YouSaid · the spoken record

Mansour

lines on the record: 2,038
first: 2006-03-30
most recent: 2023-12-22
sittings or episodes: 126
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

“This situation has deepened the hardships and indignation of a civilian population that is unquestionably entitled to protection under humanitarian law and should not be left to the mercy of the occupying Power. As long as Israel continues to breach its legal obligations towards the Palestinian civilian population, the Security Council must act to uphold its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations and ensure compliance by Israel with international law and United Nations resolutions.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“For two years now, since June 2007, Israel, the occupying Power, has deliberately obstructed humanitarian access, the movement of persons, including sick persons needing treatment unavailable in Gaza, and the movement of all goods, including the most essential goods such as food and medical and fuel supplies. This inhumane blockade has perpetuated the dire humanitarian crisis, especially among the most vulnerable, who continue to live amid the destruction and trauma of Israel's aggression due to its refusal to allow even the entry of materials essential for reconstruction, leaving over 50,000 people homeless and with wholly inadequate health care, clean water, electricity and sanitation.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“The international community, including the Security Council, must follow up on the findings and recommendations from United Nations-related investigations, including the United Nations Headquarters Board of Inquiry and the investigation being undertaken by the Human Rights Council's fact- finding commission. The Palestinian people will never forget what happened, but, at the same time, the international community must never let it happen again. That can be guaranteed only if accountability and the duty to make reparations for violations are enforced. At the same time, urgent measures must be undertaken to end the unlawful Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has driven socio-economic conditions to deplorable levels.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“In this regard, the aforementioned independent inquiries and investigations into Israel's military aggression against the Gaza Strip clearly confirm that Israel committed grave breaches of international law, as it continues to do with its ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip in collective punishment of the entire civilian population, and other illegal measures, including colonization activities, throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. We persist in our calls for serious steps to pursue accountability and justice with regard to Israel's crimes against the Palestinian civilian population. That is imperative for healing the deep physical and societal wounds and trauma inflicted upon the Palestinian people.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“We thus fully agree with the recommendations in the report, in particular the recommendation that the Council mandate commissions of inquiry to examine situations where there are concerns regarding serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including with a view to identifying those responsible and prosecuting them at the national level or referring the situation to the International Criminal Court.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Among countless other violations, the occupying Power also attacked humanitarian personnel and clearly-marked ambulances, wantonly destroyed public and civilian infrastructure, including thousands of homes, targeted United Nations schools and buildings and obstructed humanitarian access and access to medical treatment for the wounded and sick, while continuously denying an entire population their most basic rights, including their rights to food and water. Not only do all such actions constitute serious, systematic violations of international law, but many amount to war crimes, for which accountability must be pursued. In that regard, as the report rightly states, the absence of accountability and, worse still, the lack in many instances of any expectation thereof, are what allow violations to thrive to a large extent.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Civilian areas and objects, including United Nations schools where civilians were known to be sheltering from the violence, were directly targeted by the occupying Power, as confirmed by the number of casualties and the extent of the destruction, as well as by several investigations, including by the Secretary-General's Board of Inquiry, the League of Arab States Independent Fact Finding Committee on Gaza and many human rights and humanitarian organizations on the ground.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli onslaught, the overwhelming majority civilians, including hundreds of children and women; and more than 5,500 Palestinians, including more than 1,800 children, were injured as a result of the use of excessive and indiscriminate force and lethal, and even illegal, weaponry and ammunition by the occupying forces against the civilian population.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“In that regard, it should be recalled that protection provisions can be found in many instruments of law, including the Geneva Conventions, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, the provisions of which explicitly aim to ensure the safety of civilians in armed conflict, including specific provisions for civilians under foreign occupation; the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions; the human rights Covenants; the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; and numerous United Nations resolutions. Never has the absence of protection for the Palestinian civilian population been more evident than it was during Israel's three-week aggression against the Gaza Strip.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“The international community's repeated inability to hold Israel accountable for its violations and war crimes has regrettably reinforced Israel's impunity and lawlessness, permitting it to continue using military force and collective punishment against the defenceless Palestinian people under its occupation and, in essence, absolving it from its legal obligations as an occupying Power.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“The Palestinian people are all too familiar with the failure of the international community to guarantee the protection accorded to them under international law, including humanitarian law and human rights law. For more than four decades, the Palestinian people have endured appalling levels of human suffering at the hands of Israel, the occupying Power, in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. We reiterate our call, as we have in previous debates on this issue, that the protection of peoples under foreign occupation must be a priority undertaking of the United Nations, in particular the Security Council, which has clear responsibilities in that regard.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“We hope that the Council will continue its efforts to address this issue in an effective manner until serious protection of civilians in armed conflict is ensured in all cases, without selectivity or inaction based on political considerations. While the past 10 years of Security Council efforts have contributed to increased awareness among Member States and the broader international community of the need to provide protection and to respond to protection issues, the situation confronting civilians in today's conflicts is tragically similar to that which prevailed a decade ago. That can be primarily attributed to the failure of parties to respect, and to ensure respect of, their legal obligations to protect civilians and spare them from the cruel consequences of war and aggression.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“I express our appreciation to you, Mr. President, for convening this debate on a matter of immense importance to Palestine. The Security Council's attention to the need for the protection of civilians in armed conflict is both appropriate and necessary. We also express appreciation to you and your country, Turkey, for your wise stewardship of the Council this month. I would also like to add that I am delighted to see you, as a good friend, presiding over the Security Council. I also wish to thank Mr. John Holmes, Under- Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, for his presentation of the Secretary-General's report (S/2009/277) and for his compelling statement.”
2009-06-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6151Resumption1 (2009) · source
“That is imperative in order to allow us together to address, with coordinated and serious action, the many urgent issues we currently face and to advance the overall goal of a just, comprehensive, lasting and peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of the Arab-Israeli conflict as a whole on the basis of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002), 1515 (2003) and 1850 (2008), the principle of land for peace and the Arab Peace Initiative.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“We reaffirm our intention to work hard and seriously to heal the divisions and to achieve the national unity so vital to the achievement of our legitimate national rights. In this regard, we urge the international community, particularly after having witnessed the disastrous ramifications of recent years, to engage diplomatically with a unified, representative Palestinian leadership.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“We therefore emphasize that demands must be made upon Israel to not only talk of peace, but to actually act for peace, just as the Palestinian leadership has done over the past 15 years since the start of the peace process, including by upholding its Road Map obligations. In this connection and in closing, I wish to make a brief reference to the status of Palestinian reconciliation efforts. Despite the stall in the talks mediated by Egypt, we remain hopeful of achieving unification of the Palestinian political factions in order to strengthen our efforts in pursuit of our just national cause, which continues to confront so many challenges. Arrangements are being made for a transitional Government and elections and to address other priority issues.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Moreover, demands must be made upon Israel to clearly affirm its respect for its Road Map obligations and other peace process commitments in both word and deed, to freeze, all settlement activities, including so-called natural growth, and to dismantle the outposts. In this regard, we express serious concern about the shift to the far right of the new Israeli Government and over rhetoric and positions that totally contradict the two-State solution for peace, the Quartet principles and the peace process itself. The new Israeli position, inter alia, calls for the expansion of settlements, rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab State and insists on full control over Jerusalem, indicating an intention to vigorously pursue Jewish habitation there in order to assert Israeli control over the eastern parts of the city.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“In the face of continued defiance, real and serious action, including practical measures, by the Quartet and the international community as a whole is required to bring an end to such destructive and unlawful Israeli practices, which jeopardize the viability of the future independent State of Palestine and the prospects for peace and stability in our region. Israel, the occupying Power, must be compelled to cease immediately all settlement and related colonization activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and abide by its obligations under international law in that regard, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“The Palestinian leadership has always negotiated in good faith, but we cannot continue blindly in this process while Israel destroys all chances for the realization of our legitimate national aspirations. The international community, including the Quartet, the main sponsor of the peace process, must realize that continued declarations or mild appeals to Israel will no longer suffice. More of the same will not change this grave situation and, worse still, further appeasement will only deepen the problem.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Israel's settlement activities are totally contradictory to the peace process and the core principle of land for peace sustaining it. This illegitimate policy has repeatedly damaged the peace process and is physically destroying the prospects for achieving the two-State solution for peace on the basis of the 1967 borders in accordance with United Nations resolutions, the terms of reference of the peace process - on which there is international consensus - and the Arab Peace Initiative. We thus reaffirm that continuing negotiations under such conditions would be futile and unacceptable. A process under such conditions will never achieve its goal of two States living side by side in peace and security.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“On the ground, such flagrant breaches continue to affect all aspects of Palestinian life, undermine the territory's contiguity, integrity and unity, and inflame tensions. The separation, isolation and cantonization of Palestinian communities by the settlements, the separation wall and the checkpoints, which can only be likened to apartheid and segregation, are gravely affecting these communities and destroying their societal fabric. In the peace process, these provocative, illegal Israeli actions have undermined the drive for peace, poisoning the atmosphere between the two sides and tainting the process as a whole, calling into question Israel's commitment to the process and credibility as a "partner for peace". Colonization and the peace process cannot coexist.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“While the Security Council and General Assembly have repeatedly declared such measures unlawful and null and void, more is needed at this critical juncture than declarations and statements. Action must be taken to halt all Israeli colonization measures aimed at illegally and unilaterally determining the fate of the city, for there can be no peace without East Jerusalem - the capital and heart of the future Palestinian State. The intent of all such illegal measures and practices by Israel is clear: it is to dramatically alter the demographic composition, character, geographic nature and status of the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, so as to entrench its presence on the land in order to prejudge the outcome of final status negotiations in the peace process in Israel's favour.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Indeed, the situation in and around East Jerusalem is most critical, as Israel continues to de-populate the city of its Palestinian inhabitants while simultaneously promoting its Judaization by all of the aforementioned unlawful actions, including in the area of Al-Haram Al-Sharif in the Old City. The character and physical landscape of the city continues to be changed by the occupying Power, including through measures to isolate it from the rest of the West Bank. In addition to non-stop settler colonization, Israel also continues to impose a closure on Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem and to obstruct Palestinian cultural events and development in the city, including the prevention of recent events in connection with the celebration of "Jerusalem: Capital of Arab Culture 2009".”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Even during the peace process, this massive colonization campaign has never ceased. In fact, in the period since the Annapolis conference, it has multiplied l7-fold. I repeat, settlement activities have multiplied l7-fold, at a minimum. The illegal campaign to expropriate Palestinian land continues, as do efforts to carry out a de facto annexation. For this purpose, Israel continues the expansion of settlements and settlement outposts; the construction of settlement infrastructure; the transfer of thousands more Israeli settlers to the occupied territory; the construction of bypass roads and of the wall; the imposition of a racist permit regime, residency restrictions and hundreds of checkpoints; demolitions of Palestinian homes; and excavations, all of which are particularly intense in and around occupied East Jerusalem.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“In letter after letter, statement after statement - including the statement by President Mahmoud Abbas at the Council's special meeting on 26 September 2008 to specifically address this issue (see S/PV.5983) - we have drawn attention to this unlawful campaign and cautioned about its destructive impact on the situation on the ground and on the peace process. We have repeatedly appealed to the Council to uphold its responsibilities and act to compel the occupying Power to comply with its legal obligations and bring to an immediate halt all settlement activities and all acts of settler terrorism and violence against the Palestinian people. Regrettably, the lack of action and Israel's refusal to respect international law have created a tense and dangerous situation on the ground and completely undermined the peace process.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Israel continues its military raids and arrest operations in the West Bank, adding daily to the thousands of imprisoned Palestinians, including children, women and elected officials, whose release we continue to demand. Also, and of particularly grave concern, is Israel's ongoing settler colonization campaign in the occupied Palestinian territory, which it is pursuing in grave breach and defiance of international law, United Nations resolutions and the International Court of Justice advisory opinion, and in total contradiction to the objectives and spirit of the peace process.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“As stated by the distinguished signatories: (spoke in English) "We have seen at first hand the importance of investigating the truth and delivering justice for the victims of conflict and believe it is a precondition to move forward and achieve peace in the Middle East." (spoke in Arabic) Indeed, only in this way can we seek to end Israel's impunity, prevent the recurrence of such crimes and progress towards securing a just and lasting peace and coexistence between the two peoples. While the human misery and hardship quotient in the Gaza Strip has risen to intolerable levels, the situation in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, also remains volatile.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“In this connection, I refer to the important letter recently conveyed to the Secretary-General and Security Council from prominent individuals in the field of international justice and reconciliation of conflict, calling for the establishment of a United Nations commission of inquiry to investigate all serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the Gaza conflict.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“The Palestinian leadership has taken initial steps in this regard and will continue to act responsibly and collectively by all appropriate means, including through the Security Council, to ensure that the law is upheld and justice is served. We will thus work diligently to follow up the findings of the Secretary- General's board of inquiry, of the fact-finding commission to be dispatched by the Human Rights Council and of any other relevant investigations being carried out.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“We reiterate our calls to the international community, including the Security Council, to investigate the grave breaches of international law committed by the occupying forces in Gaza, bearing in mind, inter alia, articles 146, 147 and 148 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. All crimes, including the wilful killing of civilians, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, must be investigated and the perpetrators must be prosecuted. Our consciences will not allow these barbaric war crimes against our people to go unpunished. Evidence continues to be collected, and all options are being explored.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“The immediate long-term opening of all border crossings is imperative and must allow for the import of all essential supplies, including sufficient food, medicine and fuel, as well as building supplies necessary for reconstruction and other goods and commercial flows necessary for economic recovery. If Israel continues the punitive blockade on the movement of persons and goods into and out of Gaza, it will only ensure an increase in the poverty, despair, indignation and frustration of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region. In addition, serious steps must be taken to pursue accountability for Israel's crimes against the Palestinian civilian population.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Moreover, we thank the United Nations and all of its agencies in the occupied Palestinian territory, which in all circumstances have continued to provide invaluable assistance to the Palestinian people in all fields, particularly emergency health care and food sustenance, aimed at alleviating the humanitarian crisis. While addressing humanitarian needs, we must also focus on other issues necessary for stabilizing and restoring some normalcy to Gaza. The achievement of a permanent, durable ceasefire is one such priority. At the same time, the inhumane Israeli blockade of Gaza must be lifted to end the imprisonment of our people.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Not only funding, but monumental efforts will be needed to help repair the physical, psychological and societal damage and to achieve a just resolution of the conflict that will fulfil the rights and needs of the Palestinian people to freedom and human dignity in their homeland after decades of loss, oppression, statelessness and suffering. Nevertheless, we reiterate our appreciation to all countries and organizations throughout the world that are supporting the recovery and reconstruction of Gaza, including those that participated in the donor conference at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. In that connection, we extend our thanks and appreciation to the Arab Republic of Egypt for generously hosting that important conference. We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of solidarity and generous support for our people.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“The task of recovery has now begun, including attempts to heal the wounds of families whose lives have been shattered and forever altered by the brutal attack and who must cope not only with grief and loss- and, for many, renewed displacement - but who must also struggle to survive under the deplorable living conditions caused by the ongoing illegal Israeli blockade, which constitutes collective punishment of the entire population. The situation is as abnormal and unstable as can be imagined. We are fully cognizant of the short- and long- term consequences of this crisis and know that the road ahead as we rebuild and heal our society will be extremely difficult.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“We took that photograph with Ambassador Paul Badj i, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. This child's name is Mahmoud Haani, and he caused the international delegation to weep when he told us his story. He asked us to take a message in the name of the thousands of martyrs and wounded, and he asked us to pose a question to Israel, the occupying Power: "Why did you cause me to lose my eyesight and to ruin my future? I am a child and only 12 years old. My name is Mahmoud Haani," I have conveyed his message to the Security Council and the Secretary- General, and every person with a conscience is responsible for holding accountable the criminals who carried out these crimes and for ensuring that they face the justice they so deserve.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Only when we begin to understand the maddening and destructive force that defines killing can we begin to understand the depth of the trauma, anguish and suffering inflicted on a people forced to endure such military assaults without a safe place to hide or to flee to. The deafening cries and paralysing screams of fear and pain of the children, women and men killed and wounded and of their shattered, terrorized families - those were the real sights, sounds and core of a war in which no distinction was made between combatants and civilians. I had the honour of being in Cairo two weeks ago as part of a delegation from the Palestine Committee of the United Nations. We visited a hospital in Cairo and saw with our own eyes dozens of injured Palestinians. One of them was the child depicted in the photograph I have here.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“The physical toll of destruction wantonly caused by Israel in the Gaza Strip is equally immense. Billions of dollars will be required to rebuild Gaza, where the occupying Power damaged or completely destroyed more than 21,000 homes and refugee shelters; thousands of business properties, including agricultural farmlands; vital civilian infrastructure, including water, sanitation and electricity systems; and roads, hospitals, ambulances, mosques, schools, national institutions and several United Nations facilities. The horrifying facts have become all too clear, so I will not dwell on the details. However, I wish to take a moment to urge a closer look at the human side of this tragedy. We must stop perceiving the killing of civilians in armed conflict as simply a silence that is associated with death.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“We are all aware by now of the human and physical tolls of destruction deliberately inflicted by the occupying Power during that three-week aggression, the magnitude of which was unprecedented since the occupation began in 1967. A final tally of the casualties of the Israeli aggression reveals that more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed. The overwhelming majority of these were civilians, including hundreds of children and women, while more than 5,500 Palestinians, including more than 1,800 children, were injured. I have with me a photograph of one of those children. Many sustained permanent injuries and maiming as a result of the excessive, indiscriminate and lethal use of force, which included prohibited weaponry and ammunition used by the occupying forces against the civilian population.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Thus, shortly after the adoption of resolution 1850 (2008), and instead of implementing measures to build the confidence and trust necessary for peacebuilding, we bore witness yet again to Israel's blatant disrespect for the Council, the peace process and all legal norms, demonstrated by its savage war against the Gaza Strip, launched in disregard for all standards of military conduct and human decency and with disastrous humanitarian and political consequences. That brutal and merciless military aggression against the defenceless Palestinian civilian population ravaged a tiny area that was already gravely deprived and suffering as a result of years of the unlawful Israeli blockade.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“As we are all aware, resolution 1850 (2008) was the first resolution adopted by the Council on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in more than four and a half years, despite Israel's systematic violations of international law and United Nations resolutions in the occupied Palestinian territory, which only strengthened Israel's impunity and lawlessness and hastened the deterioration of the situation.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Since the Council's most recent open debate on this item (see S/PV.6061), following the monthly briefing in December 2008, we have witnessed a dramatic deterioration on all fronts in the situation on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. In spite of the guarded optimism that we expressed during that debate, which following the adoption of resolution 1850 (2008) - which, inter alia, reaffirmed the commitment to the two-State solution, declared support for the peace negotiations launched at Annapolis in November 2007 and reaffirmed their irreversibility - we are now at a juncture in which peace seems more remote than ever and the situation on the ground has become even more volatile.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Mr. Mansour (Palestine) (spoke in Arabic): At the outset, I warmly congratulate you, Sir, on your new post as Permanent Representative of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the United Nations and wish you every success. I also congratulate you and your sisterly country on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the current month. We are fully confident of your ability to wisely guide the Council's work. I also thank the Permanent Representative of Japan for his skilled and outstanding leadership of the Council last month. In addition, I wish to express our appreciation to Mr. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary- General for Political Affairs, for his comprehensive briefing.”
2009-03-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6100 (2009) · source
“Before closing, we would like to commend the work of many United Nations bodies, including the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, UNICEF and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as well as the work of many international humanitarian organizations that have worked tirelessly to launch initiatives and programmes to ensure the protection of civilians in armed conflict. We continue to support and encourage their work in this field.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Protection provisions can be found in many instruments of law, including the Geneva Conventions - particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which comprises provisions explicitly aimed at ensuring the safety of civilians in armed conflict, including specific provisions for civilians under foreign occupation - the Additional Protocols, the Human Rights Covenants, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and United Nations resolutions. We have the legal instruments and tools that are required, and we know what actions need to be taken to ensure the protection of civilians in armed conflict. We are convinced that the international community has no choice but to make progress and create a different and safer situation than that faced today by civilians not only in Palestine but everywhere else affected by armed conflict.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Respect must be demanded for the instruments of international law that are supposed to provide the Palestinian civilian population with protection from human rights violations and crimes committed under occupation. It should be recalled that the basis and guiding principles for the protection of civilians in armed conflict are embodied in the rules of international law, particularly humanitarian law and human rights law. The need to protect civilians, promote their welfare and safeguard their human dignity is at the core of the spirit and purpose of these laws.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Regrettably, the international community's failure to hold Israel accountable for its violations and crimes over the past four decades has reinforced Israel's lawlessness, permitting it to continue using military force and collective punishment against the defenceless Palestinian people under its occupation and, in essence, absolving it of its legal obligations as an occupying Power. As Israel continues to breach its legal obligations towards the Palestinian civilian population, the Security Council, if it cannot compel Israel to abide by the law, has a duty to determine and undertake appropriate measures to protect the civilian population.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“The situation before the Israeli assault in Gaza was already dire owing to Israel's inhumane 19-month siege, by which it deliberately obstructed humanitarian access and the movement of persons - including sick persons needing treatment unavailable in Gaza - and of all goods, including the most essential, such as food and medical and fuel supplies. All aspects of life were severely impacted, with poverty, hunger, disease and instability rising to alarming levels, particularly among the refugee population and children - who constitute nearly 56 per cent of the population - exacerbating the humanitarian crisis to catastrophic proportions. Protecting civilians in situations of foreign occupation must be a priority mission of the United Nations, and the Security Council has clear responsibilities in that regard.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Moreover, we call on the Security Council and all concerned parties to make the necessary efforts and work to ensure the effective implementation of the resolution in order to bring an end to all military activities and violence; to address the serious humanitarian and economic needs of the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip, who for too long have been under Israel's inhumane siege; and to help the parties return from the precipice to which this crisis has brought us and back to the path of peace. In addition to the massive carnage against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the civilian population there continues to suffer from unlawful measures of collective punishment being imposed on them by the occupying Power.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Of course, the ceasefire that the Security Council called for was intended to lead to a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Unfortunately, Israel continues to ignore the resolution adopted by the Council, pressing on with its military aggression against the Gaza Strip and even intensifying it over the past couple of days. We call on the Council to compel Israel to heed the calls of the Council, in accordance with its obligations as an occupying Power under the Fourth Geneva Convention and its obligations under the United Nations Charter as a State Member of the United Nations.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“We would also like to recall the suggestion made by Secretary- General in his latest report on civilians in armed conflict (S/2007/643), in which he stated that, in situations where parties to a conflict commit systematic and widespread breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law and thereby create the threat of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Council should be willing to intervene under Chapter VII of the Charter. Here, we would like to recall resolution 1860 (2009), adopted less than a week ago, which, among many other important provisions, calls urgently for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire and for the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including food, fuel and medical treatment.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source