YouSaid · the spoken record

Pal

lines on the record: 74
first: 1998-04-24
most recent: 2001-08-02
sittings or episodes: 7
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

“The crucial difference is this: Article 24 also made it clear that the Security Council acts on behalf of the membership of the United Nations, and this wider membership agreed that peacekeeping should be set up as a practical instrument. On what humanitarian action is, and whether the Council should have a role in it, there is no such agreement; the debate in the General Assembly last year made that clear. It also became clear from that debate, and from what we have heard today in the Council, that those who advocate humanitarian action believe it should be used in three broad scenarios: against massive violations of international humanitarian law, to stop serious and widespread abuses of human rights and to provide relief for acute human suffering. Does the Council have a role here?”
2000-03-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4109Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Others, essentially self-serving, have provided some humanitarian benefits, and therefore have been passed off as humanitarian action. Many of those could indeed be described as issues having humanitarian aspects. The Security Council is a creature of the United Nations Charter. The Charter, which in Article 24 conferred on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, set out in some detail in Chapters VI, VII, VIII and XII what it could do to discharge its mandate. Nowhere does it speak of humanitarian action or aspects. It would of course be immediately argued that neither is peacekeeping mentioned in the Charter, though that is now the bread and many-flavoured butter of the Council's work.”
2000-03-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4109Resumption1 (2000) · source
“The fact that the 15 members of the Council have so clearly been unable to agree even on wording shows how controversial the underlying concept is. Humanitarian action seems to have become, in the Council, the love that dare not speak its name. Though fudged, the theme still poses a question that has not yet been answered. In almost any issue that has to do with human beings there must be a humanitarian aspect, but does that permit the Council to take humanitarian action? No one has defined what humanitarian action means, and the jury is out on whether actions described by the actors as humanitarian have been helpful. Some actions, driven only by humanitarian concerns, have had disastrous consequences - the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
2000-03-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4109Resumption1 (2000) · source
“It is a particular pleasure to see you, Sir, presiding over the Council. It is of course a pity that I cannot speak to you in the mother tongue that we share. As this is the first time my delegation has spoken in the Council this year, permit me to congratulate your delegation, as well as those of Jamaica, Mali, Tunisia, and Ukraine, on being elected to the Security Council. Until this morning, we thought that we were being invited to speak on "The maintenance of peace and security: humanitarian action and the Security Council". This was itself the third recension of the theme. Today, we see that there has been a further change, and the Council is in fact discussing "Maintaining peace and security: Humanitarian aspects of issues before the Security Council".”
2000-03-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4109Resumption1 (2000) · source
“In our view, action by the United Nations must continue to be in the framework of the understandings worked out between the Government of Indonesia and the United Nations, and any peacekeeping force must be accepted by the Indonesian authorities and approved by the Security Council.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Clearly, the immediate need is to restore law and order. In circumstances which are, equally clearly, very difficult, the Indonesian authorities have said that they will do everything possible to discharge their responsibility to maintain security in East Timor. They have imposed martial law, and they are trying to move with a sense of urgency to do what needs to be done to prevent further violence. This must be recognized. In these trying times they need the encouragement and support of the international community. We hope and trust that the Indonesian authorities will quickly be able to bring the situation under control and create conditions under which the security and the well-being of all sections of the population in East Timor will be assured.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043Resumption1 (1999) · source
“As a neighbour of Indonesia, and a country which has very close ties with it, we thank you Mr. President, for this opportunity to speak to the Council today on the situation in East Timor, which is both tragic and complex. I will not presume to preach to the Government of Indonesia about civilized or responsible behaviour. Indonesia is an ancient civilization; no one would be more troubled or more shamed by what is happening in East Timor than the Indonesians themselves or wish more urgently to put an end to it. We are deeply concerned that, following the popular consultations in East Timor - which, we must not forget, were made possible by Indonesia's cooperation - there has been such appalling Violence there over the last few days. We deplore the killings and the intimidation that have taken place.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The Secretary-General's report gives the international community the chance not to preach, but to learn from Africa, to help itself by helping Africa. We hope we will all seize this opportunity.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The Secretary-General is to be congratulated for the candour with which he has responded to the Council's interest in Africa. As a country with very old historical ties to Africa, cemented after the modern nations of Africa and we both became independent, we have a very keen interest in what happens there. When the Council has responded to conflict situations in Africa by sending peacekeeping operations, India has participated in every one. We share common problems, and we can benefit from each other's experience. We have allocated the bulk of our technical assistance programme to help build up capacities in Africa in areas of African interest. Equally, we believe we have much to learn from Africans as they address challenges which we face in other continents.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“In the 38 African countries monitored for the report, the Secretary-General noted that in 1991, only 6 had a gross domestic product growth of 3 per cent or more, and this benefited only 8 per cent of the population. In 1997, the number of such countries had grown to 14, an impressive improvement, and what was most remarkable was that growth in 1997 benefited 33 per cent of the population. In other words, growth in Africa has increasingly become growth with social equity. This is, therefore, not an alarming picture; it is an encouraging one. Certainly, in light of the Secretary- General's analysis, it could not be argued either that Africa was in a systemic crisis, or that the policies of African Governments needed drastic change or improvement. But when all is said and done, Africa's needs are special and need special attention.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“Regional and subregional groupings have emerged in Africa and are stimulating cooperation and economic growth; the international community should help strengthen them. The Secretary General's report on "The World Economy at the Beginning of 1998" forecast that African growth, which had slowed to 3 per cent in 1997, would rebound to 4 per cent this year. This in itself is encouraging, particularly because the Secretary-General's analysis showed that growth had slowed in 1996 only because either drought or floods had affected agriculture. African Governments had continued to follow sound economic policies, according to the Secretary- General. The only exceptions were in six countries affected by political instability or civil strife.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The whole world can learn a lesson about political wisdom and magnanimity from South Africa, which has shown us how the challenge of political reconciliation can be addressed, even in apparently impossibly difficult circumstances. Zimbabwe has shown the world how to balance the needs of wildlife and the environment with those of the men and women who make a living from the forests. In the early years of the United Nations Development Programme- sponsored Human Development Report, before political prudence got the better of its authors, Botswana consistently ranked higher in the index than several developed countries. Mauritius surpassed the targets of the Lagos Plan of Action some years ago. These are achievements to be proud of, and to build upon. And indeed, Africa is doing 50.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The challenge before us is to ensure that there is sustained attention, both in providing humanitarian assistance to those affected and in addressing the long-term causes that create the problems. We note the Secretary-General's intention to take a hard look at the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa; we trust that it will be strengthened, particularly in areas like health, education, technology transfer, trade and investment and food security which would be of immediate and direct benefit to Africans. Above all, we must not forget or ignore the many remarkable achievements Africa has made when progress has depended on African decisions and actions, and we must remember that failures have quite often been for reasons over which they had no control.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“In The State of the World's Refugees J 997, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees noted that "by donating large sums of money to highly publicized relief operations, Governments have to some extent been able to satisfy the demands of public opinion and the international media". In other words, aid has been channelled to humanitarian assistance to raise the comfort level of donor States, not necessarily to address the real needs of recipients. Secondly, and even more tellingly, inter-agency consolidated appeals for humanitarian assistance are rarely funded in full for Africa, whereas they are oversubscribed for situations in some other regions. International interest, therefore, is focused on humanitarian assistance only when a spectacular crisis in Africa, of interest to the world's media, forces international action.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“If this meeting means that the Council will make a new beginning in Africa, it will have served some purpose. The Secretary-General has made extremely important suggestions in the section on humanitarian assistance. We have two points to make on this. First, humanitarian assistance is taking an increasing share of official development assistance, at a time when aid levels are falling just as sharply. Its share of overall aid rose from 1.5 per cent in 1991 to 8.4 per cent in 1994. What this means is that the international community has tried to staunch crises while less and less money is being devoted to addressing the underlying causes, those long-term problems of development that international assistance could best address.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“As President Vaclav Havel once wrote in a devastating essay on "Evasive Thinking", which the Council could take to heart before it pronounces itself on Africa, "Between a detailed prediction of the future and a broad interpretation of the past, there is somehow no room for what is most important of all - a down-to- earth analysis of the present." This chamber should be haunted by the ghosts of the millions of Africans who would be alive today if they had not been drawn into proxy wars over the last 30 years, and if in Africa in the 19905 the Council had not been held back from action because of the disinterest of the powerful when action could have saved countless lives. Africans themselves, as in Sierra Leone, have tried to take up the burden which the Council was expected to shoulder.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“Governments going through this period of transformation must have the money to pay for social support, without which adjustment policies will fail. Such failure carries with it the even greater danger that the democratic experiment will also founder, creating precisely those tensions that find release in violence. That countries in transition need massive financial support to pre-empt violence and entrench democracy has been recognized in East Europe. It is a pity that Africa, which has exactly the same problems, as the Secretary-General's analysis makes clear, does not receive anywhere near the same support.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“It is against this background that we should consider whether general prescriptions, however well-meaning, address the real needs of Africa. Current political orthodoxy recommends a weakening of the State in Africa and elsewhere, through privatization, a reduction of the role of government and greater reliance on market forces. It is not explained how a weak State can be expected simultaneously to tackle the strong interest groups that are believed to have exploited national economies and political systems or, furthermore, how it is to impose the harsh adjustment policies that are still needed to integrate nations into the global economy. Adjustment and liberalization inevitably impose social tensions, carrying with them the risk that large sections will be pauperized, even if temporarily. This interim period needs to be bridged.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“The UNICEF study on Africa's recovery in the 19905 noted that while Africa's economies benefited little from the policies followed in the 19605 and 19705, the adjustment policies forced on Africa in the 19805 did not contribute to the long-term objectives of development adopted by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in the Lagos Plan of Action of April 1980. Exactly 18 years after that Plan was adopted, we need to ask ourselves why its objectives by and large still remain unfulfilled. It is virtually impossible now to determine whether the decline or stagnation in parts of Africa were caused by domestic policies, external shocks or the adjustment policies imposed upon them, but there is a fair amount of consensus that responsibility must be equally shared between the three.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“These, however, are not problems which the Security Council can address; they are completely outside its mandate, and we are glad that the Secretary-General's report is also being submitted to the General Assembly and to the other relevant bodies of the United Nations system, including the Bretton Woods institutions. We hope they will look at them carefully. Africa is not immutably set on a road to conflict and violence. The Secretary-General's report notes that in 1996, 14 of the 53 countries of Africa were in conflict. But this figure came down in 1997 and has continued to fall in 1998. This is surely encouraging. But Africa, like many other developing regions, has been on what Ben Okri called the famished road.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“Europe's recovery was aided by Europe's control over a system of foreign trade that helped its nations on an export-led path of recovery. Africa has none of these advantages, but neither are Africa's problems unique. They are not problems because they are African; they are problems which have bedeviled countries in similar situations, in Europe and elsewhere, many times before. The solutions to Africa's problems are the solutions that were found for Europe after 1945: aid, development, trade and cooperation. The Secretary- General has recognized this, since so much of his report examines the questions of development, which are at the heart of the problems faced by all developing countries, whether they are in Africa or elsewhere.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“This was not Africa; it was Europe in the late nineteenth century. But it was never assumed that there lurked in Europe a continental malaise, peculiar to it, for which continental remedies were available. Apart from anything else, international opinion then meant European opinion, and Europe was driven by the ambitions of the great colonial Powers rather than by the problems of the new nations in its midst. This, perhaps, led to the holocausts of the world wars. But Europe has now recovered to levels of prosperity unmatched by any other continent in history, though this took it the better part of a century. It was made possible after 1945 by extremely generous aid, through the Marshall Plan. The World Bank, we sometimes forget, was set up for the reconstruction and development of Europe.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“But are these assumptions correct? One of the great minds of this century, Octavio Paz, who died earlier this week, wrote some lines about a country which, modified, apply equally well to Africa: in general, the world has not looked for Africa in Africa; it has looked for its obsessions, enthusiasms, phobias, hopes, interests - and these are what it has found. In some ways, nothing has changed in a hundred years. In 1898, too, the world could have wrung its hands over a continent where nation-States had been formed in recent years, often cutting across ethnic and linguistic lines, leading to endemic discontent. Democracy had not quite taken root. Development was patchy and its fruits available only to a minority. Conflict was rampant, and fuelled by arms merchants answerable to no one.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source
“It is appropriate that this meeting is taking place under your presidency, Sir, given Japan's interest in African affairs and your personal commitment to this cause. We read the Secretary-General's superb report with very great interest. It was not an easy task that the Security Council set the Secretary-General last September, and perhaps the questions the Council posed, and the fact that it was the Council that posed them, presupposed the answers. The Council acts only when there is a grave threat to international peace and security, and if it asks the Secretary-General to produce a report on the causes of conflict in Africa, it seems to follow that Africa must be peculiarly prone to conflict, that there are special reasons why Africa suffers from violence and that conflict is its defining characteristic.”
1998-04-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3875Resumption1 (1998) · source