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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“Without a strong and enduring political commitment by the State itself, international efforts cannot succeed. But where national partners truly desire progress, we must do all we can to assist them in that quest. Lasting international peace and security and reliable respect for human rights around the world will not be possible without additional meaningful progress on security sector reform.”
2014-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7161 (2014) · source
“We will take those imperatives into account when formulating future mandates for United Nations peacekeeping and political operations. We also share his expressed desire to build stronger partnerships between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations to support security sector reform in countries recovering from conflict and undergoing transitions. In conclusion, I want to thank you again, Mr. President, for presiding over this meeting, and the Secretary-General for his leadership and guidance. Security sector reform is one of many topics that come before the Council where the problems are easy to identify yet extremely difficult to solve. We know what a good security system looks like, but we also know that creating one involves a multitude of variables and requires a major investment of energy, resources and time.”
2014-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7161 (2014) · source
“That guidance should give rise to a United Nations system-wide training regimen. We support the United Nations' work with host Governments on strategic planning, international dialogues and the sharpening of oversight capacity. We appreciate the United Nations commitment to acquire the diverse expertise needed to implement its security- sector-reform programmes in countries with specialized requirements, and we have seen the benefits of this in the rapid deployment of support to United Nations missions, such as that in Somalia. Finally, we firmly endorse both the Secretary- General's emphasis on national ownership of the SSR process and the need for appropriate SSR capacities within United Nations missions.”
2014-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7161 (2014) · source
“Reforms to the security sector- for example, in places like Mali and the Central African Republic - have to be nested within broader political reforms aimed at national reconciliation and transitional justice. In places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is imperative that security sector reform include not only training in military tactics, but also in responding to threats to civilians and guarding against sexual violence in conflict. In that connection, my Government welcomes the development of the Integrated Technical Guidance Notes on Security Sector Reform drafted by the inter-agency Security Sector Reform Task Force and including guidance on such critical issues as national ownership, gender responsiveness and consistency with democratic principles.”
2014-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7161 (2014) · source
“The creation of effective, accountable, rights- respecting and sustainable security structures that respond to national needs and priorities is critical to forestall a return to Violence. It is also an essential ingredient for the successful exit of United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions. Last month, the United Nations was able to conclude 20 years of peacekeeping and political activities in Sierra Leone in part because improved security institutions were in place. Sierra Leone now contributes peacekeeping forces to the African Union Mission in Somalia. Too often, approaches to SSR are limited to base training or the building up of individual security units and fail to create security institutions that can effectively manage national forces and be responsive to the complex needs of societies.”
2014-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7161 (2014) · source
“It is highly appropriate, therefore, that the United Nations do all it can in partnership with Governments and other international actors to support the establishment of effective security structures. That task is especially relevant when a country is in the process of recovery from conflict. The absence of credible security sector reform (SSR) has had dramatic consequences for such societies. For example, in Liberia inadequate management of the security sector contributed to a resumption of civil conflict in the mid-1990s. The transition from weak or non-existent security institutions to ones that are viable and strong is never easy. That is why security sector reform has become a more important part of United Nations efforts in post-conflict rebuilding.”
2014-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7161 (2014) · source
“Without it, families live in fear, economic investments are not made and the rules by which a society can live in harmony are not enforced. Furthermore, the lack of effective security at the national level has harmful transnational impacts. A State without security is a State where terrorists and criminals will thrive, the smugglers of illegal arms and narcotics will base their operations, internal strife may generate a flood of refugees, corruption runs rampant and shortages of food and other resources lead to humanitarian disaster. We cannot forget that public security is a prerequisite for economic and social well- being. Freedom from fear is critical to achieve freedom from want.”
2014-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7161 (2014) · source
“I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and for his constant efforts to enhance the United Nations support for security sector reform. I also want to congratulate you, Mr. President, on organizing this debate on a topic that is central to the Council's role in preserving international stability and peace. I applaud Nigeria's leadership on this issue. My Government looks forward to the adoption this afternoon of the Council's first draft resolution on the subject, which spells out the need to the strengthen our collective commitment to improve governance with an emphasis on security structures that are better designed, more capable and more fully respectful of public needs and individual rights. We all know that basic security is a fundamental civic need.”
2014-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7161 (2014) · source
“Again, that requires that home countries hold perpetrators of sexual Violence accountable once they are sent home. In conclusion, I would like to voice the strong support of my Government and of the American people for a concerted strategy across the globe to address the problem of sexual violence, both in and outside combat situations. For far too long, such abuses have been treated as part of the spoils of victory or the rewards of physical might. Let us be clear: sexual abuse is among the worst of crimes, because it robs people of the precious and inalienable right to be secure in their bodies, and because it is inflicted out of cruelty. In our efforts to stop it, we have made gains in recent years, but we have a very long way to go.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“In Somalia, the United Nations has helped to train 12,000 police officers, and the Government has supported the increased recruitment of women police. An improved effort has also been made to strengthen investigative and prosecutorial capabilities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where sexual violence perpetrated by Government and rebel forces has long been a source of chronic and massive injustice. We must also strive to help the Secretariat achieve its goal of 20 per cent female participation among United Nations police. But for that to happen, each of our countries must themselves increase their recruitment of women police into their domestic forces, so that there is a far broader pool on which the United Nations can draw. We must also insist on enforcing the absolute prohibition on sexual abuse by United Nations peacekeepers.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“Bangura has shown determination in coordinating United Nations efforts across agencies in order to ensure that the imperative of putting a stop to sexual violence is addressed in training, included in mission mandates and reports, and becomes a central focus of enforcement activities and a major part of holding perpetrators accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity. As members of the Security Council, however, we must do our part by exercising proper oversight and pushing for the full implementation of the objectives we set, mission by mission. In that connection, I note that women protection advisers were deployed last year to Somalia and Mali, and are expected this year in the Sudan, South Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire and the Central African Republic.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“With all of that in mind, we should express special outrage at the continued and widespread incidence of sexual abuse practised by Syrian Government armed forces as part of the regime's ruthless campaign to terrorize civilians and drive families from their homes. Despite chronic underreporting and difficulties of access, we know more about the nature and scope of the problem than ever before. The Secretary-General's report (S/2014/181), the information-collection mechanisms on which it is based, and the steadfast leadership shown by Special Representative Bangura are all welcome developments. In addressing sexual violence, the United Nations must set the right example in what it does both here in New York and in places around the world where tensions are high and United Nations peacekeepers or political missions are deployed. Ms.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“Among the most culpable are the ruthless militias in the Central African Republic, whose assaults on civilians have almost literally torn the country apart, and where rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery are widespread; in Burma, where there are widespread reports of soldiers raping women and girls; and, as we have just heard, in South Sudan, where only this week militants have gone on the radio - radio, which my Rwandan colleague has called an evil multiplier - to incite the use of sexual violence against named ethnic groups; in Yemen, where child protection workers have attested to the abduction and abuse of boys by Ansar Al-Sharia.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“That duty extends to men and boys, who have suffered sexual violence to an extent we have only recently begun to appreciate - in places like Colombia, where boys were turned into sex slaves by illegal armed groups; in Rutshuru, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was under the savage control of the Mouvement du 23 mars for much of 2013; and in Libya, where the United Nations reported that armed brigades used rape in detention as a form of torture. In far too many countries, the victims of sexual violence still have little, if any, effective legal recourse. Untilthat changes,predators willnotbe deterred, victims will hesitate to come forward and justice will remain beyond reach. In places where Governments are weak, we must help to improve their capabilities while also holding accountable those who commit crimes.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“Those offices and officials and the United Nations as a whole assuredly have an indispensable role to play, but the key to further progress in reducing suffering and in protecting the vulnerable is action by the parties to conflict. Every Government has a responsibility to establish standards, develop institutions and pursue policies that protect its people from sexual violence, whether perpetrated by the Government's own forces or by others. That responsibility includes, as Special Representative Bangura just put it, redirecting the stigma from the survivors to the perpetrators.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“Neither the fog of war nor the associated breakdown of law provide any explanation or excuse for actions that violate the rights and disrespect the fundamental dignity of human beings. To articulate a zero-tolerance standard is, of course, not difficult. Indeed, we have done it many times. But to endow it with real meaning in real conflicts remains a challenge of great urgency and one of many dimensions. This is not work that should be delegated only to a Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, even one as capable as Special Representative Bangura, or to women's protection advisers in a peacekeeping mission or to UN-Women.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“Madam President, I would like thank the Secretary-General, Special Representative Bangura, and Ms. Misaka for their informative and powerful briefings. In the past decade, the Security Council has identified the scourge of sexual violence in conflict as a matter of acute and urgent concern. We meet today to assess progress in combating that pernicious form of criminality and to consider next steps. We begin with confidence that the standards we have established are clear and the terrible knowledge that those standards are regularly being ignored. We have made abundantly clear that there should be zero tolerance for rape and zero tolerance for other forms of sexual abuse in all circumstances and at all times. The terror of sexual violence is uniquely horrific and merits our continued and determined efforts to eliminate it.”
2014-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7160 (2014) · source
“Tomorrow in Geneva, senior representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the European Union and the United States are scheduled to meet to discuss de-escalation, demobilization, support for elections and constitutional reform. My Government looks forward to participating in that meeting as an opportunity to resolve the crisis through diplomacy before it is too late.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“The Russian Federation has an obligation to fulfil its commitments under international law, to respect the rights and the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and to back its professed desire for stability with actions designed to achieve that goal, instead of its opposite. The Russian Federation must move its troops back from the border region, withdraw its forces from Crimea and cease all efforts to destabilize Ukraine. The international community has a responsibility to support the people of Ukraine in their desire to build a strong and united country with a robust democracy and effective national and regional institutions. We have a collective responsibility as well to do all we can to prevent further bloodshed and to find a peaceful andjust conclusion to what has been a tragic and unnecessary crisis.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“The recommendations to the authorities in Crimea include: actively resolve cases of missing persons, take all measures needed to protect the rights of persons affected by the changing institutional and legal framework, including citizenship, disarm and disband paramilitary units and investigate hate speech and media manipulation. Those are not the recommendations of a biased report. The release of the human rights monitoring report should remind us all of our responsibilities. The Government of Ukraine has a responsibility to continue its reform initiatives and to ensure inclusivity and respect for the human rights of all groups. The people of Ukraine have a duty to cooperate with their Government and fellow citizens in seeking to resolve disputes through peaceful means.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“There will always be more to do, but the allegation that the Government is primarily to blame for the present tensions is completely baseless. Before moving to my conclusion, I want to draw on the even-handed recommendations in the United Nations human rights report in order to show that the charges against the United Nations are inaccurate. Among the report's recommendations to the Government of Ukraine are the following: ensure accountability for all human rights violations during the unrest, ensure inclusivity and equal participation in public affairs and political life, prevent media manipulation, combat intolerance and extremism and implement measures to eradicate corruption.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“But the report makes clear that those incidents were neither widespread nor a reflection of Government policy. On the contrary, the report presents vivid evidence that the Ukraine Government has sought actively to safeguard the rights of all citizens within its jurisdiction. It is revealing that while Russia has sought to deny the realities cited in the United Nations latest report, the leaders of Ukraine are making a good-faith effort to implement its recommendations. Among other initiatives, they are moving ahead with constitutional reform, plans to decentralize power, preparations for the election and initiatives to curb the corruption that flourished so blatantly under the former President. Overall, the new Government has acted with tremendous restraint under extraordinarily difficult conditions.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“The report raises valid concerns about the introduction of Russian citizenship in a region that does not belong to Russia and about discrimination against Ukrainian citizens inside their own country and a plethora of practical issues related to property ownership, pensions, wages, health care, labour rights, education and access to justice. The new report also examines the allegation repeated over and over again by Russian officials that there have been systematic attacks against ethnic Russians in Crimea and in eastern Ukraine and that Jewish communities have also come under threat. The reality is that there have been a few isolated incidents against individual members belonging to minority groups, and we should and do condemn those incidents.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“Since late February when the new Government assumed office, evidence of human rights abuses has decreased dramatically, except in Crimea, where Russian policies threaten the rights of Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and other minority groups. Let me emphasize that according to the new independent report, the only region of Ukraine that has suffered a rapid deterioration in human rights is the part over which the Government in Kyiv has least control. In Crimea, where the role of Russian authorities is as profound as it is illegal, journalists and human rights defenders have faced harassment and torture, censorship is common and the presence of paramilitary and soldiers "widely believed to be from the Russian Federation" has sharply inhibited freedom of expression.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“For purposes of establishing the truth, it is essential that the United Nations human rights monitoring mission go forward with its work and that it have full access to every part of the country, including Crimea. The United States commends the Ukraine Government for facilitating the mission's activities and for supporting the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) ongoing efforts to monitor every aspect of the scheduled 25 May elections. Now let us consider some of the truths set forth in the High Commissioner's report. From December 2013 until February 2014, the Berkut special police and other elements of the federal security apparatus used excessive force against anti-Government protesters. That deadly violence did not end until former President Yanukovych abandoned his office and fled the country.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“We appreciate the Government's statements that any actions it undertakes will be gradual and responsible. Contrary to the conspiracy theories put forth by the Russian representative today, we continue to call for restraint, privately and publicly. Obviously, the best way to de-escalate the situation is for the armed militants to leave the buildings that they have seized. While the report speaks to an earlier period in the crisis, it is important to note that even several weeks ago the monitoring mission had already received allegations that some ofthe people stoking unrest in the region were not Ukrainian citizens, but in fact agitators coming from the Russian Federation. Obviously, it is a critical question whether Russia is continuing its policy of seeking to destabilize and ultimately annex land from its neighbour.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“And there is substantial evidence of involvement from Russia, which is now diverting attention from its own actions, its own territorial expansion, its own fear- mongering, by trying to change the subject. Well, it will not work. The contrast between the actions of the Ukrainian Government and those of the Russian troops could not be starker. Ukrainian security forces have responded more carefully and in more measured ways to provocations in the east that would be difficult for any of us to accept in our own countries. The Ukrainian Government has repeatedly sought to negotiate with the armed groups that have seized public buildings and established unauthorized road blocks in eastern Ukraine, in an effort to resolve the situation peacefully through dialogue. Ukrainian officials have offered amnesty.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“Let us be clear: the actions the world witnessed in Crimea and the denials of Russian involvement in the lead up to its illegal annexation and occupation are repeating themselves in eastern Ukraine. Again, a region has been transformed almost overnight from a state of relative calm to manufactured unrest. Over the last several days, heavily armed pro-Russian separatists have seized the city administration, police stations and other Government buildings in 11 cities in Donetsk oblast. Every major city in the region has at least one building under occupation. It is clear that those actions were not a set of spontaneous events or home-grown, but rather a well-orchestrated professional campaign of incitement, separatism and sabotage of the Ukrainian State.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“Today's remarks by the representative of the Russian Federation, in which the independent report provided by the United Nations was disparaged - indeed, slandered as biased and unfounded - is deeply worrying. If we do not like the message, the Russian strategy appears to be, metaphorically, shoot the messenger. Even if those attacks are attacks on the entire international community, which asks the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide independent reporting, we urge the United Nations to continue to provide independent reporting and not to be deterred by slander and intimidation being practiced by those who do not like facts that have proven inconvenient and truths that credibly repute Russia's false and self-justifying claims.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“I wish to thank Assistant Secretary-General Simonovie for his briefing today and for his diligent work on this controversial issue. We meet today to discuss the work of the United Nations human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine and the timely report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. After weeks of Russian disinformation and propaganda, the report gives us yet another opportunity to focus on facts. The independent and impartial reporting we have heard today is essential to prevent the kind of distortions that may lead to further instability in an already combustible situation, a situation that continues to grow more dangerous every day.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7157 (2014) · source
“Tomorrow afternoon we will also have a chance to shine a spotlight on the horrors going in the darkness of North Korea. Our task is as straightforward as it is Vital - to ensure that when our successors gather in this Chamber two decades from now they will not speak of more lost opportunities and failures. Instead, their words will be of respect - respect for the comprehensive anti-atrocity steps we took together. Let them say in their time that we in our time moved beyond deadlock to unity, beyond remembrance to mobilization and beyond mere promises to the kind of bold and concrete actions that end wars and stop genocide before the searing pain it causes can be heard in the cries of those left behind.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“More countries should do their share, whether through soldiers, civilians, enablers or other forms of contribution. I echo my Rwandan colleague's point that, 20 years after the Rwandan genocide, we should have moved further beyond what he called "crisis improvisation". Further, we must enhance the bonds of trust between us. Historic differences within or between regional groups must neither lessen our capabilities nor diminish our willingness to act as one. Finally, we must ask every State to consider whether there is more that it can to do remove the political roadblocks that impede effective action. Again, with thousands of lives at stake in Syria and elsewhere, obstruction is untenable and cooperation is a moral and strategic imperative.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“Every day they are doing a cost-benefit analysis in their heads about whether the costs of moving forward exceed the benefits they see in their often warped perspective. We must also be innovative in taking advantage of new technology, like the unmanned aerial vehicles now being deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and even text messaging, which is being used to raise alarms, track the movements of outlaw groups, gather evidence of criminal Violations, and naturally we must always deliver aid to those in desperate need. We must also remember that preventing mass atrocities is a global responsibility requiring robust contributions from all. In particular, we need to train and equip peacekeepers who head into harm's way.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“Moving forward, we have to do a betterjob of confronting and defeating the practitioners of hate. Part of protecting against mass atrocities is preventing the conditions that allow them - rampant discrimination, denial of human dignity and the codification of bigotry. No one should be targeted for violence simply because of who are they or what they believe. In our collective effort to prevent mass atrocities, we must make creative use of every tool we have - human rights monitoring, diplomatic missions, technical assistance, arms embargoes, smart sanctions, peace operations, judicial inquiries, truth commissions, courts and other measures designed to influence the calculations of perpetrators who every day are deciding how far they are going to go.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“Yesterday, many of us attended an Arria formula meeting in which we saw graphic photographs taken in Syrian prisons showing systematic, industrial-style slaughter and forced starvation killings of approximately 11,000 detainees. Those photos were taken in just three of the 50 Syrian- run detention centres in Syria. To that, we can add the Syrian victims of chemical weapons attacks, the children felled by barrel bombs and those being starved to death in besieged towns and Villages or those executed by terrorist groups. Twenty years from now, how will we reflect on the Security Council's failure to help those people? How will we explain Council disunity on Syria 20 years after Rwanda? Too often we have done too little, waited too long or been caught unprepared by events that should not have surprised us.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“We have intensified diplomatic efforts to restore peace in South Sudan, and the United Nations there has not only provided emergency supplies to populations displaced by recent fighting but it has importantly opened its doors in an unprecedented way, allowing its bases to become islands of protection. The Africans and French deployed to try to prevent mass atrocities in the Central African Republic. We quickly authorized a commission of inquiry, and now we have authorized a United Nations peace operation to address the unfolding catastrophe there. We must get African, European and United Nations forces deployed urgently. Overall, however, it is both fair and profoundly unsatisfying to admit that our successes have been partial and that the crimes against humanity that persist are devastating.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“As a global community, we recognize that mass atrocities may emerge from a variety of scenarios. We have begun to identify telltale patterns and indicators. We have agreed on the value of vigilance to prevent unstable situations from unravelling. We have affirmed - all of us - the duty of each Government to protect its citizens from mass atrocities. We have stated our preparedness under the Charter of the United Nations to respond when States require help in fulfilling that duty. In some cases, from Timor-Leste and Liberia to Sierra Leone, Libya, Kenya and C6te d'Ivoire, we have joined with local partners to end or deter violence. Recently, we made progress in assisting the Democratic Republic of the Congo and strengthening the United Nations in their fight against those militia who continue to attack and rape civilians.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“I mention that last dimension in particular because during the genocide in Rwanda, while 800,000 people were killed, one American Member of Congress, Patricia Schroeder, explained the United States response by noting that her home state of Colorado was home to a research organization that studied Rwanda's imperilled gorilla population. As she puzzled publicly over the United States response and described United States citizen engagement, she said "there are some groups terribly concerned about the gorillas. But - it sounds terrible - people just do not know what can be done about the people". All of the political pressures cut in favour of avoiding action rather than creatively responding to help a people in desperate need. Political calculuses should not dictate our response.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“In so doing, we benefit from instruments that did not exist two decades ago, including the Office of the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, the responsibility to protect doctrine, improvements in regional peacekeeping capabilities - and in that regard I would note in particular the participation of Rwandan peacekeepers who perform exceptionally and admirably in the cause of atrocity prevention in the Central African Republic and elsewhere - more nimble deployment of accountability mechanisms, and a welcome surge within civil society of anti-genocide awareness and activism.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“As President Clinton has said many times, the failure of the United States to act during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is his greatest regret. All of us, whether we were in Government or not, in the Security Council or not, must look inward to consider what more we might have done. Today we consider again the paramount question of lessons learned - learned not just in theory or on paper but truly understood, felt and applied in practice.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“Every single day the people of Rwanda, including many at the Rwandan Mission here in New York, and their families live without those who matter most to them. Two hundred people had to be carried out of Amahoro Stadium last week, convulsed by grief. Millions more live with that daily despair. The stadium itself where we sat was the stadium that during the genocide sheltered 12,000 people who lived in complete squalor under the eye of General Dallaire's dwindling force. The stadium itself will always be a reminder of what the United Nations might have been able to accomplish ifits top officials and the United States and other leading Member States had sent United Nations reinforcements rather than extracting most of the peacekeepers on the ground.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“Nine days ago, I had the privilege to join representatives from across the globe in Kigali to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. We bowed our heads in remembrance of the more than 800,000 men, women and children who were so ruthlessly deprived of life. We rededicated ourselves to assisting in the still-unfinished task of recovery, reconciliation and reintegration and joined with President Kagame in saluting the unbreakable Rwandan spirit, as he put it, that has enabled the people of that beautiful land to build a better future without forgetting the past. As dignitaries sat solemnly at the ceremony, however, we began to hear the screams and wails of Rwandan women - mothers, wives, daughters and sisters - who gave haunting voice to what every survivor must feel, and not just on anniversaries.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“I thank the Government of Nigeria for organizing this important meeting. I thank the Deputy Secretary-General for his remarks and his commitment, and that of the United Nations to doing better. My appreciation goes as well to Ambassador Keating for sharing with us his experience and many insights. All who are privileged to serve on the Security Council must learn from what the world let happen in 1994. Ambassador Keating has helped us to do that. Nigeria, New Zealand, Spain and the Czech Republic were given special praise last week by the Rwandan Government for their efforts during the genocide. Now, thanks to Ambassador Keating, we can add Argentina and Djibouti to that short list of those that were up-standers - not bystanders - during the worst horrors to occur since the Holocaust.”
2014-04-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7155 (2014) · source
“It will require that the Russian Federation work to de-escalate the situation in the light of the armed takeover of those buildings. If, in fact, the Russian Federation is interested in peace and in upholding its role as an enforcer of international peace and security, then it will engage quickly and with a wholly different degree of conviction, urgency and truthfulness than it has up to this point.”
2014-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7154 (2014) · source
“I would refer back to my French colleague's comment that those claims are rooted in some idea that the Internet does not exist and that people cannot see for themselves that they are not protests and they are not demonstrations. They are professional forces carrying weapons - Russian- made weapons, as it happens - and carrying out sophisticated, coordinated military operations across a substantial number of eastern Ukrainian cities. They are not demonstrations. They are not protests. They are military operations. Finally, the credibility of the Russian Federation has been gravely undermined. That said, we remain eager and willing to talk about how to de-escalate the situation. That will require that the Russian Federation pull back its forces, which are ominously stationed and massed at the eastern Ukrainian border.”
2014-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7154 (2014) · source
“Thirdly, while we would like to place our faith in talks with the Russian Federation, the European Union and Ukraine, it is hard to reconcile the behaviour of the Russian Federation, the propaganda of the Russian Federation and the military actions of the Russian Federation - which range from the massing of 40,000 troops on the border to the subversive activities inside Ukraine - with their appeal for diplomacy and de-escalation. It is an appeal that we wish were in fact sincere. Fourthly, a few times, the representative of the Russian Federation has described what is happening in the eastern cities as protests and demonstrations.”
2014-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7154 (2014) · source
“I will be brief, but in response to my colleague from the Russian Federation, I would like to say just a few things. First, the United States has constantly called for de-escalation and urged restraint. That has been our consistent policy. Our consistent statements have made clear that military force is not the answer, and we have commended the Ukrainians, frankly, for enduring more than probably any country in the United Nations could or would endure without using force. Therefore, there have been no shortage of efforts at diplomacy. Secondly, it is not the United States that has escalated the situation, it is the Russian Federation.”
2014-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7154 (2014) · source
“That will benefit all the Ukrainian people, including minorities. Next week, Vice-President Biden will visit Ukraine. We strongly support concluding the agreement between Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund so that the international community can bolster Ukraine's economy. And we will support in every way we can Ukraine's elections at the end of May so that Ukraine can advance its political transition and look to a peaceful future.”
2014-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7154 (2014) · source
“We continue efforts to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine and find a diplomatic path forward, which is why Secretary Kerry will participate in the Geneva talks on 17 April, which will include Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. But ifthose are to be successful, Russia will have to explain why its forces continue to mass on the Ukrainian border - at least 40,000 forces - and it will have to come with constructive ideas on how to de-escalate and resolve the armed attacks on buildings in eastern Ukraine. The United States stands with Ukraine and the fundamental principle that the future of Ukraine must be decided by the Ukrainian people. We also stand with international law and norms and the fundamental principle that borders are not suggestions. On Monday, we will conclude the $1 billion loan guarantee for Ukraine.”
2014-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7154 (2014) · source
“The Council does not have to take my word for it - or even that of the Ukrainian Government - it need only witness for itself the videos of professional military shepherding thugs into a building in Kramatorsk; the photographs showing the so-called concerned citizens taking over Sloviansk, equipped exactly like the elite troops that took Crimea; or the video of a military operation in Krasny Liman by armed men with the same equipment. The Council has heard laments about instability, as ifinstability were organic. But the fact is that this is the saddest kind of instability: it is completely man-made. This instability was written and choreographed in and by Russia.”
2014-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7154 (2014) · source