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

“We voted against the draft resolution not because we are comfortable with the status quo; we voted against it because we know what everyone here knows as well - that peace will come from hard choices and compromises that must be made at the negotiating table. Today's staged confrontation in the Security Council will not bring the parties closer to achieving a two- State solution. We voted against the draft resolution not because we are indifferent to the daily hardships or the security threats endured by Palestinians and Israelis, but because we know that those hardships will not cease and those threats will not subside until the parties reach a comprehensive settlement achieved through negotiations. The draft resolution sets the stage for more division, not for compromise.”
2014-12-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7354 (2014) · source
“Regrettably, instead of giving voice to the aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis alike, the text addresses the concerns of only one side. It is deeply imbalanced and contains many elements that are not conducive to negotiations between the parties, including unconstructive deadlines that take no account of Israel's legitimate security concerns. In addition, the draft resolution was put to a vote without a discussion or due consideration among Council members, which is highly unusual, especially considering the gravity of the matter at hand. We must proceed responsibly, and not take actions that would risk creating a downward spiral.”
2014-12-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7354 (2014) · source
“In recent years, no Government has invested more in the effort to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace than the United States. Peace, however difficult it may be to forge, is too important to give up on. As we were reminded this summer in Gaza, and as we have been reminded too painfully recently in Jerusalem and the West Bank, the human consequences of ensuing cycles of violence are too grave. The United States searches every day for new ways to take constructive steps to support the parties in making progress towards achieving a negotiated settlement. The draft resolution (S/2014/9l6) put before us today is not one of those constructive steps. It would undermine efforts to get back to an atmosphere that would make it possible to achieve two States for two peoples.”
2014-12-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7354 (2014) · source
“Silence will not make the North Korean Government end its abuses. Silence will not make the international community safer. Today we have broken the Council's silence. We have begun to shine the light, and what it has revealed is terrifying. We must continue to shine that light for as long as those abuses persist. Today's meeting is another important step, but far from the last, towards accountability for the crimes being perpetrated against the people of North Korea. The Council must come back to speak regularly about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's human rights situation and what we can do to change it for as long as the crimes that brought us here today persist. That is the absolute minimum we can and must do.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“It is also crucial that all of Democratic People's Republic of Korea's neighbours abide by the principle of non-refoulement, given the horrific abuses that North Koreans are subjected to upon return, and provide unfettered access to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in their countries. The United States of America will continue to welcome North Korean refugees to our country and help provide assistance to North Korean asylum-seekers in other countries. It is reasonable to debate the most effective strategy to end the nightmare of North Korea's human rights crisis. What is unconscionable in the face of those widespread abuses and dangerous, given the threat that the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea poses to international peace and security, is to stay silent.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“Knowing the utter improbability of North Korea's making those and the long list of other necessary changes, it is encumbent on the Security Council to consider the commission of inquiry's recommendation that the situation in North Korea be referred to the International Criminal Court and to consider other appropriate action on accountability, as 116 United Nations Member States have urged the Council to do. In the meantime, the United States will support the efforts of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a field-based office to continue documenting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's human rights violations, as mandated by the Human Rights Council, as well as support the work of the Special Rapporteur. Both should brief the Council on new developments in future sessions on that issue.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“When a country threatens nuclear annihilation because it receives criticism of how it treats its own people, can there be any doubt regarding the connection between North Korea's human rights and international peace and security? North Korea did not want us to meet today and vociferously opposed the country's human rights situation being added to the Security Council's agenda. If the Democratic People's Republic of Korea wants to be taken offthe Security Council's agenda, it can start by following the commission ofinquiry's recommendations to acknowledge the systematic violations it continues to commit, immediately dismantle political prison camps and release all political prisoners, allow free and unfettered access by independent human rights observers, and hold accountable those most responsible for its systematic Violations.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“We must do both, as we have seen throughout history that the way countries treat their own citizens - particularly those countries that systematically commit atrocities against their own people - tends to align closely with the way they treat other countries and the norms of our shared international system. On 23 November, a week after the Third Committee adopted its draft resolution on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's military said, "All those involved in its adoption deserve a severe punishment" and warned again of catastrophic consequences. Now here, presumably, "all" would imply the more than 100 Member States that voted for the draft resolution. The military also said that if Japan "continued behaving as now it will disappear from the world map".”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“That is absurd, yet it is exactly the kind ofbehaviour we have come to expect from a regime that has threatened to take "merciless countermeasures" against the United States over a Hollywood comedy, and has no qualms about holding tens of thousands of people in harrowing gulags. We cannot give in to threats or intimidation of any kind. Thirdly, the international community does not need to choose between focusing on North Korea's proliferation of nuclear weapons and focusing on its widespread and ongoing abuses against its own people. That is a false choice.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“The attack destroyed systems and stole massive quantities of personal and commercial data from Sony Pictures Entertainment, not only damaging a private sector entity, but also affecting countless Americans who work for the company. The attackers also threatened Sony's employees, actors in the film, movie theatres and even people who dared to go to the theatre showing the movie, warning them to "remember 11 September". Not content with denying freedom of expression to its own people, the North Korean regime now seems intent on suppressing the exercise of that fundamental freedom in our nation. North Korea has also threatened the United States with serious consequences if our country did not conduct a joint investigation with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea into an attack that it carried out.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is already shockingly cavalier about dishing out threats of staging nuclear attacks, and has routinely flouted the prohibitions on proliferation imposed by the Security Council. In July, North Korea's military threatened to launch nuclear weapons at the White House and the Pentagon, and in March 2013 it threatened to launch a pre-emptive strike on the United States of America, saying, " Everything will be reduced to ashes and flames". In the most recent example of its recklessness, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea carried out a significant cyberattack on the United States in response to a comedy portraying a farcical assassination plot.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“All of North Korea's responses - the threats, the smears, the cynical diversions - show that the Government feels the need to defend its abysmal human rights record. That is precisely why our attention is so important. The second argument for exerting additional pressure is that when regimes warn of deadly reprisals against countries that condemn their atrocities, as the North Koreans have done, that is precisely the moment when we need to stand up, and not back down. Dictators who see that threats are an effective tool for silencing the international community tend to be emboldened and not placated. That holds true not only for the North Korean regime, but for human rights violators around the world who are watching how the Security Council responds to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's threats.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has ramped up its propaganda machine, publishing its own sham report on its human rights record and claiming "the world's most advantageous human rights system". The Democratic People's Republic of Korea tried to smear the reputation of hundreds of people who were brave enough to speak out about the heinous abuses they suffered, calling them "human scum bereft of even an iota of conscience". That was in a statement North Korea sent to the Security Council today. And North Korea has launched slurs against the commission's chairman, Justice Kirby. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has deployed threats saying any effort to hold it more accountable for its atrocities would be met with "catastrophic consequences".”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“The Security Council should demand that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea change its atrocious practices, which demonstrate a fundamental disregard for human rights and constitute a threat to international peace and security. We should take that on for three reasons. First, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's response to the commission of inquiry's report, and even to the prospect of today's meeting, shows that it is sensitive to criticism of its human rights record. We need only look at all the different strategies North Korea has tried in the past several months to distract attention from the report, to delegitimize its findings and to avoid scrutiny of its human rights record.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“On 18 December, the General Assembly adopted resolution 69/188 expressing grave concern at the commission's findings and roundly condemning the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's widespread and gross violations of human rights. One hundred and sixteen Member States voted in favour, 20 against and 53 abstained. The resolution also encourages the Security Council to "take appropriate action to ensure accountability, including through consideration of referral of the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and consideration of the scope for effective targeted sanctions against those who appear to be most responsible" (resolution 69/188, para. 8).”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“A woman from the city of Musan told how her brother was caught after fleeing to China. When he was returned, North Korean security officials bound his hands and chained him to the back ofa truck before dragging him roughly 45 kilometres, driving three loops around the city so everyone could see, his sister testified. "When he fell down, they kept on driving", she said. Nor are the horrors limited to prison camps, or those who try to flee. The commission found "an almost complete denial of the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association" (S/2014/276, annex, para. 26) in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“This sounds unbelievable and unthinkable, yet this is what a former guard told the commission ofinquiry at a public hearing. His account fits a pattern across witness testimonies of sadistic punishments meted out to prisoners whose crime was being raped by officials. The commission estimates that between 80,000 and 120,000 are being held in prison camps like the ones where so many of these crimes occurred. Many who testified before the commission were tortured as punishment for trying to flee North Korea. One man who was sent back to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from China described being held in prison cells that were only around 50 centimetres high -just over a foot and a half. He said the guards told him that because the prisoners were animals they would have to crawl like animals.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“They show North Korea for what it is - a living nightmare. A former prisoner of Political Prison Camp No. 15, Kim Young-soon said she and other prisoners were so famished that they picked kernels of corn from the dung of cattle to eat. She said, "[I]f there was a day that we were able to have a mouse, this was a special diet for us. We had to eat everything alive, every type of meat that we could find; anything that flew, that crawled on the ground. Any grass that grew in the field" (A/HRC/25/CRP.1, para. 770). Ahn Myong-chol, a former guard at prison camp 22 spoke of guards routinely raping prisoners. In one case in which a victim became pregnant and gave birth, the former guard reported, the prison officials cooked her baby and fed it to their dogs.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“Despite repeated requests, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea refused to cooperate with the inquiry. The main finding of the commission's thorough and objective report is that "[s]ystematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" (S/2014/276, annex, para. 24). The commission found that the evidence it gathered provided reasonable grounds to determine that "crimes against humanity have been committed in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State" (ibid., para. 75). If you have not watched any of the hours victims' testimony or read from the hundreds of pages of transcripts from the commission's public hearings, Mr. President, I urge you to do so.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“A major impetus for the Security Council taking up this issue was the comprehensive report issued in February 2014 by the United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (S/2014/276, annex). The commission of inquiry conducted more than 200 confidential interviews with victims, eyewitnesses and former officials and held public hearings in which more than 80 witnesses gave testimony. Witness accounts were corroborated by other forms of evidence, such as satellite imagery confirming the location of prison camps. North Korea denied the commission access to the country, consistent with its policy of routinely denying access to independent human rights and humanitarian groups, including the Red Cross and United Nations special rapporteurs.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“I thank Assistant Secretary-General Simonovie and Assistant Secretary-General Zerihoun for their informative and appropriately bleak briefings and for the ongoing attention that their respective teams give to the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in spite of persistent obstacles put up by the North Korean Government. Today's meeting reflects the growing consensus among Council members and States Members of the United Nations that the widespread and systematic human rights violations being committed by the North Korean Government are not only deplorable in their own right, but also pose a threat to international peace and security.”
2014-12-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7353 (2014) · source
“We must dismantle the groups that threaten our collective security, but we cannot achieve that goal without tackling the organized criminal networks that extremists increasingly rely upon to fuel their terror. That is the work before us and we must succeed.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“It was an appalling attack on a school. A young student named Zeeshan told a reporter, "I saw militants walking past rows of students shooting them in the head". On Wednesday, more than 230 bodies of people believed to have been executed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant were found in a mass grave in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province. And yesterday we learned that more than 100 women and children were kidnapped and 35 people killed during a weekend raid in the northeastern Nigerian village of Gumsuri, believed to have been carried out by Boko Haram. We know that we must do more to prevent these attacks, not only in Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria, but in all of our countries.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“Tackling these challenges requires deploying all the tools we have, from innovative law enforcement and criminal justice tools to financial measures and sanctions. Yet all States do not currently have the same ability to take these steps. Member States should therefore identify areas where targeted assistance is most needed and focus support in those places. We particularly welcome the role of the United Nations counter-terrorism bodies, particularly the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee's monitoring team, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in identifying threat and capacity gaps. We have come through a horrific week, as others have mentioned, of terrorist attacks. On Tuesday, the Pakistani Taliban killed 145 people, 132 of them kids aged 5 to 17.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“Secondly, the Security Council should acknowledge that weak governance both encourages and is exacerbated by the terrorist use of crime. Terrorist groups and criminals gravitate towards places with rampant corruption and impunity. For this reason, strengthening the criminal justice systems in vulnerable countries is one of the most effective ways to fight transnational organized crime. Since our collective security is only as strong as our weakest link, we have a shared interest in building stronger, more transparent governance and justice institutions beyond our own borders. Military measures alone will not be enough. Thirdly, the Security Council should call on States to provide assistance to those States most affected by these terrible threats.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“For its part, the United States has effectively used the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime as the basis for international legal and law enforcement cooperation against transnational organized crime with more than 55 countries. Our use of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and bilateral treaties has led to the return of nearly 30 fugitives to face prosecution in the United States. Greater cooperation is needed both among and within Governments so we can bring together experts from the law enforcement, military, diplomatic and intelligence communities. This is why today the Council called on Member States to work together to secure their borders, counter illicit financing and money laundering and implement international best practices and existing conventions.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“We have established a robust international legal framework under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the three United Nations drug control conventions that, taken together and implemented effectively, provide common parameters and tools for recognizing and responding to different forms of transnational crime. Building on that work, the Council should encourage Member States to do more to collectively address transnational threats. For example, greater international cooperation should facilitate the exchange of information and analysis about terrorists and crime networks.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“We must develop and deploy a set of sophisticated tools to disrupt those expanding networks and cut off the funds that they are generating. To that end, the Council should prioritize three tasks. First, the Council should build greater international cooperation, needed to fight the inter-related problems of terrorism and organized crime. We have taken steps to address that urgent need, including resolution 2170 (2014), on ISIL, and resolution 2178 (2014), on foreign terrorist fighters.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“Using fear, threats and attacks, ISIL extorts money from local businesses and traders and robs from banks and households alike. Working through long-established regional smuggling networks, ISIL transports oil across borders, netting roughly $1 million a day through black market oil sales. There are credible reports that ISIL is profiting from Syrian and Iraqi so-called blood antiquities, sold by criminal middlemen to unscrupulous or unknowing buyers worldwide. Those new sources of financing allow extremist groups to diversify their revenue streams and reduce the risk of disruption of the funds they need to carry out their horrific attacks. As terrorist criminal activities become more entrepreneurial and business-minded, the Security Council needs to better understand their tactics.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“Of the $250 million worth of charcoal estimated to have been exported from Somalia in 2013 and 2014, 30 per cent is estimated to have gone to Al-Shabaab. AQIM. and other terrorist groups regularly obtain arms through Maghreb and Sahel trafficking networks, relying on the same trade routes as transnational smugglers. And extremist groups raise cash through a variety of other criminal activities that cross borders, from selling drugs to stealing natural resources. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is another example of the increasingly similar modus operandi between those groups. While continuing to carry out deadly attacks propelled by its sadistic ideology, ISIL is also increasingly operating like a profit-driven criminal organization.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“While the motivations of terrorists and transnational criminal organizations may differ, their use of brutal violence and the insecurity, fear and suffering that they cause are often remarkably similar. Terrorists and transnational criminal organizations are increasingly learning from one another's sophisticated tactics to raise funds, to move people and arms and to spread the fear that is a critical source of their power. We see this cross-pollination between terrorist groups and transnational organized crime all around us. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Boko Haram, the Al-Nusra Front and numerous other terrorist organizations raise tens of millions of dollars annually through kidnapping for ransom. In Somalia, Al-Shabaab has filled its coffers through illegal and environmentally devastating charcoal exports.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“I thank you, Foreign Minister Mahamat again for being here with us in person. The United States greatly appreciates Chad's leadership and its work to focus the Council on the nexus between terrorism and transnational organized crime. I also thank Foreign Minister Wali and Minister Asselborn for their presence here today, which serves to underscore the critical importance of these issues. I particularly appreciated Luxembourg's attention to the impact of these issues on the welfare of children, an issue that Luxembourg insistently raises with regard to all the challenges we face, and a critical part of Luxembourg's legacy on the Council. The United States is very eager to support Nigeria and Chad and the other other multinational partners in the effort against Boko Haram, a monstrous movement.”
2014-12-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7351 (2014) · source
“It was part of the increase in targeting of innocents by anti-Government armed groups, which has resulted, as we have heard, in the largest number of civilian casualties this year since 2008. Those horrific, depraved attacks show more than just the ongoing risks; they show why it is so important that the Afghan Government succeed and why those responsible for such for attacks must be neutralized and brought to justice. NATO and its partners will continue to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces through the Resolute Support Mission, allowing brave Afghan soldiers and police to continue to stand up to extremists and work to protect their fellow citizens.”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“At the end of this month, the United States and our NATO allies and partners from around the world will conclude the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission. Over 13 years, troops and civilian personnel from more than 50 countries have worked alongside Afghan partners to root out terrorism and try to build a more stable and a more secure Afghanistan. More than 2,200 Americans and more than 1,200 citizens of other ISAF coalition countries have given their lives working to defend and empower the Afghan people. Afghanistan continues to face serious threats to security, as evinced by horrific terrorist attacks like the one carried out on 23 November when a suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device at a volleyball tournament in Paktika province. More than 50 people were killed, many of then children.”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“While she was encouraged by the Government's commitment to seeking to end violence against women, Special Rapporteur Manjoo also found that "insecurity, pervasive levels of gender-based violence and an ever present climate of fear has had a disproportionate impact on the promotion, protection and fulfilment of human rights of women and girls" in Afghanistan. Women and girls, she said, continue to endure domestic abuse by husbands and relatives, exchange marriages, incest, honour crimes, targeted killings and discrimination at home and at work, as well a daunting obstacles to seeking redress for those and other problems. Let me turn to the very large challenge of security.”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“Her parents fled Afghanistan for Iran before she was born, and her family did not return until Fereshta was 12. But she was determined to excel in school and pursue a career. With her family's support, she attended Herat University's law school, where she was the only woman on the school's moot court team. After graduating she went to work in her country's Ministry of Women's Affairs, which never would have been conceivable under Taliban rule. Now she is ensuring that other girls and women have the same opportunity she had and face fewer obstacles in their paths. Of course, much work remains, including on women's rights. Last month the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women visited Afghanistan.”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“Forty per cent of students are girls - something that would have been unthinkable under Taliban rule. Life expectancy has improved dramatically. Maternal mortality has fallen from 16 per cent to 3 per cent, while under-five mortality has dropped from 25 per cent to less than 10 per cent. Women can now not only walk in public without a male relative by their side, but also can become doctors who treat male and female patients. Women hold 28 per cent of the seats in the parliament of Afghanistan. The United States is committed to supporting that ongoing progress. Among other contributions, our Government is providing more than $107 million this year to help refugees returning to Afghanistan, because we have seen the inspiring contributions they can make to their country. For just one example, look at Fereshta Abbasi.”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“At the Heart of Asia/ Istanbul Process Ministerial Conference in Beijing in October, neighbouring countries committed to doing their part to strengthen Afghanistan's security and prosperity, which is in the interest of the region's stability and development. President Ghani has undertaken important visits to improve relationships with neighbours, including Pakistan. Support for Afghanistan's continued progress also comes from beyond the immediate region. At the London Conference at the beginning of December, more than 70 donor States affirmed their commitment of over $16 billion in assistance to Afghanistan through 2016. That support is critical to building upon the hard- earned gains made in Afghanistan since 2001. In that time, school enrolment has increased tenfold, with nearly 10 million children now signed up.”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“The Government is backing up its words with important actions, including reopening the Kabul Bank investigation, passing internationally compliant financial regulations, removing unqualified and corrupt Government personnel and tackling illicit trade, among other key efforts. We look forward to President Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah naming a cabinet soon, made up of people chosen on merit. We applaud their commitment to ensuring that the cabinet is representative of the Afghan people, including Afghan women. The Afghan Government has shored up critical regional support for its agenda.”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“At that time, the election process was still being worked out, and the Council urged candidates to work towards a durable compromise in the interest ofthe Afghan people. The candidates forged that compromise and formed a National Unity Government. Since taking office that Government has taken crucial steps to end the year on a positive note. The National Unity Government has set out a compelling reform agenda committing to improve governance, limit corruption, reintegrate refugees, promote sustainable development and defend and promote the human rights of all Afghans, with a special focus on women's rights.”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“Thank you, Foreign Minister Mahamat, for chairing this important meeting. Your presence here adds weight to an already weighty discussion. I welcome Special Representative Haysom to the Security Council and thank him for his briefing and his work on the ground in Afghanistan. We congratulate him on his appointment as the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. As he serves, he and his team can count on our full support. I also thank Mr. Fedotov for his informative briefing on illicit narcotics production in Afghanistan, an issue of substantial concern to the Council. Afghanistan is in a very different place today than it where it was when the Council last met to discuss the country, on 18 September 2014 (see S/PV.7267).”
2014-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7347 (2014) · source
“And for those who do survive, Fanta provides counselling, preparing them for the stigma that regrettably still awaits them outside. We are a long way from being free of Ebola, but if we choose to fight, if we do what we have seen works to beat back this deadly virus, we will find the bravest, most selfless partners in the world by our side, and there is no fight more noble than that.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“When, at the end of our meeting, I went to give her a hug goodbye, she demurred and offered fist-bump - afraid, perhaps, that she might infect me. Even she did not seem to fully believe that she was free. I tell Fanta's story because we can build all the ETUs required, have access to fast, reliable laboratory results, have plenty of contact teams and health- care workers - we can check all those boxes and more - and if we do not tackle the fear and the stigma that still reigns in much of the affected region, we will continue to fall behind. We will not shake ourselves free of Ebola. In Fanta's story, though, there is also reason for hope. Besides being an Ebola survivor, Fanta is now an Ebola caregiver. She works in a Medecins Sans Frontieres clinic where her very presence shows patients that the virus can be beaten.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“As the recent events in Mali make clear, if even a single link in the chain of responsibility is broken, the welfare of an entire country or region can be put at risk. Ebola punishes us for every mistake. When people survive Ebola in the affected countries they are often given an official certificate declaring them Ebola-free. I met several survivors during my trip to West Africa. No matter what their individual experience, not one seemed to feel fully free. A 24-year-old former school teacher in Guinea, Fanta Ulene Kamara, told me she had lived three lives: her life before Ebola, her life in the hell of her infection and her life as a survivor. She said the stigma she has suffered since beating the virus had made her current life the hardest. Friends stopped talking to her and avoided her when they ran into her in public.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“The peacekeepers in the United Nations Mission in Liberia - civilians, troops and police - will be remembered for rising to the occasion andjoining this historic effort, rather than pulling out at Liberia's time of greatest need. Fifthly, and finally, we need to invest more in preparing neighbouring countries to prevent new outbreaks and contain outbreaks swiftly when they occur. That is why the United States is working with international organizations, including WHO, and officials from more than 40 nations through the Global Health Security Agenda, which is increasing the preparedness of national health systems to respond to infectious disease threats and making global health security an international priority.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Health-care workers need better training and better equipment to prevent more deaths. To help meet that demand, the United States has opened a new centre in Monrovia, which graduated its first class of 150 Liberian health-care workers, and has established a mobile training unit that will move around the country to train Liberians. The United States also opened a 25- bed hospital to treat international and Liberian health- care workers and Ebola responders - the Monrovia Medical Unit - which is currently staffed by United States Public Health Service officials. While the needs of health-care workers who bear the highest risk will come first, United Nations peacekeepers serving in Liberia should also have access to the United States-run facility in the very unlikely event that they should need it.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Governments must also knock down the obstacles that stand in the way of volunteers joining the effort. That means making it easier, and not harder, for volunteers to travel to the affected countries, and treating them like heroes when they return, rather than stigmatizing or isolating them. Fourthly, we need to do a better job of protecting health-care workers and other volunteers from the affected countries, who should be able to serve their countries without fearing for their lives. Last week, Liberia reported that 28 health-care workers had been infected in the previous 30 days. This week, Sierra Leone lost its sixth and seventh doctors to Ebola. And yesterday a doctor died of Ebola in Mali. Approximately 330 health-care workers have died in this outbreak.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“As part of the African Union's efforts, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which recently helped stop an outbreak of Ebola within its own borders, have promised to make more than a thousand health-care workers available. More countries need to send teams, and those that have already sent them must maintain a pipeline of trained replacements so that the supply can be replenished in the coming months. The European Union's recent commitment to provide medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) and treatment in Europe for international health-care workers infected with Ebola, an effort that the United States will support with our MEDEVAC planes, has been crucial to getting more countries to announce commitments.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“Yet in the face of unprecedented demand, groups like MSF and the International Medical Corps have highlighted the challenge of recruiting volunteers. In that context, I must add that when one looks out two months it is not at all clear that the supply of international health-care workers, even the supply we have today, can be sustained two months from now. We commend the countries that have sent or pledged foreign medical teams and the brave men and women who serve in them - from Sweden and Norway to China and the Republic of Korea. The list is long and it is growing longer.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source
“For example, as the trajectory of the epidemic changes, we recognize that it is now more effective to support community care centres and build smaller 10- to 20-bed Ebola treatment units (ETUs) across a wider area than to build a single ETU with 100 beds. We must constantly asks what the most effective way is to focus a dollar, a euro, a yen, a mark or a pound on stopping Ebola today. If the answer is something other than what we are doing, we have to change course, and even turn on a dime. Thirdly, we need more international health-care workers to support heroic national health responders. ETUs are useless without doctors and nurses to staff them sustainably. Approximately 1,000 international health-care workers will be needed on an ongoing basis.”
2014-11-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7318 (2014) · source