YouSaid · the spoken record

Power

lines on the record: 1,841
first: 2013-08-06
most recent: 2019-07-09
sittings or episodes: 165
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

“I think that everyone on the Council is totally united on that. We oppose the stigma that is placed on whole units serving honourably when single individuals are alleged to have committed crimes of the magnitude we are talking about. But what is causing collective punishment, collective guilt and stigmas - not just for a unit, but for the United Nations as a whole and for its missions - is the failure to establish individual responsibility. The collective gets the blame when the individual is not held accountable, and Egypt's proposed amendment would make it less likely that we would see individual responsibility.”
2016-03-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7643 (2016) · source
“For that reason, we will vote against the proposed Egyptian amendment. As a Council, we often demand that perpetrators be held accountable, and no one has said before that the Council is acting in contravention of the presumption of innocence. That is not what we are doing. In that regard, again, Member States will have the authority within their own systems to determine how to pursue an investigation, whether a guilty finding is appropriate and what will be the means of accountability that they put in place. But it cannot be the case that simply sending a note to the Secretary- General after allegations of such gravity are brought is enough to dispense with a State's obligations under the draft resolution. My last point is that we in the United States are vehemently opposed to collective punishment.”
2016-03-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7643 (2016) · source
“If a Member State investigated and determined that an individual committed an act of sexual abuse and exploitation but does not hold the perpetrator accountable, it would actually be in compliance with the draft resolution as Egypt would have it amended. Withthe proposedEgyptian amendment, there would be no cost either for non-response or for uninvestigated, unaccountable criminal behaviour. That undermines the purpose of today's draft resolution, which is to get countries to respond to credible allegations against their personnel and to change a system that is not working. It is to move away from talking about zero tolerance to actually having a provision that puts in place consequences that incentivize the kinds of actions that every member of the Security Council, including Egypt, has said it supports.”
2016-03-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7643 (2016) · source
“Please hear me out on this issue: by merely inserting a very simple word - one of the most often-used words in the English language, "and" - the amendment proposed by Egypt stipulates that all three conditions must be met prior to triggering that provision. For example, under the Egyptian provision, if a country merely sends a letter to the Secretary-General, after receiving an allegation or allegations, that it has chosen not to investigate, giving no reason, but informing the Secretary-General according to that provision, and if it does nothing else, it would be in compliance with the draft resolution as amended by Egypt. That would be enough.”
2016-03-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7643 (2016) · source
“Our draft resolution outlines broad, objective criteria for troop- and police-contributing countries to satisfy, as appropriate, in the event that their personnel are the subject of an allegation or allegations. Those criteria relate to countries not taking any of the following steps, namely, not investigating an allegation or allegations, not holding accountable somebody who has been found to be a perpetrator, or not informing the Secretary- General of the actions that the State has undertaken. In the draft resolution, which will come up for a vote shortly, the failure to do any one of those things should trigger the replacement provision set out in paragraph 2 of the draft resolution owing to non-response.”
2016-03-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7643 (2016) · source
“The United States will vote against the proposed amendment put forward by Egypt for a simple, stark reason, that is, the amendment would undermine the purpose of the draft resolution (8/2016/235). Our draft resolution does not dictate how any Member State should go about investigating allegations or punishing those perpetrators found within their own systems to be guilty. But it does clearly state - finally - that there would be real consequences if the concerned troop- or police-contributing country failed to credibly respond to the allegations against its personnel. Under the draft resolution, a non-response is simply not an option.”
2016-03-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7643 (2016) · source
“We cannot forget who the victims are or how we would act if we actually knew those victims - if they were not numbers or abstractions but people we knew, people we were related to, people we cared about.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“These people are saving thousands of lives - hundreds of thousands, probably - every day, if we think about what the situations would be like without them. We must also be clear as to who the victims are as we talk about that is happening in the field. They are not the United Nations troops and police, most of whom, as everyone has said, with such distinction and bravery. They are the men, women and, far too often, the children who are the victims of rape, sexual abuse and other violations of human rights, committed by the very people who were sent to protect them. Those are the victims. We cannot forget that fact as we debate about what to do.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“It is an awesome sacrifice that the troops, police and civilians who serve in these missions are making, and the risks are off the charts. The United States is not a big troop- or police-contributor to United Nations peacekeeping, and that gives us a lot of humility when we discuss this subject in the Council. When I look around this table I have even more respect, whether I am looking at Egypt or China or Senegal or Uruguay, which send thousands of peacekeepers into these environments. We salute them. That is why during his time as President Mr. Obama has devoted more time and energy than any other American President to trying to support peacekeeping. It is so important, and so thankless. We should do more to honour that service, and I think that is a great point of convergence around this table.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Knowing what we know, and having tried to unpack a little of what happens in those investigations, I would be very careful about equating closed cases with just and thorough investigations. Finally, my last point reinforces something that the Secretary-General, and I believe everyone in the Chamber, has said, which is that the peacekeepers, as the President also said, are serving in some of the worst circumstances imaginable. When they go back to their home countries, those men and women will find that their families will barely know where they have been, in places that none of their families or neighbours will ever have visited, and that they will have no parades, no celebration of the service that they have given overseas.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“How is it possible that we can argue that when our own peacekeepers, the people we have sent into the field, rape women and children, the Security Council does not have responsibility? How can we say that? This is our problem, our responsibility. Fifthly, the Secretary-General described cases closed. I would like to thank him once again for his leadership and the personal responsibility he has taken in insisting that we move beyond getting reports from the field that say that cases are closed, to a world of transparent and thorough investigations. We do not know why those cases were closed. Was it because people waited a year to go back and actually try to talk to a victim? Was it because the evidence had disappeared? Was it because the peacekeepers who were alleged to have committed the crimes were deployed out?”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Fourthly, and this is related, several countries have again implied that the Security Council should stand down. I have to repeat, as a matter of logic - and maybe I am just not smart enough to follow all the jurisdictional hijinks that go on here at the United Nations - that in areas where peacekeepers are deployed, we, the Security Council, are responsible and try to take action when armies rape women and kids. We, the Security Council, see ourselves as responsible when non-State actors and militias rape women and kids, or men, for that matter. Again, we see ourselves as responsible when terrorists, who pose a grave threat to international peace and security, rape women and kids.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Somewhere, these steps have to be taken and the Security Council has waited a long time for those steps to be taken and for the kind of consensus we need in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations to give the Secretary-General the support he needs and to be more aggressive, commensurate with the gravity of this set of crimes. Again, if it were happening to our kids, we would not be having jurisdictional fights like this. We would not even think that it does not belong here, and yet - because it is somebody else's kids - we want to push this off somewhere else, where we know there will be a stalemate and gridlock and we will find ourselves in the same world in which we have been. And that is a world that is not working for these victims.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“The facts are the facts; the allegations are the allegations; the record of inaction in the capitals is by and large a record that shames us all, including those of us who have very strong bilateral relationships with a lot of the countries concerned. We have not been as aggressive as we needed to be. What is hard about hearing the jurisdictional argument again and again about how this issue belongs somewhere else is that in, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, Egypt has consistently refused to support language welcoming or taking note of the Secretary-General's report.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“We cannot just say the same things we have been saying for a decade and expect the outcomes to be different - that there is going to be less sexual abuse or more accountability in capitals. Thirdly, the representative of Egypt said that the General Assembly is the competent body to deal with what my friend and colleague rightly denounced as these horrific crimes. The United States is part ofthe General Assembly. We would welcome constructive action by the General Assembly, but the General Assembly has had 11 years since our last open security meeting on this topic (see S/PV.5191) to take more aggressive and constructive steps that might have made more of a dent in this problem. What we in the General Assembly have done has not yet worked.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Allegations keep being brought forward, with a lot of documentation - photographs ofbabies whose DNA has been tested, and so on. This is happening; this is a phenomenon. Moreover, the individual perpetrators of these crimes are not being punished back in their home countries. I particularly appreciated the Secretary- General's extemporaneous comments in that regard. Absolutely, the United Nations and the individuals who serve it have to do much more, but we do not have court martial processes or courtrooms in this building, so the Member States have to support the Secretary-General. He can do everything he sets out to do in the report, which he and those who work for the United Nations must do, but he needs us. What he does is totally necessary and not at all sufficient. We have got to make changes.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Secondly, like a number of Council members that have made this point, we totally agree that there cannot be collective guilt or national stigmatization. I think that is extremely important, and all of us have tried to make that point in our statements. But that is why individual responsibility and accountability, as well as individual punishment if warranted, are so important. And it is not happening, by and large. I shall come back to the Secretary-General's statistics in a second, but the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again 4 or not do the same thing over and over again - and expect a different result. The system that has been in place has not had the desired effect, in two respects.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“We had more than 69 allegations in 2015; we have already had 26 people come forward to report cases in 2016. But we have no idea how pervasive this problem is. We have no idea. I think that everyone believes that one case is one too many, but I think we need to be very careful given the details outlined the Secretary-General's report (A/70/729). We need at least to all mobilize around the extent of the problem that has managed to be documented. I suspect that if there were better reporting in more places, unfortunately we would likely see more allegations being brought forward. But that is a supposition. Let us at least have a shared understanding of the facts that have been presented by the Secretary-General.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“I know I had the floor at length earlier, so I will try to be as brief as possible. Like the Secretary-General, because of the gravity of what we are discussing here and the insufficiency of what we have mustered up to this point as an international community, I think it is worth coming back to some of the points of convergence around the table, as well as the few points of divergence, which I do not think we should paper over. First, in response to something my Egyptian colleagues mentioned with respect to the number of cases, Ijust want to seek clarification because, at least as interpreted, there was an initial reference to several dozen cases, but later to only a handful of cases. I want to state for the record that it is more than several dozen cases, and certainly far more than a handful.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“The United Nations has presented a Security Council draft resolution to take our responsibility to address this grave issue as an immediate step. We urge all Council members to support it.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“I had to put my clothes on, and I went home." In 2005, the author of the Secretary-General's first report (see A/59/710) on this problem, Prince Zeid, who of course is now the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned the Council here in the Chamber that sexual exploitation and abuse "would carry with it the most serious consequences for the future of peacekeeping if we were to prove ourselves incapable of solving [the] problem." (S/PV5191, p. 4) The same holds true to this day, and the profound consequences of failing to solve this problem - for peacekeeping missions, for the United Nations and for so many individuals like that 14-year-old girl in Bambari - continue to add up. We knew how to fix the problem then, and we know how to fix the problem now. We cannot wait any longer.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“She recently told a human rights organization that, in December 2015, she was walking along a path near a peacekeeper base when she was accosted by an armed soldier whose uniform she recognized as one worn by peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She said, "He slapped me in the face and made me continue to walk on the path. Then he ripped off my clothes and used them to tie my hands behind my back. He threw me on the ground, placed his gun to the side and got on top of me to rape me. When he was done, he just left.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“We have to do better by these victims. That means not only securing justice, but also ensuring that they receive the care they need and deserve in the aftermath of such crimes, both in the short term and in the long term. The Secretary-General has proposed a trust fund to support special services for victims that will withold payments from repatriated individuals and direct the funds to victims. We should move swiftly together to create that fund. In conclusion, let me share the story of one of those alleged victims, a 14-year-old girl who lives in Bambari, in the Central African Republic.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“In late February, the entire contingent from the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo was repatriated- the first time the United Nations had ever repatriated an entire contingent for sexual exploitation and abuse. It was the right thing to do. It sends a clear message to all countries that there will be consequences for failing to address this serious problem. But it should never have taken so long. The Security Council was told the contingent would be repatriated, but the repatriation was delayed for operational reasons. That is unacceptable. The experience should force us all to ask: What if those soldiers had been sent home sooner? How many kids could have been spared suffering unspeakable violations that no child should ever have to endure, and that they will have to carry with them for the rest of their lives?”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“The majority of the alleged victims of the abuses were kids. As the allegations continued to add up, members of the Council, including the United States, pushed for the repatriation of the unit. In the meantime, more and more victims continued to come forward. In January of this year there were three more credible allegations of sexual violence and abuse against the same unit, followed by five more in February. Think about that: eight credible allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse reported against a single group ofpeacekeepers injust two months - in seven of those instances the alleged victims were children. How could we let that happen? All of us. How could we let that happen?”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“The blame rests on all of us, including the countries that fail to adequately train peacekeepers to prevent and root out these problems, the Member States that fail to press troop- and police-contributing countries to hold perpetrators accountable, and the United Nations institutions that fail to report on the magnitude of the problem or repatriate units when countries prove unable or unwilling to investigate credible allegations of abuse. This is an all-systems failure. Let me just give just one example. According to the United Nations, there were seven separate allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a single mission, MINUSCA. One allegation was reported in January, one in February, four in August and one more in September.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Yet the fact that so many - the vast majority - serve so honourably is all the more reason why troop- and police-contributing countries should want to bring these cases to light, investigate them, and hold accountable those who have committed abuses. Those serving honourably are the ones who have the greatest incentive to prevent the sickening acts of a few from tarnishing the noble service of so many. When peacekeepers commit sexual exploitation and abuse with impunity, the fault lies not only with the peacekeepers who commit those deplorable acts, the commanders who look the other way or the countries that fail to conduct proper investigations.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“The vast majority ofthe 91,000 troops and 13,000 police officers in United Nations peacekeeping missions serve honourably and with courage, putting their lives on the line every day to protect people in countries very far from their own. They neither commit sexual abuse nor do they turn a blind eye to it. And most troop- contributing countries are serious about holding to account soldiers and police officers from their forces who would perpetrate such abuses, recognizing that impunity for sexual exploitation and abuse undermines the effectiveness of their troop contingents as a whole, whether they are serving in a United Nations mission or any other mission.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“For example, while we know that the majority of investigations into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse from 2015 are pending, we do not know when those investigations were opened. This data is crucial for gauging whether countries are acting in a timely manner. Some countries have adamantly opposed this push for greater transparency, in particular the practice of identifying the nationality of peacekeepers credibly alleged to have committed such abuses. They claim that it unfairly singles out troop- and police-contributing countries that are putting their personnel at risk in some of the most difficult environments around the world. We commend the service of those troop- and police-contributing countries. Let me be very clear.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“That is why it is so important that the Secretary- General's report brings to light, for the first time, the nationality of the personnel who face credible allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, and it is why we commend the United Nations for starting to post on its website new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, including the date on which the report was received, information about the nationality of the accused, and whether the alleged victims are minors. It is through such reporting that we know that, in the first three months of this year, 26 additional allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse have been reported. That is a horrifying number. We can and must do more to shine a bright light on this enduring problem. A place to start would be providing additional information on the status of investigations.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“There is not sufficient accountability to our own policy. Louis Brandeis, one of the most eloquent justices who ever served on the United States Supreme Court, once said that "[s]unlight is said to be the best of disinfectants". Yet allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers are too often allowed to remain in the darkness, where the rot they cause continues to spread, to the detriment of the entire enterprise of peacekeeping.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“We need to know whether those allegations are being adequately investigated and, where appropriate, punished. And victims and their communities need to know thatjustice is being served. Let us imagine if it was a member of our own family. Yet the opaqueness of the existing system has made it virtually impossible for any of us to know these things. All to often, we do not know whether investigations have been opened, and even when we know that investigations are ongoing we do not know whether they are being carried out promptly, thoroughly or impartially. Without basic facts, it is impossible to enforce a zero-tolerance policy. It is no coincidence that we have had a zero-tolerance policy for a long time, and yet sexual exploitation and abuse allegations have risen. That is not a coincidence.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“When Governments attack civilians, it is our job; when armed groups and non-State actors attack civilians, it is our job; when terrorists attack civilians, it is our job. So why in the world, when the United Nations own peacekeepers are the ones attacking civilians - when peacekeepers commit the sickening of crime of raping children - is it someone else's job? Can anyone explain that? Why is that the exception? The Security Council cannot have responsibility for protecting civilians against all threats from all forces except those whom we directly oversee. As we all know, a crucial part of accountability is transparency. The United Nations, its Member States and the Security Council need to know when soldiers and police officers are accused of abusing the privilege of wearing the blue helmet.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“I have listened really hard to those who think that the Council has no role to play in overseeing discussions about what we do next to curb sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, but I have to say that I honestly do not understand the argument. I do not. It is the Council that sends peacekeepers into conflict areas because we believe that their presence is essential to promoting international peace and security. We deem it our responsibility as a Council to oversee every part of their missions - how many soldiers and police officers to send, what their mandate is, when they can use force - and we give them clear mandates to protect civilians. So let me pose my question to the skeptics this way.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Some have argued that this discussion has no place in the Security Council, implying that they do not think that sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers have an impact on international peace and security. They are mistaken. In addition to being a heinous abuse, sexual exploitation and abuse erode the discipline of military and police units and undermine the confidence of local communities in peacekeepers, both of which are critical to fulfilling Security Council mandates. More broadly, when those entrusted with being protectors become perpetrators, it undermines the credibility of peacekeeping missions everywhere, as well as the legitimacy of the United Nations writ large. And along with that, it undermines our ability to address effectively the serious threats of our time.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“We have long known that one of the most effective ways to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse is to send a clear message that perpetrators will be held accountable, so it is deeply alarming that, according to the Secretary-General's report, out of 69 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in 2015, in only 17 instances were investigations completed by January 31 2016 - 17 out of 69 - and in only one of those cases did a country report to the United Nations that it had punished a perpetrator in response to a substantiated allegation. The perpetrator in that case was found to have engaged in a sexually exploitative relationship. As punishment, he was suspended for nine whole days.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“That represents a 20 per cent increase in reported violations from the previous year. More than half of the allegations concerning peacekeeping operations involve the rape or sexual abuse of children. And those are just the cases we know about. As Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central African Republic Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, who took over as Head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) last August, has said, the cases reported are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Like today's, that meeting was convened following the release of a report commissioned by the Secretary-General at that time, Kofi Annan, in order to lay out a strategy for eliminating the scourge of such abuses in peacekeeping operations. The report (see A/59/710), as many of us here know, followed a series of disturbing allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse in 2004, not unlike those that have surfaced since last year. Yet as we all know, despite the commitment made by the Council over a decade ago to address this problem, the scourge of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers persists. According to the report released by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week, 69 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse were levied against uniformed and civilian personnel serving in peacekeeping missions last year.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“recognizes the shared responsibility of the Secretary-General and all Member States to take every measure within their purview to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse by all categories of personnel in United Nations peacekeeping missions to enforce United Nations standards of conduct in that regard. The Security Council reiterates the importance of ensuring that sexual exploitation and abuse are properly investigated and appropriately punished." (S/PV5191, p. 7) Those words were spoken in this Chamber nearly 11 years ago, in May 2005, by the Security Council President at the time. She was speaking on behalf of the Council at its first-ever meeting on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by United Nations peacekeepers.”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing today, for the important report upon which it is based (A/70/729), and for his determined leadership in tackling what he has rightly called a cancer in our system. We know that he has faced considerable push-back against his efforts to bring to light these horrific abuses and to ensure that those responsible are held accountable, and we thank him for holding firm. Let me begin by reading out a quote, "The Security Council is deeply concerned with the allegations of sexual misconduct by United Nations peacekeeping personnel... The Security Council...”
2016-03-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7642 (2016) · source
“Even as we find new ways to impede North Korea's efforts to advance its nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programmes, as our collective security and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's track record demand that we do, we must not lose sight of the ultimate goal of bringing North Korea back to the table for serious and credible diplomatic negotiations on denuclearization. Achieving that goal will require sustained unity on the part of the Council and the unwavering commitment of all Member States to implementing in full the comprehensive, robust and unprecedented sanctions that we have put in place today.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“We are under no illusions that, following the adoption of resolution 2270 (2016), the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will abruptly abandon its prohibited weapons programme due to a sudden realization that the international community is united in its determination to stop North Korea's dangerous pursuit of nuclear weapons. Were that to be the case, North Korea would have given up its nuclear- weapons and ballistic-missile programmes long ago. On the contrary, the North Korean Government has shown that it is determined to evade every obstacle put in the way of its singular pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, no matter the consequences for its people. Yet, at the same time, we have seen how the strategy of increasing multilateral pressure can be effective, and that is what we are doing here.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“Beyond the Council, it is worth noting the unanimity among and leadership of the countries of the region - China, Japan and the Republic of Korea - which understand so clearly the threat to our shared security posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's actions. The fact that the resolution has been sponsored by 50 Member States, drawn from every region of the world, demonstrates both the recognition of the global threat posed by North Korea and the international community's commitment to working together to address that threat. We are clear-eyed about the nature of this regime.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“North Korea continues to show, as we have repeatedly said in the Council, that Governments that flagrantly violate the human rights of their own people almost always show similar disdain for the international norms that help ensure our shared security. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's abysmal human rights record is another reason why we have taken steps to ensure that the sanctions laid out in the resolution specifically target the Government, which carries out these grave abuses with impunity. It is deeply important that today's resolution and all the tough measures it includes have been adopted with the support of all 15 members of the Security Council. In particular, the United States would like to recognize the leadership of China, which has worked closely with us in negotiating this extremely rigorous resolution.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“These violations include detaining between 80,000 and 120,000 people in prison camps where, according to the commission's report, they have for generations been "gradually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labour, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights" (ibid., para. 60). The Government has carried out enforced disappearances for decades with no accountability, including of citizens from neighbouring countries, whose families continue to suffer from not knowing the fate of their loved ones. The scale and gravity of such abuses are what led us to push, along with our partners, to make the human rights situation in North Korea a permanent item on the Security Council's agenda, as it now is.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“As these measures make abundantly clear, the purpose of the resolution is not to inflict greater hardship on the people of North Korea, who endure immeasurable suffering under one of the most repressive Governments the modern world has ever seen. The United States has repeatedly urged the Council to address the human rights Violations committed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which the United Nations commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in its comprehensive 2014 report, concluded were widespread and systematic and had been committed "pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State" (A/HRC/25/63, para. 75).”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“Under the resolution adopted today, States around the world will have to shut down the financial institutions of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in their territory. North Korean scientists have used specialized trainings at academic institutions and international research centres to obtain technical expertise that they then put to use to advance the nuclear-weapons and ballistic-missile programmes of the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The resolution adopted today prohibits the specialized training of any Democratic People's Republic of Korea national in fields that could be used to advance these programmes, including nuclear- and space-related technical exchanges.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“For years, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea deployed arms dealers, smugglers, financiers and other enablers of its illicit weapons programmes, and claimed that they were diplomats and Government representatives around the world. Abusing diplomatic protections, these individuals cut illicit deals, set up shell companies and procured banned items to aid North Korea's weapons programme. The resolution adopted today obligates countries to expel any North Korean who carries out such acts, including diplomats of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Despite previous financial sanctions that constrain North Korea's access to the international financial system, North Korean banks were still able to do business on foreign territory, allowing the Government to fund its illicit programmes.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“The Democratic People's Republic of Korea used similar tactics to hide the illegal items it was exporting, such as weapons, drugs and counterfeit goods, which it used to generate a significant amount of additional income. That is why, under resolution 2270 (2016), cargo going into and coming out ofNorth Korea will be treated as suspicious, and countries will be required to inspect it whether it goes by air, land or sea. This is hugely significant. North Korea used to be able to import aviation fuel, which included rocket fuel used to launch proscribed ballistic missiles. It can no longer do so. The resolution adopted today bans all imports of aviation fuel, including rocket fuel.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source
“That is why the resolution we have adopted today limits and, in some instances, bans outright North Korea's exports of specific natural resources, making it tougher for the Government to get the money it needs to keep funding its illicit weapons programmes. Until today, in many countries around the world inspectors required information providing reasonable grounds to inspect cargo coming into and going out of North Korea. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea therefore took the ballistic-missile parts, nuclear technology and other illicit items it needed to build weapons of mass destruction and buried them deep in otherwise unsuspicious loads on airplanes, ships and trucks coming into the country.”
2016-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7638 (2016) · source