YouSaid · the spoken record

Obrien

lines on the record: 875
first: 2010-06-29
most recent: 2017-08-30
sittings or episodes: 46
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

“In Syria, Yemen, or the countless other areas where we encounter the desperate man-made humanitarian needs of people caught up in conflict crises, surely what divides members in the Council cannot be more important than what must unite them and us all - our common humanity and our goal of relieving the suffering of the world's most vulnerable. We must give hope and a future to those women, men, elderly, sick and the children - the young girls and boys - caught up in crises, who deserve no less of a life than each member sitting around this horseshoe table.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“As I survey this famous horseshoe table, I see the 15 members of the Security Council who represent the world's hopes for peace and security and are charged, even while representing their own capitals and their respective, competing perspectives, with rising above those separate interests to reach the collective responsibility for the interests of all the peoples of the world by recognizing and acting to put our common humanity and our responsibility to our fellow global citizens first - their lives and their protection - that is the humanitarian imperative. That is our and Council members' collective responsibility and collective accountability.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“And yes, we will need more and more of the continuing generosity of an ever- broadening number of donors of financial resources. And yes, that is best done, for the scale necessary to meet the exponentially rising demand, through coordinated United Nations and multilateral channels, as fully endorsed at the World Humanitarian Summit. I leave with a heavy heart, however.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“As I take my leave, despite all the grave humanitarian challenges being faced by our fellow human beings today in over 40 countries, I remain inspired and eternally grateful for the selfless, skilled, persistent, brave and courageous work of the humanitarian and health workers around the world - in the field as well as those running organizations and coordinating, be they in the United Nations or in international and local non-governmental organizations and partners. They have worked to save millions of lives and, in today's world of overwhelmingly protracted, man-made and avoidable conflict settings, to protect civilians wherever possible. Yes, we have to have safe, unimpeded access and the absolute right to principled humanitarian relief through action in line with international humanitarian law to meet the needs of the vulnerable.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“Let us also stand in solidarity with the millions of civilians in Syria whose lives have been destroyed by the conflict, their dignity obliterated, their loved ones killed, their towns reduced to rubble, their hope for the future shattered. We stand in solidarity with them to send a clear message to the world: civilians, humanitarians and health workers, wherever they are, are not a target.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“I am told that a new agreement among the parties was apparently reached on 27 August, but where is the evidence? I have to be hopeful that this time we will succeed in getting through. Thousands of people, for the most part women and children, depend upon our collective action. As I draw to a close, let highlight a vital point. Ten days ago we commemorated World Humanitarian Day, where we took time to pay tribute to all the brave women and men who have died in humanitarian service, in Syria and around the world. Let us together honour them here today, as well as those who continue to risk their lives every day in Syria and elsewhere in their quest to help others.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“I must also share my frustrations about the little progress made in recent months in responding to the needs of the many thousands of people still besieged in Fo'ah, Kafraya and Yarmouk. Following months of difficult negotiations, we were informed in mid-August that an agreement had finally been reached between the various parties for aid distributions to take place simultaneously in those three locations. We loaded our trucks on 17 August, only to off-load them again a week later, on 23 August - the day on which we were informed that the agreement was no more. That is disgusting. It is scandalous and an outrage, and I urge all Member States, in particular those with influence, to do all they can to bring the parties to their senses.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“In fact, every month thousands of facilitation letters have been readily signed for regular programmes in Government-controlled areas - the vast majority of those that have been requested. Yet for access to cross-line areas, only a small percentage of those areas approved by the Government actually receive facilitation letters. Of course, that is not right. It is outrageous and morally reprehensible, let alone in breach of international humanitarian law. That must change - and now. Non-State armed groups must also provide the necessary security guarantees in an equally timely manner. Otherwise, despite our very best intentions, we will not be able to noticeably increase our deliveries to areas where violence has ceased through the de-escalation agreements. It is as simple as that.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“In recent days, the deployment of convoys to Douma, Barzeh, Al-Rastan, Talbiseh and Tlul Elhomor has shown that, when there is sufficient political will, with the active engagement of the Russian Federation and other Member States, access to besieged and hard-to-reach locations is possible. That said - and I cannot stress this point strongly enough - the only way of guaranteeing that the Russian initiative will be a continuing success is by ensuring that administrative delays on the part of the Government of Syria are lifted once and for all. We cannot keep waiting for the signing of the necessary facilitation letters. Give us the letters, and we will deploy.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“And let me say it loud and clear yet again: humanitarian and health workers are not a target. I would like to reiterate our impartial appreciation to the Russian Federation and to voice our support for its initiative, presented in the Council on 9 August, aimed at scaling up humanitarian operations in de-escalation areas. Be assured that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners have been actively working on preparedness planning and remain committed to scaling up operations and providing lifesaving assistance to men, women and children in need in the de-escalation areas and throughout the country, despite the challenging and dangerous operational environment on the ground.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“I alsowishtoreiteratethatanyreductioninhostilitiesmust also generate concrete results for the safe, unimpeded and sustained freedom of movement and humanitarian access by the United Nations and our partners in full conformity with international humanitarian law, that is, in accordance with the principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality, in order to relieve the suffering and meet humanitarian needs wherever they arise, and where we determine the beneficiaries, the quantities and what is needed. Access to areas identified for de-escalation, and to many other areas across Syria where needs remain high, still falls short of what is required. In particular, in areas where there has been a decrease in fighting there is no excuse for any side to restrict access.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“I am the first to acknowledge, as demonstrated by concurrent developments in Astana, Amman and Cairo in recent months, that there remain persistent and determined efforts to reduce violence through de-escalation agreements. I welcome those efforts, and I hope the Astana guarantors will soon be able to finalize the remaining operational and technical modalities for all de-escalation areas and for promoting confidence-building measures regarding the issues of detainees, abductees and missing persons and humanitarian demining. I urge all parties to work together to consolidate and expand those ceasefires.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“In total, 55,000 people in besieged locations have received assistance: 35,000 people in Douma on 17 August were provided with multisectoral assistance, and 20,000 people in Barzeh received food and nutrition assistance on 26 August. The delivery to Douma was notable in that it was the first convoy to proceed into eastern Ghouta since the deployment of Russian military police to the area as part of the de-escalation area initiative. In addition, two inter-agency convoys delivered lifesaving assistance to the area around northern rural Hims, one to the hard-to-reach towns of Talbiseh and Tlul Elhomor on 19 August, and a second to Al-Rastan on 27 August. In total, 191,500 people in need were provided with multisectoral assistance.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“The team on the ground is working day and night to make that a reality, including negotiating with the Syrian authorities to turn partial approvals into full approvals and - let me stress, with all the force at my command - to put an end to the removal of medical supplies, which continues. It has finally been accepted that birthing kits are not hostile weapons. What is in the minds of the brutes who remove such items, and of the people at the highest levels in the Syrian Government who order that to happen? No wonder they have not allowed me back into Syria since December 2015. Speaking truth to power only hurts when the truth is shameful. So far this month, humanitarian convoys have delivered desperately needed lifesaving assistance to the besieged towns of Douma, in rural Damascus, and Barzeh.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“On 19 July, the United Nations submitted its August and September inter-agency convoy plan to the Syrian authorities, which seeks to reach 1,231,000 people across 36 locations. In their response, received on 3 August following subsequent United Nations efforts to clarify, the Syrian authorities affirmed that the United Nations and its partners could deliver multi-sectoral assistance to 1,638,114 people. The authorities clarified, and even increased, the number of beneficiaries - owing, in part at least, to persistent United Nations engagement - and authorized more people than requested for seven locations. That is welcome news. But the key now is to turn those requests and approvals for outreach to besieged and hard-to-reach locations into actual deliveries to Syrians in need.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“I call on all parties to respect humanitarian principles and ensure the independence of those who are providing humanitarian assistance. As Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has said, in Idlib protection is key. And international humanitarian law apply to all parties, not just States - vitally important as that is in Syria as elsewhere - it also applies to all fighters, factions, movements and non-State actors everywhere. It applies to them all, to us all. That is what my colleagues in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights need, and must be allowed, to do: gather, preserve, document and, one day, present such evidence to an appropriate, accountable tribunal in order to ensure that impunity is banished. Let me now turn to inter-agency operations aimed at besieged and hard-to-reach locations.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“It is the heroic work of our partners from non-governmental organizations (NGO), who provide the main part of the response to Idlib cross-border from Turkey, that is responsible for keeping people alive. That has been challenged, however, as the former Al-Nusra Front - as Mr. De Mistura said, a proscribed terrorist organization, along with the so-called ISIL, on the Security Council sanctions list group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham - have been battling against other opposition groups for control of parts of Idlib. The insecurity during fighting forced some NGOs to stop their work temporarily. I am gravely concerned with the current brutal push by Al-Nusra to control local councils and other important institutions.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“As local agreements continue to be reached with various non-State armed grouped across Syria and in neighouring Lebanon - agreements that I am bound to say are not in line with international standards or humanitarian principles and often force civilians to choose between remaining and fearing for their safety, or evacuating to insecure areas they have never been to - 1 million people have now been displaced to the governorate. Even though airstrikes have diminished at least somewhat since the de-escalation memorandum was signed in May, the situation remains perilous for those displaced who arrive into an area unable to cope with such voluminous movement.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“I visited Jordan multiple times, where I had positive discussions with the authorities on the berm, and appreciated their continued engagement to see that those at the berm receive the support they so desperately need. Under today's new threat, their best chance is to be allowed to go, even if temporarily, into Jordan. Back in the north of Syria, in Idlib, the situation of displaced people in the governorate remains a cause of deep foreboding.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“Airstrikes have been reported in the area in recent weeks, causing serious distress and panic among this already displaced, very vulnerable population, stuck in barren desert, fearing for their lives. The establishment of a Government of Syria-controlled corridor from Damascus to Iraq, north of the berm, has effectively trapped the population, restricting the movement of both people and goods to the area. Military action has intensified, thereby heightening levels of insecurity and exposing the civilian population in both Hadalat and Rukban settlements to massively greater and graver risks. Moreover, the last cycle of distribution of humanitarian assistance was halted on 15 June, and we urgently seek the resumption of the distribution of lifesaving assistance.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“Again, I therefore urge all parties fighting in Raqqa and across Syria to take every possible measure, however difficult and constraining they may feel it is on their military action, to spare and protect civilians and civilian infrastructure in ever-increasing urban settings, which compounds the mortal risk to the innocents - as required under the obligations they freely entered into under international humanitarian law, are bound by and to which they have to be held to account. Further to the south in Syria, the security and protection of an estimated 4,000 Syrians in Hadalat and 45,000 Syrians in Rukban - mainly women and children - who remain stranded at the berm along Syria's border with Jordan, continue to deteriorate.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“It is a clear clarion call: in line with international humanitarian law, the safety of those trying to flee must be guaranteed, without excessive screenings or restrictions on movement. Nothing is more important than protecting civilians during this conflict; that has always been the case. Be in no doubt: the heinous fault lies with the fighters and their masters on every side. But the international community cannot hold its head up high when it comes to protection.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“Last week alone, reports indicated that over 30 civilians were killed in the Al-Sakhani neighbourhood, while eight people from the same family lost their lives in a separate attack in another part of the city. Just days before, dozens more had reportedly been killed and injured in Raqqa city due to airstrikes and shelling. The United Nations estimates that an average of 27 people are being killed in Raqqa every day. Up to 25,000 civilians still remain trapped in the city and are increasingly exposed to the crossfire of the ongoing fighting. They risk being killed, either by airstrikes or by ISIL snipers or mines if they try to flee, or of being used as human shields if they remain. Can you imagine being faced with that choice, clinging to your young child's hand?”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“The impact of this conflict on the basic needs and dignity of ordinary Syrians every day is clear, and efforts to push the so-called ISIL out of its strongholds continue to come with a terrible cost ofkilling, injuring and displacing scores of civilians. In Raqqa governorate, and since the beginning of the Euphrates Wrath Operation in November last year, over 271,00 men, women and children - including an estimated 75,000 people from Raqqa city - have been displaced from their homes to other locations within the governorate, as well as to Hassakeh, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor and Hama governorates. That comes on the heels of an increasing number of reported civilian casualties as military operations, including air strikes, are intensifying as the area that the so-called ISIL holds shrinks.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“I also call on Member States to fully support the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism and ask, once more, the Syrian authorities to finally grant access to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. To fail to do this simply reinforces impunity and encourages the perpetrators, whoever they are, to feel unthreatened and undeterred from their malevolent, dastardly inhuman actions. Over the month of July and into August, however hideous it remains in so many parts of Syria, to remain true to the facts, I am the first to be glad to report that we continue to see a reduction in violence in some areas of the country following the 4 May Astana memorandum on de-escalation. Of course, I welcome that.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“Meeting after meeting, therefore, we have detailed this destruction, and yet failed to see accountability for any of the countless war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the ground. As I leave the United Nations, despite every humanitarian's best efforts in the United Nations and beyond, none of us can escape a share in the shame that collectively we have not put a stop to this despite at least 300,000, even maybe 500,000, Syrians now killed, let alone the millions injured, displaced or who have fled, petrified. I call again, one final time, as the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, for members of the Council to urgently refer the situation and the people responsible for it in Syria to the International Criminal Court.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“We have all been shocked by reports of double-tap attacks, where a helicopter or a jet bombs a building, then waits, just long enough, for rescue and medical workers to arrive before attacking again. We witnessed nothing less than an all-out effort by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to impose a new Dark Age. We were at a loss for words at reports of Yazidi girls scratching their faces out of fear of being bought and sexually enslaved, and of reports of men being thrown of tower blocks for being gay - and then being stoned to death, even after surviving the fall. Just last week, we were reminded of the biggest chemical attack in Syria's war, which hit the sieged eastern Ghouta four years ago.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“We have endured the sight of people dying of starvation or a child drowning and washed up on the beach in his family's desperate, dangerous bid to escape the scandalous ravages of Syria then, which continue today; pictures of emaciated starving children in the besieged town of Madaya; and harrowing images ofbombs and mortars raining down on schools, medical facilities and internally displaced settlements where there are meant to be sanctuaries - on public markets and, yes, on those trying to bring the citizens of Syria hope and support: humanitarian and health workers and aid convoys. We watched the parties cynically, methodically, take out every single medical facility in eastern Aleppo, one by one, day after day, with babies dying in their incubators due to oxygen interruptions following such attacks.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“Some 27 reports of the Secretary-General on the Syrian crisis have been submitted to the Security Council since I took up this Office in June 2015, and countless briefings presented both in this open Chamber and in private consultations - in 27 months, a record 55 consultations, to be accurate, 30 on Syria alone. The Security Council is fully on notice and has heard in minute detail about the crisis as the deadliest years of the Syrian conflict has unfolded. We are all witnesses to the destruction of a country, its people, its children and its future.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“When we pause to think even for a moment that I say this knowing the sheer scale of the needless man-made, violent, deliberate humanitarian horror that has made 21 million Yemenis a sad lot today, or the desperation with which Somalia, South Sudan and north-eastern Nigeria, with the brave help of humanitarian workers, are trying to avert famine for 20 million of our fellow global citizens, or the 142 million people in 40 countries who need us tonight, or the fact that month after month the unremitting fearful plight of the Syrian people sears into our hearts and outrages and torments our minds, I am bound to reflect: "surely we can do better".”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“Syria is a conflict with an atrocious, incalculable human cost, one that has forced us to see the very worst of human behaviour. It is a conflict that as a consequence has consumed all of us without respite for seven bloody years.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: I wish an Eid Mubarak to you, Mr. President, and to all. I would like to start by thanking my good friend and indeed my colleague, Special Representative and Envoy, Mr. Staffan de Mistura, for all his tireless, unstinting determination and skill in seeking to find a way forward, above all, for the Syrian people who have suffered so long. In the violent, brutal chaotic world we live in today, it is a sad, tragic and blunt truth that on this, my last appearance in this role in this Chamber, the Security Council, the highest body in the world charged with preventing and resolving wars, conflicts and the desperate human death, pain and suffering directed caused by war and conflict, I am still urging its members, in the name of our common humanity, to find a way to stop the Syrian people from paying the price of political failure.”
2017-08-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8036 (2017) · source
“On this day, of all days, World Humanitarian Day, I straight-forwardly ask members of the Security Council: how much shame can we all, members of the Council in particular, keep accepting on our failure to rein in the parties and proxies to this heinous war and to start meeting the needs and the legitimate hopes that every Yemeni person should be allowed to have and that we would demand as the very minimum for each and every one of us?”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“Fifthly, we must demand an immediate cessation of hostilities, a return to negotiations and a political settlement. Parties to the conflict have brought ruin and deprivation to millions of Yemenis for more than two years. There is no military solution to this conflict, and the international community must push for a political settlement based on peaceful negotiations, and, indeed, compromises. Not to admit that fact is to deliberately condemn many more Yemeni people - girls, boys, women and men - to death, damage, fear and hopelessness in this deliberate, man- made human catastrophe.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“We must not get hung up on the semantics of who is a party, who is a proxy and who denies being involved. All the perpetrators and their facilitators of this hideous Yemen war know who they are. The evidence of their conduct is being gathered, preserved and prepared for holding each and all to account, to seek to avert the abominable confidence that the sense of impunity is currently motivating them to perpetrate this horror on the Yemeni people. We therefore welcome all steps towards improving this accountability. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has rightly called for the creation of an international independent body to investigate alleged Violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. I urge the Human Rights Council to act on this call.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“It also includes facilitating entry of life-saving supplies into Yemen and their rapid distribution without interference. I would like to be clear: ofcourse, the evidence is being gathered to hold hideous breaches of international humanitarian law to account one day. Thirdly, civil servant salaries must be paid. Recent funding in support of essential services is a temporary measure that will shore up some services in priority locations. But only full payment of civil servant salaries across the country - a basic obligation of the State - will halt institutional collapse. This collapse is in no one's interest and it exacerbates all the death, disease and human damage. Fourthly, accountability must be strengthened. More broadly, there must be accountability for the appalling conduct of this entire war.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“This includes supporting UNVIM, lifting restrictions on commercial imports, immediately re-opening Sana'a airport and allowing delivery of desperately needed mobile cranes to Hudaydah port, which handles some 70 per cent of imports into Yemen and is the closest port of entry to the majority of people who need humanitarian assistance. The Council must not be swayed or deterred by those saying Aden - or other ports - is good enough. Secondly, we must influence parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian and human rights law. This entails all Member States using all possible means of leverage and influence to ensure that the parties and their proxies protect civilians and infrastructure, respecting the fundamental rules of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“Humanitarian action alone cannot and should not replace the commercial or public sectors in Yemen, nor can it resolve the underlying crisis. An end to the violence, a cessation in hostilities and a sustainable political agreement are the building blocks of Yemen's peaceful future. But while those are being sought, humanitarians must be able to carry out their work and provide aid and support to the millions of Yemeni people in desperate need. The international community must take meaningful action. I renew my call for the Council's support not only with additional funding, but to address the following points. First, we must ensure that all ports - land, sea and air-areopentocivilian-includingcommercial-traffic.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“The Yemen humanitarian response plan has received only 39 per cent of its revised requirements of $2.3 billion for 2017 although we are already two thirds of the way through the year. I stress that we now urgently need Member States and other partners to provide full funding to the humanitarian response plan. There is no time to lose, and even if all the fighting and the restrictions were stopped within the next hour, we would continue to need that amount. Let us be clear that the sum of $2.3 billion is not an inflated negotiating number. It is a careful and collective best estimate of the cost of meeting the needs of Yemenis that the parties and their proxies either do not want or do not care for them to get.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“Many of those incidents are eventually resolved through discussions with the de facto authorities, but the time lost represents an unacceptable burden for people who desperately need help, and directly causes avoidable death. Humanitarian partners continue to reach the most vulnerable people through a well-led, principled and coordinated response despite extraordinary challenges. More than 120 partners have assisted 5.9 million people this year in every governorate of Yemen through United Nations-coordinated humanitarian action. The cholera response has established 222 treatment centres and 926 oral rehydration points across the country. Despite those achievements, partners are struggling with funding shortages.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“Local officials in areas controlled by Sana'a de facto authorities, at times, also seek to influence the selection of beneficiaries. We have also seen repeated incidents of aid diversion in areas under the control of Sana'a de facto authorities, especially in Taiz governorate. At a time when Yemen is facing the real near threat of famine, local authorities in areas controlled by Sana'a de facto authorities have also hindered humanitarian assessment missions that are needed so as to establish the necessary evidence base for humanitarian assistance. Despite my repeated calls to the de facto authorities in Sana'a to facilitate imports of armoured vehicles and other equipment critical to humanitarian action, progress remains painfully slow.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“I therefore also call on all parties to the conflict and their proxies to ensure that humanitarian staff can quickly enter Yemen and to avoid any bureaucratic or administrative requirements that may unduly hinder the rapid delivery of assistance or delay the deployment of aid workers. Once in Yemen, critical commercial or humanitarian supplies and staffmust be able to move to their destination nearest to the human needs of the most vulnerable without interference. Too often, the de facto authorities in Sana'a or local officials in areas under their control block, delay or otherwise interfere with humanitarian action. Those restrictions are especially prevalent in front-line areas, thereby preventing or delaying partners from reaching the most vulnerable.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“It was said recently that the Yemen Government could see no raison why Sana'a airport should open as there were flights to Aden and road access to Sana'a. I flew on the first United Nations Humanitarian Air Service flight to Aden. I have been talking to the truck drivers on that route. That is not a real solution with regard to the quantities and urgency even approaching the scale of the human emergency that we are trying to overcome despite such nasty, cynical machinations supported by parties to the conflict and their proxies where there is complete lock-down control of the airspace. Let us be clear that it is a fact that most of the need is in the northern and not the southern part of Yemen. It is a fact that Sana'a and Hudaydah and not Aden best serve the north.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“The United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) was established in May 2016 to facilitate critical commercial imports, yet the Government of Yemen and the coalition at times bypass UNVIM. by unilaterally denying or excessively delaying entry to vessels carrying essential cargo. Member States must determinedly do more to champion that mechanism. It is simply wrong to insist that those cargos go to Aden and not to Hudaydah. The cruel and baseless closure of Sana'a airport to civilian traffic by the Saudi-led coalition is another restriction blocking thousands of Yemenis from travelling abroad for medical care. Commercial flights served Sana'a in the first year of the conflict, and I do not see why they should not immediately resume, at the very least, for humanitarian cases.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“During 2017, the number of air strikes per month has been three times higher than it was the previous year, and monthly reports of armed clashes have increased by more than 50 per cent. All that has been said and the outrage that has been expressed here around the Security Council table have only produced a dramatically worse situation perpetrated by the stubborn, brutal parties and their proxies to this cynical and inhuman man- made catastrophe. Parties to the conflict and their proxies also continue to restrict the flow of essential commercial and humanitarian supplies and staff. Yemen imports more than 90 per cent of its staple food and nearly all medicine and fuel, which is urgently needed to pump clean drinking water and run hospital generators.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“Even wars have rules, and even wars have their limits, or at least they should have. Earlier this month, reported air strikes in Sa'dah killed 12 civilians and injured 10 others. The death toll included six children killed in their family home. Investigations continue, although we know already that only the Saudi-led coalition has the means to carry out aerial attacks. In Taiz indiscriminate shelling into populated areas continues as a grotesque feature of the conflict, mostly by forces affiliated with the Houthis or former President Saleh. Over the past two years, those incidents have reportedly killed or injured dozens of civilians, including children, and damaged civilian infrastructure. In the absence of accountability mechanisms or a concerted push by Member States for a political settlement, the violence is intensifying.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“Approximately 1.2 million public employees, including 30,000 health workers and 193,000 teachers, have been paid erratically or not at all since October 2016, thereby accelerating the decline in essential services and depriving nearly a quarter of the population - civil servants and their families - of a reliable income. We see the consequences of that collapse in people's rising needs across all sectors, and perhaps most dramatically in the current cholera outbreak, which has spread rapidly across Yemen in the wake of degraded sanitation systems and shattered health facilities. The conduct of the war continues to be really vicious and brutal, with frequent complete disregard for international humanitarian law, principles or just the basic norms of human behaviour.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“It is a direct result of the deliberate policies, tactics and actions of the parties and their powerful proxies to the conflict, and it is completely preventable. Before the escalation ofconflict, Yemen was making progress against its long-standing challenges, not least the kleptocracy under which it was ruled and its people exploited for so long. In 2014, fewer people were going hungry than three years earlier. Nutrition was improving with fewer children stunted or underweight. School enrolment was rising. All of that has now been sharply reversed, and with that reversal has come the near total collapse of public institutions that would otherwise help Yemenis to cope. Today, only 45 per cent of health facilities are fully functioning. Sanitation systems have mostly ground to a halt.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“They represent the heart-breaking story of a six-year- old girl - and her only dignity left is that I have been asked not to give her name - whose family spent six months sleeping in a hole in the ground at night in order to avoid air strikes near their home. This little girl was already suffering from malnutrition, and her condition became severe while hiding with her family. After several rounds of treatment she was recovering, only to contract and die of acute watery diarrhoea shortly after her release from hospital. For the sake of that innocent child and countless others, the appalling statistics of this crisis must not obscure the central fact that Yemen's catastrophe is completely man-made.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“The impact of this conflict on the basic needs and dignity of ordinary Yemenis every day is clear. We have been over the harrowing figures time and again in the Chamber. Seventeen million Yemenis do not know if or where they will get their next meal; nearly 7 million are facing the threat of famine; and nearly 16 million lack access to water or sanitation. With numbers of this scale, there is a pernicious risk that we may become mired in a statistical fog or that we may begin to take an overly technical view of this crisis, almost as if it were a natural phenomenon. It is not. We must remember that these figures represent human faces and enormous suffering - parents unable to feed their families, children succumbing to malnutrition or disease, and countless other tragedies.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source