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines urges all parties to let good judgement and pragmatism prevail. We call on the State of Israel to immediately cease all plans for annexation and return to the bargaining table to negotiate with their Palestinian neighbours in good faith.”

    2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source

15. “It is in this regard that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines stands firm in its condemnation of the ongoing settlement activities across the West Bank, which constitute clear violations of international law that gravely imperil the peace process. The internationally agreed two-State solution based on the pre-1967 border lines remains the most credible path in our painstaking quest for peace between Israel and Palestine. We implore the State of Israel to adhere to the provisions of all relevant United Nations resolutions, including resolution 2334 (2016), which reflect the international community’s posture on the occupied Palestinian territories. Only through dialogue and compromise, respectful of the principles of international law, can security for Israel be assured, as Palestinian claims to dignity, equality and human rights are honoured.”

    2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source

16. “Let me begin by thanking Secretary-General António Guterres and the briefers for their remarks on the evolving situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. The long-cherished dream of peace in the Middle East is one for which we must continue to toil, with the hope that future generations of Palestinians and Israelis can work, play, study and pray alongside each other in a tranquil and tolerant atmosphere. Security is at its very core a collective project. It denotes a lasting relationship based on the foundational values of trust and respect, where the parties concerned choose peaceful coexistence over fear and coercion.”

    2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source

17. “The exigencies of our time demand precision, care, specificity, prudence and inclusivity to achieve the transformation envisaged by those civilians on whose behalf we serve.”

    2020-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/465 (2020) · source

18. “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines strongly condemns the ongoing and flagrant violations of this body of international law, established to secure the dignity and well-being of all persons. We recall all relevant Security Council resolutions that embed the protection of civilians agenda in our efforts to prevent the outbreak, escalation, continuance and recurrence of armed conflict. We also emphasize that human dignity must remain the cornerstone of any credible attempt to promote lasting peace and security. As we contemplate the calls for greater specificity in the protection of civilians agenda to reflect the diverse groups and individuals affected by armed conflict versus the supposed threat of fragmentation of this agenda, let us not renege on our collective responsibility to all humankind.”

    2020-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/465 (2020) · source

19. “We are all aware of the increasing accounts of extreme weather phenomena, including erratic precipitation, flooding, prolonged heat waves and desertification, affecting countries from the Sahel to the greater Horn of Africa. This is further compounded by the expanding desert locust infestation. These challenges lead to increased vulnerability, intensify food insecurity and forcibly displace many at-risk populations in situations of conflict. The complications of climate, conflict and COVID-19 must be systematically and simultaneously addressed to ensure durable security and development outcomes for all civilians in these regions and beyond. Efforts to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of civilians must adhere to the principles enshrined in international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international refugee law.”

    2020-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/465 (2020) · source

20. “The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to amplify an already dire situation for civilians, especially those in internally displaced persons camps with compromised access to health care, proper nutrition and sanitation. With lockdown measures impeding humanitarian service delivery and heightening exposure to sexual and gender-based violence, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines emphasizes that COVID-19 mitigation strategies must centre on the diverse socioeconomic needs of civilians in conflict-affected areas. The urgent and ever-growing challenges of the climate crisis further compound the protection of civilians agenda.”

    2020-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/465 (2020) · source

21. “The scale of attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure remains unacceptably high, particularly in densely populated settings where urban warfare is a defining feature of armed conflict. High numbers of civilian fatalities and injuries, forced displacement, conflict-related sexual violence against women and girls in particular, but also men and boys, and grave violations against children, including abduction, forced labour and recruitment to armed groups, are also equally appalling. The situation for civilians is exacerbated by the denial of humanitarian access and attacks against peacekeepers and members of civil society working to alleviate the impact of conflict, as well as deepening social and economic inequality in many conflict-affected States.”

    2020-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/465 (2020) · source

22. “I wish to thank Her Excellency Ms. Kersti Kaljulaid, President of the Republic of Estonia, for her opening statement. I also welcome the insightful briefings from Their Excellencies Secretary-General António Guterres, Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and member of The Elders, and Mr. Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Protecting civilians from the harsh realities and consequences of armed conflict is a central priority of our international system. Yet, as conflicts become more complex and dynamic in nature, our efforts to protect civilians are increasingly tethered to this multidimensional-threat landscape.”

    2020-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/465 (2020) · source