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

“It grieves me that in these past two years, and despite my and my team's best efforts, I have been unable to report any significant improvement in the deplorable, avoidable and completely man-made catastrophe that is ravaging the country. On the contrary, the Yemeni people's suffering has relentlessly intensified. Today, millions of people in Yemen are facing a triple tragedy: the spectre of famine, the world's largest ever single-year cholera outbreak, and the daily deprivation and injustice of a brutal conflict that the world is allowing to drag on and on - all totally preventable, avoidable and treatable. This human tragedy is deliberate and wanton; it is political tragedy, but with will and with courage, which are both in short supply, it is stoppable.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: This is my tenth statement on Yemen to the Chamber since I took up my post in June 2015, only a few months after the crisis in Yemen had escalated. I have Visited the country three times during my tenure i Aden twice, Ibb, Sana'a, by mountainous road to to Hudaydah city and port, Amran, and in an attempt to get to Taiz, which was aborted after being caught up in gunfire. Wherever and whatever side of this horrific fight, and above all for those of neither side caught up in this maelstrom of fear, death and destruction, I have been deeply moved by the terrible human suffering everywhere in Yemen.”
2017-08-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8027 (2017) · source
“The conflicting parties in Yemen especially should do so, as should those who drive them from outside Yemen. Our - the Council's - joint top common priority should be always to save civilian lives and to protect them - the Yemeni people deserve this as equally as any other citizen of the world, just as any representative around this table or someone cowering in fear somewhere in Sana'a or Taiz in Yemen.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“The Council has a primary responsibility for this, as well as its responsibility to maintain international peace and security, which is, frankly, patently failing in Yemen. Approximately 20 million people depend on the Council's concrete action to end the conflict. To do that, the Council will have to lean much more heavily and effectively on the parties and those outside Yemen who are leading this policy and action. Just for the sake of reaching all the millions with the cholera vaccines, which are so desperately needed, the people of Yemen need stability so we can reach many of them at all. A failure to do so will render their fate and our - the Council's - ability to intervene useless and hopeless. We should all feel deeply guilty about that.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“As I have said before, this is a man-made crisis. The sheer scale of the humanitarian suffering of the Yemeni people is a direct result of the conflict and serious violations of international law. Humankind simply cannot continue to lose out to politics. The United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism has all the necessary checks and balances to ensure the flow of commercial goods into the country via Red Sea ports, in particular into Hudaydah. It is, and will be, inhumane and irresponsible for parties to impede the delivery of food and fuel into the country. The international community must do more -words are insufficient-to ensure that the parties are upholding their obligations under international humanitarian law.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“Secondly, there is a need to ensure the protection of the Yemeni people and critical infrastructure. For as long as military actions continue, all parties must comply with their responsibilities under international humanitarian law and human rights law, and all States must exert their influence to ensure the parties do so. Today they are not doing so, and that must change. Thirdly, there is a need to ensure that all ports and land routes remain open for both humanitarian and commercial imports in a predictable and stable manner. That includes continuing efforts to avert an attack on Hudaydah, to re-open Sana'a airport and for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to release airspace and getting the paid-for, desperately needed mobile cranes to Hudaydah port, rather than leaving them sitting useless and rotting on the Dubai quayside.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“The cholera response alone now needs an additional $250 million, of which only $47 million has been received and is being deployed and used up as we speak. I repeat my call made last time I briefed the Council six weeks ago (see S/PV.7954). If only I did not have to repeat it. There has been change since then, only, sadly, for the dramatically worse. First, notwithstanding the World Bank's commitment of $866 million to assist Yemen and the United States lifting of the freeze on access to Yemen's foreign currency reserves, public servants need to be paid immediately, and health facilities need to be reopened and restarted. A failure to do so will result in further preventable deaths. The United Nations and partners cannot replace State functions. There is no time to lose in ensuring that those payments are made.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“However, at a time when the Yemen humanitarian response plan is only 33 per cent funded, that is $688 million out of the $2.1 billion required, humanitarian workers have had to use resources programmed for food security or malnutrition to combat the unprecedented cholera outbreak, which has surged beyond initial estimates. Funding to the appeal is critical to ensure that lifesaving aid reaches all those in need, wherever and whoever they are. Fresh funds are needed to scale up further, pledges made in Geneva at the April conference must be turned into cash now. And the United Nations and its partners must be allowed to use funds flexibly to tackle the multitude of crises the conflict has created.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“At what point will the parties shoulder their responsibilities to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure - hospitals, medical facilities and schools - and to provide basic services for the population? At what point will those supporting the parties to the conflict take the necessary action e or, perhaps more important, desist from their violent actions? This cholera scandal is entirely man-made by the conflicting parties and those beyond Yemen's borders who are leading, supplying, fighting and perpetuating the fear and the fighting. Over 120 humanitarian partners in Yemen are delivering coordinated assistance out of five hubs - in Aden, Hudaydah, Ibb, Saada and Sana'a. From January to April, humanitarian partners reached 4.3 million people.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“Nearly 16 million people do not have access to adequate water, sanitation or hygiene, and more than 320,000 suspected cholera cases have been reported in all of the country's districts bar one. At least 1,740 people already are known to have died from this entirely preventable disease, probably many more in the many very remote areas of Yemen, which we cannot reach. Yemen is facing critical stoppages in hospitals and a lack of doctors and nurses. The health system has essentially collapsed, with an estimated 55 per cent of facilities closed due to damage, destruction or lack of funds. Approximately 30,000 health- care workers have not been paid in nearly a year, and no funding has been provided to keep basic infrastructure, such as hospitals and water-pumping and sanitation stations, operating.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: I thank Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed for his briefing, with which I fully align myself. Millions of Yemeni civilians - women, children and men - continue to be exposed to unfathomable pain and suffering. Cholera and the risk of famine remain acute in all but one of the 23 governorates across the country. In the midst ofthis, each day millions ofpeople in Yemen are struggling to survive the conflict, the poverty and the end-of-their-tether grind just to survive one day at a time. Seven million people, including 2.3 million malnourished children, of whom 500,000 are severely malnourished, under the age of five, are on the cusp of famine, vulnerable to disease and ultimately at risk of a slow and painful death.”
2017-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7999 (2017) · source
“More delay, hauntingly, means more deaths, and more people maimed, more injured and more scarred in body and mind for the rest of their time on Earth. Will I be saying the same thing next month? Yes, if we sit on our hands or wring them impotently. This problem is in the Council's hands - but together, and jointly. I would urge Council members to hold one another's hands. Let us not just say "no more". In the name of humanity, let us deliver no more death for Syrians.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“One important step in that regard is to end the bureaucratic delays that leave convoys vulnerable because they are waiting at checkpoints or operating at night. Another is to ensure there is no impunity for such attacks. I also urge those with influence to identify and, where possible, help to secure the release of the 29 United Nations staff members who are missing or detained in Syria. Finally, and most important, we need to see a sustained reduction in violence, which is so necessary for progress on any front. Ending the fighting will ease the burden on civilians and create an environment conducive to assistance. Now is the time. It was the time last month, the month before and the year before.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“Accountability is key and, of course, wherever possible, evidence is being collected, photographed, documented, preserved and stored for use in the appropriate courts in due course - preferably soon, so as to deter the continued flagrant and even blase disregard for life and the law that we are seeing. I therefore call on all Council members to do more to ensure humanitarian access, thereby enabling us to reach those in need. While the besieged population's numbers have once again decreased, their needs remain great, and those who have moved to other hard-to-reach areas continue to require our urgent and sustained support as well. Immediate steps must be taken to preclude further attacks on humanitarian workers. That is not solely a matter of humanitarian protection; it is about ensuring that those in need can continue to be reached.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“As the United Nations and humanitarian partners are working on the ground to reach those people, I remain hopeful that the results of next week's meeting in Astana on de-escalation will bring about a positive development and see a sustained reduction in the fighting and, along with that, improved and unhindered humanitarian access to these areas. In conclusion, I repeat my call to the Council to act now to protect civilians. I urge those sitting around this table who are active in the conflict to fully incorporate the protection of civilians into their military planning, and those with influence on the parties to the conflict to prioritize the protection of civilians in all engagements with them. These are legal obligations under the laws of war, and they should not be bent, broken or avoided.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“As we sit comfortably around this table, however, we should never underestimate the sheer courage it takes for the humanitarian aid workers there on the ground to persist with such deliveries. We owe them protection, as well as our limitless thanks and financial support. I should also highlight the fact that we are delivering aid to those in the Berm and have now reached 75 per cent of the population at Ruqban since the second cycle started, in early May. Our access to both Berm areas is in large part owed to the strong support we receive from the Government of Jordan. I would like to thank the Jordanian authorities for their positive collaboration. I look forward to their increased support in ensuring that lifesaving assistance continues to be delivered to the people in need.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“It is critical to ensure that de-escalation succeeds and that we can see a sustained calm in those areas. The temporary reduction of violence in some areas is a positive development. However, others are seeing not just continued fighting but even an increase. I am particularly concerned about the situation in Daraa, where intense aerial bombardment and fighting has resulted in civilian deaths and further damage to civilian infrastructure. The fighting is also getting close to the southern border and has resulted in delays to some cross-border humanitarian shipments from Jordan. Despite the insecurity that has caused delays, the United Nations and its partners have been able to continue cross-border deliveries to those in need.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“We must do more to see that the civilians who are caught up in this fight are protected. I am sure that members can imagine being caught up, through no fault of one's own, not knowing what decision to make, and especially what decision to make for one's children. The United Nations and its humanitarian partners are responding to the needs of those who leave as part of its broader response in the north-eastern region. Between 8 and 15 June, food assistance was delivered to more than 94,000 people, while 24 tons ofmedicine were dispatched to hospitals in Al-Hasakah and Qamishli towns, as well as to camps in Mabrouka, Ayn Issa and Al-Karama in Raqqa and Al-Hasakah governorates. The signing, on 4 May, of a memorandum on the creation of de-escalation areas created an opportunity to improve the situation of many civilians in Syria.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“The Office ofthe United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said yesterday that at least 173 people had reportedly been killed by air and ground strikes since 1 June. Conditions inside the city are reported to be dire, with limited access to food, water and basic services. While nearly 25,000 people have fled since the latest phase of operations began, the number of those remaining in the city is estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000. People fleeing fighting in Raqqa face a variety of risks, including punitive measures by ISIL, threats posed by mine contamination, family separation, forced recruitment at checkpoints and concerns for the displaced who enter camps and whose identification is taken away or withheld and their movement restricted. People are terrified and do not know where to go for safety.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“This is particularly important with growing needs in north-east Syria due to anti-ISIL operations in the area. We have reports of civilian deaths by air strikes in the region, including one that resulted in the deaths ofa reported 59 people, leaving another 70 wounded, in Abu Kamal, in eastern Deir ez-Zor governorate, on 15 May. At the same time, civilians in these areas face continued threats from ISIL. The air strike in Abu Kamal was followed by reported retributive attacks by ISIL against those whom they accused of providing coordinates. We have similar concerns in Raqqa city, where on 6 June the Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by coalition forces, began an operation to take the city from ISIL, and in the past few days have fully encircled it.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“Notwithstanding the access challenges that remain in Syria, I would also like to acknowledge an important positive development on access. Earlier this month, WFP was able to successfully deploy a convoy oftrucks from Aleppo, through Manbij and to Qamishli, in Al-Hasakah governorate. This is a key development, as it will allow us to deliver at scale to north-east Syria, an area that has been short of supplies since the closure of the cross-border access point with Turkey in December 2015. While we have been able to deliver assistance via an air bridge from Damascus, the operation was expensive. The annual savings from moving the mode of delivery from air to land are equivalent to the cost of providing food aid for 100,000 people for one year. And as needs increase, we should now be able to deliver at scale.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“On 20 May, the Governor of Homs announced that the evacuation process was completed and that the area was again under Government of Syria control. As a result, access to the area has also been reopened, and the United Nations, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and non-governmental organizations are able to deliver to the area, in which an estimated 17,500 individuals remain. There are now 11 besieged locations, with a total population of 540,000. Of these, seven are besieged by the Government of Syria, one by both the Government of Syria and non-State armed opposition groups, two by non-State armed opposition groups and one by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). I call once again for safe, unhindered and sustained access to all those in need, in particular for these 540,000 people, who are trapped and desperate for our assistance.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“As a result of these changes, two towns have been removed from the list of besieged locations. The first is the town of Madaya, in rural Damascus. Following an agreement reached as part of the negotiations regarding the objectionable tit-for-tat arrangements for the four towns of Fo'ah, Kafraya, Madaya and Zabadani, access has improved in Madaya. The United Nations was able to conduct an assessment visit on 8 June, and the 25,000 to 30,000 civilians who remain in the town are now able to move in and out of the town by public transportation or private vehicle. Secondly, the Al-Waer district of Homs city, where I visited, across the line, in December 2015, is also being removed from the besieged list. After reaching a local agreement in March, more than 19,000 individuals moved from the area to Idlib, Jarabulus and northern rural Homs.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“The safety of humanitarians going about their work is critical because in so many parts of Syria, they are the only lifeline for survival for communities trapped, injured and deprived by the conflict. Changes in the access landscape have been shaped by the signing of local agreements between the Government of Syria and non-State armed opposition groups. These are agreements reached without the involvement of the United Nations. While the result of these agreements often means increased freedom of movement, commercial access and greater humanitarian access, they should not be viewed as entirely positive developments. They usually also include the relocation of those who fear reprisal or conscription, often to areas where they face serious security and protection concerns.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“A Syrian Arab Red Crescent driver was hit and another grazed by sniper fire as the convoy began its return to Damascus. I can report that, thankfully, the injured driver survived and is in stable condition. My thoughts and best wishes go out to him and his family. I condemn such acts in the strongest terms and call for accountability for those responsible. Those who deliberately direct attacks against humanitarian workers are committing war crimes. The impact of the shots fired goes beyond any single person. They are an attack on the entire humanitarian community and, ultimately, a clear effort to prevent the delivery of aid to those in need.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“While we were eventually successful in delivering to east Harasta on 19 June, the case of an attempted convoy two days earlier illustrates the bureaucratic and security challenges faced by the United Nations and our humanitarian partners. Delays in loading the convoy resulted in a late departure from the warehouse, slowed further by long forced stops at checkpoints. After they sat for hours at the last Government of Syria checkpoint, the green light to remove the barriers and allow the trucks to cross was given only as evening approached. The security risk of waiting additional hours in the darkness while the barriers were removed was too great, so the decision was made to abort and return the next day. At that point, the convoy came under sniper fire as unknown gunmen lying in wait attacked.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“Although the most egregious bureaucratic restrictions are from the Government of Syria, we are increasingly seeing other groups operating in non-Government-controlled areas also implementing procedures that slow the process or impinge upon humanitarian principles. I therefore call on all parties to the conflict to allow needs-based, unhindered and sustained access to humanitarian actors. They must also be safe. I am also placing on the record, here before the Council today - and asking it to do something about it - my specific concern regarding recent security threats against humanitarians delivering aid.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“We must be able to deliver based on need. Further, the United Nations and humanitarian partners continue to be delayed and blocked by bureaucratic restrictions that limit our ability to reach civilians living in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. Delays in facilitation letters continue to slow the process for deploying inter-agency cross-line convoys. This need not be a cause for delay; they are not for the thousands of facilitation letters that are approved each month to areas where regular programming deploys. For example, the World Food Programme (WFP) requested 1,795 facilitation letters to provide aid, of which only three did not receive a positive response from authorities.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“Again, my admiration for the courage and persistence of the humanitarian aid workers on the ground, from the United Nations and all our international and particularly national partners, knows no bounds, and I pay tribute to them. They should not be a target, but, sadly, in Syria today, they are. So far this month we have reached the hard-to-reach locations of Talbiseh and Al-Rastan, in northern Horns, with convoys, and reached besieged east Harasta, in rural Damascus. Despite our best efforts, we continue to have supplies consistently removed from our trucks before we can even deploy. Nearly 200,000 treatments have been forcibly removed this year alone. The removal of these treatments is the removal of life-saving aid for those in need - treatments, medicines, a chance at life - and it must be brought to an end.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“And those who might be lucky enough to survive the bombs but whose homes are destroyed and are forced to flee face a whole new set of protection challenges, from mines and unexploded ordnance, to forced conscription, sexual abuse and violence, to restrictions on basic rights such as freedom of movement. It is our duty as fellow human beings to stand up and say, enough, to demand an end to these practices, to stop the needless death and to help those whose lives have already been destroyed. Each month, the United Nations and humanitarian partners do all in our power, in the face of extreme difficulty, to reach those who are most in need.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“It affects so many because we have seen time and again a complete, disgraceful disregard for the rules of war, which subjects civilians to the horrifying reality of bombs raining down on schools, hospitals and residential areas every day. The use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in urban areas is unconscionable, with the utmost serious consequences for civilians in the immediate and long term. We know this. Those fighting know this. Those who support the different parties know it too. And certainly those civilians who have suffered years of war know this. When explosive weapons are used in populated areas, 92 per cent of the people killed or injured are civilians - 92 per cent.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“Mr. O'Brien: The conflict in Syria continues to grind on, day by day, month by month. It is a conflict where there can be no victory on the battlefield, a conflict which will not end by the use of force. All that this relentless, senseless fighting provides are hollow advances or retreats, leaving behind utter devastation for the civilians left in its wake. I do not need to paint a picture for Council members. Members have seen them, along with the rest of the world. It is an outraged world, not an indifferent world, an indignant, furious world that cannot understand why the Security Council cannot fix the conflict. We must be clear: 13.5 million people are caught in a protection crisis that threatens their lives on a daily basis.”
2017-06-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7987 (2017) · source
“Let us all sincerely work to achieve the objectives of the Astana memorandum, so that the attacks and bureaucratic impositions can come to an end once and for all, and so that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners can sustainably reach the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped behind the current front lines.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“These are the common precepts, the bedrock, of our shared humanity, and the foundations of international humanitarian law, and they must represent an unflinching call to all people's fundamental decency. I call on all those with influence on the parties to reinforce that message and to take action. In conclusion, I would like to send my very best wishes to everyone observing the holy month of Ramadan. For Muslims in Syria, the region and across the world, it is a time for charity, contemplation and community and a time for peace and forgiveness. Let us all sincerely hope for an end to violence for this period and beyond.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“The bottom line is that we have been wasting too much of our time literally begging for facilitation letters; too much time arguing at roadblocks, pleading for trucks to be allowed to pass without a sniper taking a shot and for medical items not be removed. I do not come here today to seek favours. Calling for humanitarian actors to be allowed sustained access to all people in need throughout Syria is not a favour. Calling for an end to the removal of medical items from convoys is not a favour. Calling for all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure is not a favour. Seeking to prevent children from being buried under piles of rubble in their basements and schools is not a favour. Medicine for the sick and food for the starving are not favours.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“Any prevarication will result in further deaths and more suffering for civilians. Humanitarian relief cannot be viewed as an optional element to be occasionally provided. It must go where it is needed and when it is needed, not where it is allowed and when it is convenient. As I have said numerous times before, we remain committed and ready to deliver aid through all possible modalities for people in desperate need, whoever and wherever they are. However, the bottom line is that the real extent of progress cannot be measured by ad hoc deliveries to besieged communities once or twice, or every so often.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“We have seen that when the political will exists, the humanitarian imperative to deliver, based on assessed need, is possible. Facilitation letters are signed, items are not removed by inspectors and checkpoints allow safe passage. So I call on the Council to take all necessary steps to see that the will to ensure that humanitarian-aid deliveries are in their rightful position - which is outside any military or political calculations - and that they are restored, totally impartially. The delivery of aid is not a request, it is a demand. It is the law, and denying, refusing or frustrating it is and must be a red line that is not to be crossed. Denial and delays of assistance contravene Security Council resolutions and international humanitarian law. They must end. I urge the Council to act to ensure that its resolutions are implemented.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“Such attacks and restrictions are not only violations of international law and Security Council resolutions, they are deliberate and cowardly acts aimed at the sick, injured and infirm, at unborn children and pregnant women, and at the elderly and young children - those who are least able to protect themselves and most in need of care and assistance. The denial and delay of access, particularly for people in besieged areas, is a political calculation and a military tactic. This much is clear in Syria. We may speak about the practical elements of delay and denial - facilitation letters, inspections, checkpoints - but these are simply the manifestation of a mindset and approach by the Government of Syria that uses civilian suffering as a tactic of war.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“Moreover, the removal of life-saving medicines and medical supplies such as surgical kits, midwifery kits, and emergency kits has continued unabated, with nearly 100,000 medical supplies refused or removed from convoys since the beginning of 2017. In addition, and as everyone here knows - and as the Secretary-General highlighted in last week's open debate on the protection of civilians (see S/PV.7951) a attacks on hospitals and other health facilities have become commonplace in Syria. About 20 have occurred every month between January and April this year, making for an average of one attack every 36 hours and turning Syrian hospitals into death traps.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“That is out of 1 million people that we requested under the bi-monthly plan. As a result, we are essentially down to one cross-line convoy per week to reach those who are most in need, with only one besieged location f namely Duma in eastern Ghouta * reached by road during the April-May period. Compared to 2016, when we deployed 50 cross- line convoys through May, today we stand at 18 crossline convoys in 2017. In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent also delivered three cross-line convoys without the United Nations, which reached 136,500 people in hard-to-reach areas during that period.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“We need to see increased cross-border and cross-line access for humanitarian assistance into the area, including land access from Aleppo. I call on all those with influence over the parties involved to act now. Further delays or restrictions will only result in the continued suffering and death of civilians. For cross-line inter-agency convoys, administrative delays on the part of the Syrian Government in the approval of facilitation letters and convoy plans continue to hamper our efforts. Every month, thousands of facilitation letters are readily signed for convoys headed to Government-controlled areas. Yet, in cross- line areas, we have only been able to secure facilitation letters for seven convoys under the April-May access plan, which has allowed us to reach 266,750 people in need.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“We are also greatly concerned at cross-border restrictions and regulatory impediments imposed on the non-governmental organization community operating in northern Syria and are troubled by increasing reports indicating that internally displaced persons fleeing al-Raqqah Governorate are being kept for prolonged periods in screening camps and subjected to restrictions on their movement by the self-proclaimed democratic self- administration in north-eastern Syria. We need to see a step-change in access to the increasingly dire situation in north-eastern Syria. Rather than restrictions, we need an opening of space in order to respond. With approximately 100,000 people displaced due to fighting around Raqqah since April, access is needed now through every possible modality. We need to see restrictions eased for those operating in the area.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“That is not due to insecurity or poor infrastructure, but rather due to increasingly strict limitations by local authorities, non-State armed groups, as well as terrorist organizations, along with the actions of some neighbouring countries. I call on members of the Council to use their influence to see that those actors respect humanitarian principles and allow the unfettered delivery of aid.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“Travelling mostly to Idlib and northern rural Aleppo, those displaced now find themselves in an increasingly precarious environment. The capacity in those areas to support additional displacement is reaching its limit. In Idlib alone, there are over 900,000 displaced people, which places significant strain on local communities and resources. While the situation has quieted since the memorandum on de-escalation was signed, any increase in fighting - attacks by the Government of Syria, or fighting among groups inside of Idlib, for instance - would be catastrophic for those already stressed communities. In fact, in many corners of the country, the protection space is shrinking, humanitarian conditions are worsening and the level of despair is rising.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“The tactics are all too obvious - make life intolerable and make death likely; push people to choose between starvation and death or fleeing on green buses to locations that are just as unsafe. There needs to be accountability for such actions. Starve and surrender tactics represent a monstrous form of cruelty to impose upon a civilian population. We have seen it happen numerous times already - as I said, in Homs, Moadamiya, Al-Waer, and elsewhere. In fact, Darayya and Zabadani are already devoid of their civilian population. That may very well be the fate of hundreds of thousands more people still trapped in besieged locations across the country. Evacuations are, however, only the beginning of a new set of challenges for both those who are forced to leave their homes and host communities.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“We must not stand silent while violence flares up elsewhere in the country and parties continue to use starvation, fear tactics and the denial of food, water, medical supplies and other forms of aid as methods of war. As this Council knows, in recent months, restricted access and increased attacks resulted in a number of so-called 'evacuation' agreements in the communities of Al-Tal, Daraya, Al-Adamiya, Khan al-Shih, Wadi Barada, eastern Aleppo, Madaya, Zabadani, Foah and Kefraya. In that past few weeks, thousands more have been moved from the besieged Barza and Al-Kabun neighbourhoods of Damascus and the besieged Al-Waer neighbourhood in the city of Homs to Idlib and Jarabulus in rural Aleppo. The evacuations have followed years of intense airstrikes, shelling and sniping.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“The United Nations stand ready to sit with all parties involved to make it a workable agreement - one that will make a tangible difference to civilians on the ground, one that facilitates the delivery of life-saving assistance based on the needs assessments of the United Nations without constant interference, reduced beneficiary numbers, the removal of medical and other essential items out of spite, bureaucratic restrictions and procedural and physical roadblocks. We also must not lose sight of the fact that all over Syria, millions of people, in locations inside and outside the four de-escalation areas, continue to suffer because they lack the most basic elements needed to sustain their lives.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“It is their innocent voices and their suffering that need advocating. Astana produced a promising step. It produced a memorandum between the three guarantors - Iran, Russia and Turkey-on the creation of four de-escalation areas. It is a memorandum that stipulates, in no uncertain terms, that fighting must significantly decrease and unhindered humanitarian access must be enabled to those four areas. The areas essentially encompass all of the besieged locations except for those in Damascus and Deir ez-Zor. With that said, too many agreements that could have saved lives and reduced suffering have failed in the past. Therefore, let me be clear. The agreement simply must succeed. We owe it to the 2.6 million people that we estimate to be in the four de-escalation areas.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“Morover, even if the schools were intact, many would be unable to open, with almost a quarter of the country's teaching personnel no longer at their posts. Outside of Syria, hundreds of thousands of Syrian children are left to face an uncertain and traumatic future on their own. They have become stateless, abandoned by the world but for the generosity of neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey, as well as Egypt. How are those children meant to function as adults? What future do those children have, given that they will often grow up to be illiterate, orphaned, starved, traumatized and maimed? What future does a country have when its next generation is a lost generation? For those suffering children, what is at stake is not politics; it is their lives and their futures.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source
“to the escalating counter-ISIL airstrikes, particularly in the north-eastern governorates of Raqqah and Deir ez-Zor. Millions more are in the line of fire, facing crushing poverty and alarming physical danger. Tens of thousands of children have been killed, and for those who have survived until today, the outlook remains bleak. Children have been forcibly detained, tortured, subjected to sexual violence, forcibly recruited and in some cases executed. Close to 7 million children in Syria live in poverty. Nearly 1.75 million children remain out of school and another 1.35 million are at risk of dropping out. Approximately 7,400 schools - one in three across the country - have been damaged, destroyed or otherwise made inaccessible.”
2017-05-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7955 (2017) · source