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

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“We would like to thank Jordan for convening this emergency session. We are grateful to Assistant Secretary-General Zerihoun for briefing the Council today and for his and the United Nations ongoing efforts in the region. The United States shares the deep concern of everyone in the Council today about the current situation and condemns in the strongest terms the ongoing violence in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Israel and the Gaza Strip. We have repeatedly condemned the violence and made clear that there is no justification for any terrorist attack. We continue to stress the importance of preventing inflammatory rhetoric, accusations or any actions that can fuel the violence. The human consequences of the violence have been grave and continue to mount.”
2015-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7536 (2015) · source
“For women, and particularly for men, it is not enough to be passively supportive of women's participation. Whether it is pressing one's capital about progress on one's national action plan, or pressing for women's participation in internal decision-making processes, all of our support must be active and vocal. Just last week, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the four leaders of the Tunisian Dialogue Quartet. One is a woman - Wided Bouchamaoui. She is not a politician or a lifelong activist; she is a businesswoman and the head of a Tunisian employers' union. Her contributions and the accomplishments of the Quartet are a timely reminder that even in the midst of grave national crises, there is still reason for hope, above all when women are able to join men at the table. As she put it last week, "We did it together".”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“To describe just a few examples here, that includes more than $40 million for initiatives to protect women from violence and promote their participation in peace processes and decision-making, as well as more than $8 million to implement United States Secretary of State Kerry's accountability initiative to fight impunity for sexual violence in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia. Another $1 million will be allocated to a justice initiative based in South Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It seeks to educate 50,000 women on their human rights and how to use basic judicial procedures. Finally, as individual leaders we must look inward to see what more we can do in our own positions.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“In the United States, our Government has been moving forward with its national action plan. The Department of Defense, to takejust one example, has taken important steps, including through integrating objectives relating to women and peace and security into its policy strategy and planning. At the State Department, 35 per cent of mission chiefs are now women i an improvement of the 10 per cent level of 20 years ago, but still not yet half. As part of this national action plan, we are also assisting other nations in their own efforts, and today I am pleased to announce new commitments to that end totalling $31 million.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“Well beyond ensuring the Council's engagement in those two core areas, there is much more that each of us here can do. In all of our respective roles as States Members of the United Nations, national representatives and individual leaders, we must look inward. Within the United Nations family we must continue to integrate and act on the goals of resolution 1325 (2000). That includes supporting the Secretary- General's commitment to elevating the work of senior gender advisers and including more women in the senior ranks of the United Nations. It means ensuring that all United Nations agencies and bodies engaged in peace, security and development take responsibility for integrating women's voices into their work, and that should be measurable. As national representatives, we must hold our own Governments to account.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“That is essential not just because women and girls are often the victims of groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, it is because defeating those groups will require women's leadership and active involvement as community influencers and leaders, whether in village councils or here in the Security Council. That fact has been recognized by some diplomats, leaders and States; the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has worked actively with civil society and women's rights organizations during his consultations and negotiations. The Iraqi Council of Ministers endorsed an emergency plan in May that made reference to resolution 1325 (2000) and called for measures to address the needs of women and girls in conflict situations and facilitate their involvement in post-conflict reconstruction.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“It is why we will all benefit from the fulfilment of the pledges made by several nations, including Rwanda and India, to contribute more female troops and police. In addition to more women wearing blue helmets, we must take every possible step to root out sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, which is too prevalent. Countries must train their peacekeepers better in order to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, and must hold any soldier or staffer who commits such crimes fully accountable. As President Obama said last month and as the Secretary-General has made clear, there should be zero tolerance for them. Yet too often today their perpetrators enjoy impunity. Secondly, the Council must ensure that women are full participants in combating the threat of violent extremism.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“Around the world, too many other women continue to be harassed or imprisoned by their Governments for doing nothing more than speaking up on behalf of their communities, including 18 of the 20 women profiled last month by my Government on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration. In the face of such continued challenges, there are two areas I want to highlight today in which the Council should play a particularly active role. The first is peacekeeping. As the Secretary-General has reported, the insufficient number of women peacekeepers interferes with core mission tasks such as protection and engagement with female members of communities. That is why, at last month's peacekeeping summit, President Obama called for more women leaders in critical mission roles.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“Not every aspect of that image rings true today, but it is still entirely too familiar. Moreover, women continue to be harassed, assaulted and murdered for daring to speak up or get involved. Last year a prominent, remarkable woman named Salwa Bugaighis, a friend and colleague of Ms. Murabit who had previously resigned from Parliament in Libya to protest its lack of women, was murdered in her home on election day. Just yesterday, an Afghan woman named Toorpaki Ulfat, a human rights defender and employee of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, was killed as she headed to work in Kandahar.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“But the numbers and stories also reflect how far we still have to go. The number of women members of parliament around the world has roughly doubled over the past two decades, but the current proportion is still a mere 22.5 per cent. In my country it is at a record high ofjust 19 per cent. Even in the case of the Colombian peace negotiations, there is nothing close to gender parity, and the increased inclusion ofwomen came after active organizing and lobbying by female leaders. Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland and current Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Climate Change, recalls a female leader in civil society once telling her that "a typical peace process involved bad men forgiving other bad men in fancy hotels in front of television cameras".”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“That is evident in the advances of individual countries, particularly in the area of women's participation. When resolution 1325 (2000) was adopted, women in Afghanistan could not leave their homes unaccompanied by a man. Today, Afghanistan has two women governors, four women Cabinet members, 150 women in the judiciary and a 28 per cent representation of women in Parliament. Progress is also apparent in the greater involvement of women and greater attentiveness to gender issues in peace processes. Over the past 15 years the percentage of peace treaties referencing women has increased nearly two and a half times, to 27 per cent, and, as others have noted, during the ongoing peace talks in Colombia, a dedicated gender subcommittee was established to ensure that gender issues were considered and women's rights recognized.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“Fifteen years ago, the Council adopted a resolution recognizing that the inclusion of women's voices in decision-making on peace and security leads to more equitable, sustainable and resilient results. That is not a theory; it is a fact. The global study commissioned by the Secretary-General on the resolution's impact and the challenges we still face offers ample evidence of that. One qualitative study found that peace processes with female participants demonstrated a 20 per cent increase in the probability of an agreement lasting at least two years. In the Security Council, we are not faithfully advancing international peace and security if we are not doing everything possible to ensure that women are included and empowered in peace processes. As others have noted today, the past 15 years have seen some measurable progress.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for organizing and presiding over today's debate. Your presence is a real show of Spain's leadership on the issue of women's empowerment. I thank the Secretary-General for his continuing leadership in the area and Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka for her briefing and her stewardship of UN-Women. My deepest respect and admiration go to Ms. Lusenge, Ms. Mohammed and Ms. Murabit for the extraordinary work they do and for taking the time to come and speak to us today. Their bravery in pushing women's empowerment in their own societies leaves us in awe, and their bluntness today in describing the dashed hopes of many over the 15 years since the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000) should motivate us all.”
2015-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7533 (2015) · source
“In conclusion, I would encourage every representative on the Council and every Permanent Representative at the United Nations, for that matter, to press his or her country to find concrete ways to do its own part in responding to the crisis, which is far too great for any country or any region to shoulder alone.”
2015-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7531 (2015) · source
“The United States is committed to doing our part in this effort, starting with giving more refuge to more people fleeing those hardships, and providing additional support to fill the growing gaps for people who have already fled. Just in recent weeks, President Obama has committed to going from admitting 70,000 refugees this year to 85,000 next year and 100,000 the year after that. He has also announced nearly $419 million in additional relief to Syrian refugees and displaced persons, which comes atop the more than $4.5 billion we have already dedicated to that essential cause. But even with that, we know that we have to find ways to do more and we will.”
2015-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7531 (2015) · source
“And of course, as others have noted, we must redouble our efforts to end the conflicts and reduce the extreme poverty that drives many individuals to leave their homes in the first place. As we all know, for as long as the Assad regime is dropping barrel bombs on neighbourhoods or the Eritrean Government is repressing and forcibly conscripting its citizens for indefinite periods of time or the Sudanese Government-backed militias in Darfur are razing villages, there will be Syrians, Eritreans and Sudanese, and so many others to fill the boats leaving Libya and its shores, among other routes, no matter how perilous the journey.”
2015-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7531 (2015) · source
“The same is true of the unprecedented number of refugees from the region, including more than 4 million from Syria alone. who are on average spending longer periods of time away from their homes. In 1993, a little more than two decades ago, refugees remained away from their homes for an average of nine years. Today, that average is between 20 and 25 years and growing. We strongly believe that States have the responsibility to protect the human rights of everyone in their territories, including migrants and refugees. We must see to it that the needs of those people are met, that their children can attend school, that their sick are cared for and that their families are fed.”
2015-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7531 (2015) · source
“They routinely subject those they are transporting to sexual violence, extortion and beatings, and they smuggle them in horrific conditions, denying them food and water and stacking them atop one another, like cargo, in the sealed holds of boats. Many die during the journey and some are found trapped ordeceased behind hatches that have been locked from the outside. But the scale of the current crisis also requires us to speak candidly to the challenges that we must still address - and by we, I mean not only the Security Council but the broader international community. I will speak to just a few. We must fill growing gaps in addressing the needs of the people rescued as well as those of others who survive the perilous crossing. Those individuals are arriving daily by the thousands in Europe - nearly 530,000 this year alone.”
2015-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7531 (2015) · source
“Two thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight: that is the number of people who, according to the International Organization for Migration, have died trying to make the journey across the Mediterranean so far this year. These are the deaths that we know about, and we also know that the actual number is surely much, much higher. The resolution adopted by the Security Council today aims to address one dimension of the refugee and migration crisis by authorizing the member States of the European Union to play a more robust role in rescuing refugees and migrants aboard ships originating from Libya and in going after the people who smuggle them. That is important. Smugglers exploit the desperate situation of people who are fleeing violence and hardship.”
2015-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7531 (2015) · source
“Just imagine for one moment how glad we will be, the next time around, if we take the steps today that will save thousands of lives later.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“Ireland said, "That man has changed my wheel when it comes to how to give empathy and care for a patient. I now know, because I was a patient who was dying." Day by day, Dr. Ireland got stronger, and 14 days later he was released, Ebola-free. Today, Dr. Ireland is back in JFK Memorial Hospital in Monrovia, where he is not only treating patients again but is also helping to train a new generation of Liberian doctors and nurses. He sees that as part of his duty, a way of rebuilding a health system decimated by the virus that almost took his life. And at the end of each day, he goes home to his wife and five children. That is one life - one life saved in an outbreak that to date has taken the lives of more than 500 health professionals and more than 11,000 overall.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“His heart rate shot up and he felt feverish. He suspected he had Ebola, but the few clinics in Monrovia taking suspected patients were overflowing. So he quarantined himself at home. His mother made her own personal protective equipment suit out of rain gear and household gloves so that she could care for him. But Dr. Ireland's condition continued to deteriorate, until by the seventh day he could not feel his own pulse and was rushed to an Ebola treatment unit. His first night in the unit, he had diarrhoea 46 times and vomited 26 times. "I woke up barely alive, in a sea of mess," he said. But in what he later described as "the most touching act of kindness one could ever imagine", a physician's assistant named Patrick came to Dr. Ireland the next morning, bathed and dressed him and put him in a clean bed. Then Patrick prayed with him. Dr.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“The same is true today, only we are no longer just talking about this Ebola outbreak, but about other disease outbreaks that will inevitably follow. Get to zero. Build more resilient public-health systems that everyone can access. Learn from our mistakes. If we do that, we will go a long way towards preventing the next outbreak from taking so many lives and tearing apart so many families and communities. The math is still simple. The sooner we act, the more lives we save. I would like to close, finally, by telling the Council aboutjust one ofthose lives saved. On 24 July 2014, just over a year ago, a 44-year-old emergency-room doctor named Philip Ireland was headed to a staff meeting at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, when he was struck with a headache so severe, he saw flashes of light.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“If we had the response to do over again, or if we should confront another outbreak, the bottom line is, what would we do differently? Of course, the value of those exercises rests not on the diagnoses but on the swift implementation of any remedies identified. Here, too, the international community's continued engagement is crucial. In September of last year, when the United States had the privilege of presiding over an emergency meeting of the Security Council to try to rally international support for the Ebola response, I noted then that we knew how to bend the outbreak's deadly curve - it was just a question of marshalling the resources and the will to do it. "The math is simple", I said at the time; "the sooner we act, the more lives we will save" (S/PV. 7268, p. 9).”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“Those reforms necessitate the support of all partners and Member States. Here are just a few of the questions those efforts should seek to answer. Why did it take the United Nations, its agencies and all of us so long to be seized by the urgency and magnitude of this outbreak? What was lost between staff on the ground - people like Dr. Fallah, people who were seeing clinics overflow and bodies abandoned in the streets - and people like us, with the power to catalyse an effective response? Would critical resources, time and energy have been saved by relying on existing United Nations and international structures to coordinate the emergency response, rather than creating a new one in the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), or did UNMEER add value?”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“It is critically important that all countries deliver on the pledges they made at the Conference - and before it, for that matter. Thirdly, we need to understand how our global health and emergency response architecture allowed the epidemic to spread so widely before we stepped in and scaled up. Several critical efforts have been undertaken to identify crucial flaws in the response, including the report issued by the WHO Ebola Interim Assessment Panel and the United Nations High-level Panel on the Global Response to Health Crises, whose final report is forthcoming. We urge those involved to put forward concrete, actionable recommendations on the systemic reforms needed to ensure timely, effective and coordinated responses, and we welcome the commitment that Dr. Chan and Dr. Nabarro have made to undertaking swift reforms within the WHO.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“Secondly, as others have noted, we need to build up the public-health systems and improve primary case in the countries affected as well as countries with similar vulnerabilities, of which there are many. This means strengthening the institutions themselves and supporting the people who make them work. As this outbreak demonstrated, Ebola thrives in places with fragile, overstretched health systems and limited public-health capabilities. By allowing the virus to spread faster and more widely, those vulnerabilities pose a threat not only to people living in countries with weak systems but to people everywhere. Last month's International Ebola Recovery Conference was aimed at exactly that - strengthening public health systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“Even when a country gets to zero, as we have seen, new outbreaks can and will occur. The true measure of the progress made and systems put in place will be how early these systems can detect and then contain any new outbreaks. Consider Sierra Leone's Tonkolili district, where on 24 July the first case of Ebola in more than 150 days was reported. In response, national and international experts travelled immediately to the area, where more than 50 people were quarantined, including 29 high-risk contacts, two of whom tested positive for Ebola. Contact teams deployed to trace possible lines of transmission, and local religious and community leaders were engaged to inform nearby communities about symptoms and what to do if they detected them. This is the kind of effort that is needed to prevent new outbreaks from becoming epidemics.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“So today I want to briefly set out three steps that the region and the international community must take to address this outbreak and help prevent future ones from reaching such devastating proportions. First and most obvious, we must work relentlessly to get to zero. Ebola is a cunning virus capable of exploiting even the slightest slip-up, delay or other weakness in our response. A single missed link in the chain, a contact who is not traced, a burial that is not carried out safely, a symptomatic patient who is not properly tested or quarantined, any single mistake or weakness can itself spawn a new, deadly branch of this outbreak. So while the procedures that have been put in place may feel onerous at times, they are critically important, as is our constant vigilance.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“We are in awe of his bravery and determination and, above, all the compassion he showed for his fellow Liberians. Let me begin with what we all know. We have made tremendous progress towards stopping this deadly outbreak. Acording to WHO, in the week that ended on 9 August, only three new cases of Ebola were reported in the affected countries, one in Sierra Leone and two in Guinea. Three cases in a week across three countries; how many members of the Council would have believed that possible a year ago, when we were seeing three, four or more cases pop up each day in individual households across the region, when three new cases arriving in a single field clinic would have been considered a slow day? But it would be a serious mistake to take our eye off the current outbreak or to think that when we end it our job will be done.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“We express our immense gratitude to the men and women of their various organizations on the frontlines of this fight helping communities rebuild and recover. Lastly, I wish to thank Dr. Mosoka Fallah, who took time away from his daily work with his fellow Liberians to share his story and the story of community solidarity and leadership. When other people were fleeing the growing outbreak, he ran headfirst into it. Where others saw an impenetrate climate of fear and distrust, he saw what he described here again today, communities yearning to be empowered to stand up to this deadly virus, and those communities, with his support and partnership, went about building their trust and knowledge, household by household and block by block.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“Let me begin by thanking Nigeria for keeping the international community focused on Ebola with this meeting and, of course, for deploying more than 500 health workers to the countries affected at the peak of the outbreak, when they were so desperately needed. I wish also to commend Nigeria's swift and methodical response to two outbreaks within its own borders during the epidemic, including one in Lagos, a city of more than 21 million people, which show how we can effectively contain Ebola with the right response. I would also like to thank all of today's briefers for their contributions: World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan, United Nations Special Envoy David Nabarro, the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission and his representative here, and the African Union Permanent Observer, Ambassador Tete Antonio.”
2015-08-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7502 (2015) · source
“This sends a clear and powerful message to all those involved in chemical-weapons attacks in Syria - the Joint Investigative Mechanism will identify you if you gas people. It bears repeating as well that we need to bring the same unity that we have shown today to urgently find a political solution to the Syrian crisis.”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“Those who think that impunity will last forever for the perpetrators and all others involved in chemical-weapons attacks - those who order chemical attacks, those who fill munitions with chemicals, and those who drop chemical weapons - should look at all the perpetrators today who find themselves being forced to answer for acts committed years or even decades ago. They should look at those who have been convicted for carrying out the genocide and war crimes in the Balkans, or those now being prosecuted in The Hague. They should look at Hissene Habre', who is currently standing trial for atrocities he carried out in Chad three decades ago. Let me conclude. Resolution 2235 (2015) was adopted today with the Council's unanimous support.”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“The Mechanism will gather evidence aimed at identifying the individuals and entities that have a hand in such attacks, and it will do all it can to name those individuals or entities. Now, we all know that we currently lack an effective mechanism for holding criminally accountable those responsible, but when the day comes that we have one - and that day will come - the evidence gathered by the Joint Investigative Mechanism will stand as a record not just of what has been done but of who has done it.”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“Even when there were obvious signs pointing to the parties responsible, investigators were not empowered to point the finger. This has compounded an already rampant sense of impunity in Syria. Pointing the finger matters. Let us imagine for a moment if we asked an investigative team to determine whether certain atrocities had occurred i such as rapes, tortures or executions - but did not ask that team to determine who was involved in such brutal acts. As we all know, that determination ties the perpetrator to the action, and that link is essential to eventual accountability and to helping prevent future abuses from occurring. That is what the new United Nations-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism will do in response to incidents in Syria that involved or likely involved the use of chemicals as weapons.”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“This is what a chemical attack looks, smells and feels like. Witness accounts, photographs and videos of the attacks and their victims, as well as other forms of evidence, led the OPCW to determine that there was "compelling confirmation that a toxic chemical was used as a weapon, systematically and repeatedly, in the villages of Talmanes, Al Tamanah, and Kafr Zeta" (ibid., enclosure III, annex 2, par.29) between April and August 2014. The OPCW reported that 32 witnesses saw or heard the sound of helicopters over the three opposition-held towns right before the attacks occurred. Until we adopted resolution 2235 (2015) today, there was no mechanism to take the obvious next step - determining who was involved in such attacks.”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“A teenage girl from the same house died days later, as did an elderly woman from a neighbouring home. Their bodies, like the boy's, showed no physical trauma. Olive, pomegranate and fig trees shed their fruit, and their leaves dried and shrivelled and turned yellow shortly after exposure. Younger animals died immediately; fully grown animals a few hours later. Some 200 people rushed to a Talmenes field hospital with nearly identical symptoms - symptoms I would note that were just like the ones that Dr. Tennari described treating following the attack in Sarmeen: a burning sensation in the eyes, face, throat and on their exposed skin, tearing, blurred vision, shortness of breath, a feeling of suffocation, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, headache, generalized weakness, drowsiness, disorientation, and a loss of consciousness.”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“Let me read briefly from a report from one of those investigations lest we forget just how grotesque the effects of chemical weapons are. According to the OPCW'S third fact-finding report (see S/2015/138), when the village of Talmenes was attacked on 21 April 2014, residents described seeing what they called a "honey wax-to-yellow coloured gas" (S/2015/138, enclosure IV, annex 2, para. 5.15) rise from the point of impact reaching above the minaret of the town's mosque up to 75 metres in the sky. Survivors next described a pungent irritating smell, like chlorine. A seven-year-old boy, who lived approximately 15 metres from the place the bombs hit, died almost immediately. Residents told investigators that his body showed no signs of physical trauma but "turned blue in colour" (ibid., para. 5.17).”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“We know that those chemical attacks continued not only because of the testimonies of survivors and medical professionals, such as the harrowing account members of the Council heard in a closed meeting in April from Dr. Tennari, a physician from Sarmeen, who described his inability to resuscitate three siblings, ages one to three, following once such attack in March. We know not only because of the gruesome footage of those suffering from the effects of such attacks, including seizures, asphyxiation, foaming at the mouth - footage that we have all seen. We know for a fact because the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has carried out thorough and impartial investigations into alleged attacks and ultimately concluded that chemical weapons were used.”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“Today the Security Council has taken another step aimed at stopping the use of chemical weapons in Syria. That step is necessary because, despite our previous efforts to stop the use of chemical weapons, the attacks have continued. Those efforts have included the Council's adoption in September 2013 of resolution 2118 (2013), which required the Syrian regime to dismantle and destroy its chemical weapons programme under international supervision. But while the resolution made significant progress towards that end, the attacks continued. Our efforts also included the adoption of resolution 2209 (2015), which condemned the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon and made clear that such attacks were a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and resolution 2118 (2013). Yet still the attacks continued.”
2015-08-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7501 (2015) · source
“But let us be clear - today's veto cannot and will not deny the victims and their families justice. There cannot and will not be impunity for those who downed a civil airliner with 298 people aboard. When justice is denied for those 298 individuals and their families and their communities, it is denied for all of our families, communities and nations. While we are outraged and gravely disappointed by the outcome of this vote, today we say to those families that no veto will stand in the way of this heinous crime being investigated and prosecuted and that no veto will weaken our unshakeable commitment to them to ensure that they and their loved ones have the justice they deserve.”
2015-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7498 (2015) · source
“That was the effect when Russian-backed separatists prevented investigators from gaining full and timely access to the crash site. It was the effect of Russia's refusal even to negotiate today's draft resolution and statute, essentially preventing any meaningful negotiation of those texts from taking place. It is the effect of Russia's veto today. By vetoing today's draft resolution, Russia has tried to deny justice to the 298 victims on that plane and deny their families a chance to hold accountable those responsible. Russia has callously disregarded the public outcry in the grieving nations and the appeals of the families affected. It is tragic that Russia has used the privilege entrusted to it to advance international peace and security for the purposes of frustrating international peace and security.”
2015-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7498 (2015) · source
“So could our teachers, our colleagues, our neighbours, our best friends. The passengers on that flight came from 18 nations, including my own, but they could have come from any of our countries. In that way, the families of the 298 passengers and the communities and nations they belonged to are all of our families. The United States believes firmly that those who carried out this unspeakable crime cannot remain unnamed and unpunished. When the Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine put forward draft resolution S/2015/562, we supported their efforts. Of course, justice by itselfwill not fill the profound void left behind with the loss of those on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17. But efforts to denyjustice only intensify the pain of the victims' families who have already endured more than any of us can fathom.”
2015-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7498 (2015) · source
“She had worked hard to ensure that her 16-year-old daughter, Diyana, had every opportunity. "She was not just my mother but my father, my best friend," Diyana said. "I do not know how I am going to live without her." Silene and Rob Fredriksz's son, Bryce Fredriksz, age 23, was on the flight with his girlfriend, Daisy Oehlers, age 20. The young couple lived with Bryce's parents. Since 17 July 2014, Bryce's parents have left the room just as Bryce and Daisy left it, with the bed unmade and clothes strewn around the floor. Silene cannot bring herself to touch it. The space, she said, still breathes Bryce and Daisy. This could have happened to any of our families. Our sons or daughters, our mothers or fathers, our grandparents or aunts and uncles - any of the them could have been on that flight.”
2015-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7498 (2015) · source
“I am speaking of victims like Joep Lange and his partner, Jacqueline van Tongeren, who were among the passengers headed to the twentieth International AIDS Conference. J oep was a renowned researcher who helped make antiretroviral treatments cheaper for people who otherwise could not afford them. Jacqueline worked for an non-governmental organization that promotes health solutions for poor communities. I am speaking of victims like Willem Witteveen who was not only a deeply respected scholar of the law and political theory but also a dedicated public servant, having served for nearly a decade as a Dutch senator. But the loss of the 298 individuals is of course felt most profoundly by their families. Dora Shahila Kassim was the lead flight attendant and a single mother.”
2015-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7498 (2015) · source
“Among the 298 people on board were students and teachers, florists and flight attendants, entrepreneurs and restaurateurs, an aerospace engineer and a supermarket cashier. Some 80 of the passengers were children. Their loss is immeasurable. The loss is felt by generations of students of 72-year-old Sister Philomene Tiernan, a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart, a religious order devoted primarily to advancing girls' education. Sister Phil, as her students knew her, was returning home after visiting the church in France where the remains of the religious order's founder are buried. The loss is felt among people who may never have met the victims but whose lives were touched and at times permanently altered by their work.”
2015-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7498 (2015) · source
“I thank all the Ministers who have travelled to New York for this important meeting. Shuba Jaya and her husband Paul Goes were flying back home from the Netherlands, where they had brought their one-year-old daughter, Kaela, to meet Paul's parents for the first time. Nick Norris was bringing his three grandkids, Mo, age 12, Evie, age 10, and Otis, age 8, back to Perth from a family vacation, so that the children's parents could have a few days of holiday to themselves. Tambi Jiee and Ariza Gazalee were moving back to Malaysia after more than two years of living abroad. With them were their sons, Muhammad Afif, age 19, Muhammad Afzal, age 17, and Mohammed Afruz, age 13, and their daughter, Marsha Azmeena, age 15. All of these families were on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-l7. All of them are gone.”
2015-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7498 (2015) · source
“The deal does not tackle every concern we have about Iran's destabilizing actions, but rather focuses on the gravest single threat to the region. The third is enforceability. The Plan of Action does not trust that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear-weapons programme; it puts in place rigorous verification measures that have the force of a unified international community behind them. The Security Council should take it as its challenge to apply those lessons to the other serious crises facing the region.”
2015-07-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7490 (2015) · source
“If implemented, the deal would cut off all pathways for the Islamic Republic of Iran to develop the fissile material required for a nuclear weapon, while putting in place a rigorous inspection and transparency regime for verifying Iran's compliance. The true measure of the deal, of course, will be in its implementation. But also important, for the purposes of this debate and the Security Council in general, is what the Plan of Action tells us about how to tackle some of the world's most seemingly intractable problems. The first thing it tells us is about persistence. The deal was reached after two years of talks and gruelling negotiations between the P5+1 nations, the European Union and Iran. The second is pragmatism.”
2015-07-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7490 (2015) · source