YouSaid · the spoken record

Prasad

lines on the record: 93
first: 2018-08-29
most recent: 2022-05-19
sittings or episodes: 12
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The United Nations cannot permit and must not accept the weaponization of food that is under way. It must be called out and condemned. Unfair trade practices that restrict a country’s ability to access food and other essential commodities must be called out. We support the Secretary-General’s efforts through the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance, which we hope and expect will lead to a substantial, speedy and coherent global response at the scale needed to tackle this most urgent challenge of our time.”
2022-05-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9036Resumption1 (2022) · source
“We have been reminding the Security Council and the global community that a temperature rise above 1.5°C poses a threat to the global food supply, and that increases beyond that level could lead to irreversible changes in food security. During earlier discussions on climate and security, many countries have argued that there is growing evidence that repeated climate catastrophes are transforming stable regions into ones that face heightened instability and fragility. We are witnessing new threats to peace and security, and this one comes from food. The way in which the Security Council takes forward the advice of so many Member States will shape the world’s ability to come up with an effective, substantial response to more diverse security threats.”
2022-05-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9036Resumption1 (2022) · source
“We need a global financial architecture that can respond at the speed and scale appropriate to a global crisis such as the one that we are discussing today. Sadly, we are also witnessing fractures that are similar to what we saw in the early phase of COVID-19, when many countries locked in supplies, prohibited exports and added a slew of restrictive trade practices. Once again, those hit small States the hardest. As a reminder, with regard to climate change, even at an increase of 1.2°C, where we are now, large food exporters are facing devastating heatwaves that are having an adverse impact on food exports.”
2022-05-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9036Resumption1 (2022) · source
“The skyrocketing prices of essential items are a gut punch to our import- dependent island State. The war in Ukraine is having an intense impact on small island States such as ours, and all of that is coming at a time when we are struggling with the devastating effects of climate and COVID-19. Since signing the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Fiji has faced 14 cyclones that have collectively wiped out close to 50 per cent of our gross domestic product and decimated the livelihoods of a large proportion of our population. We have used every fiscal resource we can muster to respond to those challenges, but the global food crisis has also exposed something we have known for a long time, which is that the global financial architecture is largely broken. It does not work for States.”
2022-05-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9036Resumption1 (2022) · source
“Our primary concern must be an immediate cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to the areas affected and a withdrawal of military forces in accordance with internationally recognized borders as soon as possible. We must make every effort to promote resilience in global food-supply networks. In doing so, however, we cannot afford to limit resources and attention to our other major challenges, including COVID-19 recovery and climate change, which remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods and security of Pacific island peoples. I would now like to make a few remarks in my national capacity as the Permanent Representative of Fiji. The world is facing a volatile cocktail of COVID-19, climate and food security crises.”
2022-05-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9036Resumption1 (2022) · source
“Tonga, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and several other Pacific countries have seen the price of fuel and essential food products increase several times over since the beginning of the conflict. That hurts Pacific island countries in another way, through higher transportation and fuel costs and the impact on their fisheries, which many Pacific countries rely on heavily for food security and their economic development. The western and central Pacific Ocean accounts for almost 60 per cent of the global tuna catch, around two thirds of which is taken from the waters of Forum member countries — and on behalf of which I am making this statement — and makes a significant contribution to the diets of people in other parts of the world, as well as being a critical part of our island economies.”
2022-05-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9036Resumption1 (2022) · source
“Our Blue Pacific continent, of which we are all members, is already facing substantially higher fuel, fertilizer and food prices. All of that is contributing to a growing problem of food shortages. A prolonged conflict will derail our tenuous economic recovery and pose a significant threat to our sustainable development efforts. Most Pacific island countries are importers of food and energy. Rising prices for both inflicts significant hardships on families and communities that are already suffering from the effects of COVID-19 and recent disasters, especially those who lost jobs during the pandemic. The conflict in Ukraine is exacerbating supply- chain disruptions. The relentless increases in energy prices and shipping and manufacturing costs have hit small island States especially hard.”
2022-05-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9036Resumption1 (2022) · source
“I am honoured to be delivering this statement on behalf of the 14 States members of the Pacific Islands Forum with a presence here at the United Nations. I want to express the Pacific Islands Forum members’ appreciation to the United States and to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for convening and presiding over this high-level open debate, and to thank our briefers from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Programme for their excellent contributions this morning. The invasion of Ukraine has fuelled a grave humanitarian crisis. It has dangerously increased the pressure on global food markets, which were already struggling with soaring prices, supply-chain disruptions and an uneven recovery from the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.”
2022-05-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9036Resumption1 (2022) · source
“The safety and protection of women peacebuilders and human rights defenders is therefore fundamental. That calls for strengthened capacities within and across peace operations in a variety of areas, as well as for more detailed briefings to the Security Council and, in turn, to the General Assembly on violations of the rights of women peacebuilders and mediators. Finally, Fiji reiterates that one of the gravest threats to peace and security is climate change. The impacts of climate change on conflicts are most intensely experienced by women and girls. The climate and security agenda and the women and peace and security agenda are one and the same. They are not separate agendas, and they are not silos. The faster the Council accepts that, the better off we will be in implementing the women and peace and security agenda.”
2022-01-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8949Resumption1 (2022) · source
“We find that when women are engaged, are seated at the negotiation table and participate across all processes, settlements are more likely to be inclusive, development outcomes are more likely to stick, and peace is more likely to last. We have been asked to reflect on some ways forward. The Security Council has observed that women peacebuilders, mediators and civil society organizations receive less than 5 per cent of the total financing available for such work. That primary obstacle, which is true for both bilateral and multilateral assistance supporting such work, needs to be addressed. It would be good to know how far the United Nations itself has come in redressing that. It would be a very good start. Resolution 1325 (2000) emphasizes that women should be involved fully and equally in the prevention of conflicts.”
2022-01-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8949Resumption1 (2022) · source
“Women peacekeepers contribute unique insights to identifying sexual violence and preventing the appropriation of humanitarian assistance. They are better at identifying the weaponization of food and health care. Throughout the Pacific region, each time the role of women in peacebuilding has been mainstreamed, significant outcomes have been achieved. The role of women in the peaceful political transitions in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville has provided important lessons. The role of women in defusing intercommunity conflicts in the Solomon Islands through a regional peace operation has been extremely instructive as well. Across those conflicts, the strong partnerships between the host Governments, Pacific regional agencies and the United Nations were compelling enablers for increasing the participation of women.”
2022-01-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8949Resumption1 (2022) · source
“Women make up 56 per cent of Fijian police deployed to peacekeeping duties. We are proud of the deployment of an all-female section of the Fijian contingent of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force to manage one of the areas under the Force. Fiji is determined to continue systematically increasing the number of women in its military and police deployments across peacekeeping operations. That is not coincidental. As a long-time peacekeeping nation, it is something that Fiji has learned from its own deployments. Fiji has participated in United Nations peace operations for more than 40 years. We have learned from our own deployments that women peacekeepers are better at defusing tensions at checkpoints.”
2022-01-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8949Resumption1 (2022) · source
“The world is witnessing diverse threats to peace and security fuelled by the development of new high-technology and highly accessible weapons, the use of digital tools, climate change and dangerously growing inequality. However, across all of those drivers, conflicts always have a more disproportionate, intense and devastating impact on women and girls. Fiji is committed to systematically advancing the women and peace security agenda, as reflected across our society and politics. Domestically, resolution 1325 (2000) has without a doubt enabled a significant increase in the number of women in security institutions across the country, which in turn is reflected in the growing proportions of women who participate in police and military engagements in peace operations internationally.”
2022-01-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8949Resumption1 (2022) · source
“It is my honour to deliver this statement before the Security Council and the Norwegian presidency on the women and peace and security agenda. We are thankful to Norway, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the excellent civil society briefers for their remarks this morning. It is vital to the Council and a great tribute to its presidency that diverse voices are being heard on this peace and security agenda — one that is fundamental to its work and success. Peace operations have been demonstrating improved integration of humanitarian development into peacebuilding interventions, which is helpful. However, far more remains to be done in implementing resolution 1325 (2000) and other associated and relevant resolutions.”
2022-01-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8949Resumption1 (2022) · source
“For 30 years, we have consistently said that climate change is the most persistent and gravest threat to peace and security. We have reiterated that message before the Council time and again at every opportunity. Secondly, the Security Council is at a cusp. It can take a measured, small and necessary step forward by adopting the draft resolution under consideration. By doing so, the Council would be telling us, our communities and our people, who face constant dislocation, that this is also their Security Council. The Council would be telling thousands of Pacific Islanders today — in the Marshall Islands, in Kiribati, in the Solomon Islands, in Papua New Guinea — whose homes were flooded for the first time in one of the rarest of king tides, that this is also their Security Council.”
2021-12-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8923Resumption1 (2021) · source
“Against that backdrop, we are heartened and welcome the draft resolution co-sponsored by the Niger and Ireland and submitted for the Security Council’s consideration, and we urge its speediest adoption. The text before the Council provides a pragmatic way forward and a good starting point. I have two final observations to share. First, none of the small States of the Pacific were members of the Organization when the Charter of the United Nations was adopted, for if we had been, we might have helped the United Nations frame the security discussions differently. At no time in the Security Council’s 75-year history has a Pacific island ever sat on the Council, but at every opportunity, we have said to the Council that we see security and peace differently from others.”
2021-12-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8923Resumption1 (2021) · source
“At its most recent meeting, Fiji and Pacific island leaders issued the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Ocean Statement 2021, indicating that our maritime zones and the rights and entitlements that flow from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea shall continue to apply without reduction, notwithstanding any physical changes connected to climate change-related sea-level rise. That is Pacific island leaders doing the work of the Security Council. That Statement follows our Boe Declaration on Regional Security, in which our leaders assert that: “climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific.” I underscore that the Declaration does not say that climate change is the second-most important threat or one of the main threats, but the single greatest threat.”
2021-12-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8923Resumption1 (2021) · source
“Some are building nature-based solutions to protect communities from sea-level rise, which is helping to restore peace and stability. We hope that those lessons are also taken into account as we consider the draft resolution before the Council. The Security Council is at an important crossroads. How the Security Council takes forward the advice of many Member States in the General Assembly will shape how well and how substantively the world can respond to growing, more diverse threats to peace and security within regions and between countries. Allow me to convey to the Security Council two important messages from Fiji and Pacific leaders.”
2021-12-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8923Resumption1 (2021) · source
“Country after country has shown evidence that repeated climate catastrophes, combined with slow-onset climate change, are transforming stable regions into regions that now face heightened instability, growing fragility and intensifying conflict. Today we also heard about the rise of new weapons of war. One would have thought that those new weapons would be cyberweapons or high-tech weapons, but that is not so. The climate crisis has brought to the forefront new weapons of war — selective access to increasingly scarce water resources, fertile lands and homes unaffected by sea-level rise. We are also seeing strong positive trends, such as how Security Council peacekeeping interventions and Blue Helmets are investing in desilting lakes and river systems for the sake of peace and security.”
2021-12-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8923Resumption1 (2021) · source
“It is that simple, because the members of the Security Council are deeply aware that even at 1.2°C, the majority of Council’s peace interventions are engagements where climate crisis already shapes, exacerbates and defines the contours of conflict that our peacekeepers are trying to redress. This afternoon’s debate in the Security Council therefore must help to build climate resilience in ways that promote peace and stability, rather than lead to inaction, which would fuel conflict, instability and even possible State collapse. That is what is before the Council — not more, not less. Throughout the day and during earlier discussions on climate change and security, many countries shared their experiences with the Security Council.”
2021-12-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8923Resumption1 (2021) · source
“We are very heartened by the Niger’s sustained leadership throughout its Security Council tenure, as well as the efforts of Ireland, to maintain interest and actions on the debate on climate and security within the Security Council. At the recently concluded twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the world’s attention was focused on one number — 1.5°C. We left Glasgow with hope for 1.5°C, but that hope is hanging by a weak thread. Securing 1.5°C is, by far, the most important peace and security investment that the world can make today.”
2021-12-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8923Resumption1 (2021) · source
“It is time to raise our climate ambition, to rekindle our multilateral spirit and apply ourselves collectively to tackle what Fiji’s Prime Minister describes as the battle of our lives.”
2020-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699Resumption1 (2020) · source
“The founders of the United Nations, opening the Charter with their vision “to save successive generations from the scourge of war”, showed great foresight. They did not limit or constrain the meaning of war in a definition based on guns and weapons. The climate crisis has all the intrinsic features of war — it kills human beings; water, food and insecurities are weaponized in climate-induced conflicts; and as in all wars, women and children bear the brunt of suffering and pain — and we are losing this war. To win the climate war may seem like an impossible proposition, but at the General Assembly, Nelson Mandela reminds us every day that it always seems impossible until it is done. As we mark our seventy-fifth anniversary, it is time to recommit ourselves to our Charter.”
2020-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699Resumption1 (2020) · source
“It does not take a rocket scientist to tell us that stresses that are caused by the climate crisis, whether on land or sea, are fuel for international terrorism and extremists. Our biodiversity, oceans, forests and lands are threatened by global warming. There are no front lines. There are no safe areas. The melting glaciers in the North, the dying coral reefs of blue Pacific in the South, the charred biodiversity across Australia are all frontlines in the climate crisis. Yet the gravest threat to peace and security comes from the slow-onset impacts of the climate crisis — one impact after another, repeated year in, year out, can transform stable States into unstable and fragile States. Nowhere is that felt more intensely than in small States.”
2020-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699Resumption1 (2020) · source
“Not all the current challenges could have been imagined by the framers of our Charter. Today the world faces a new war of a type that the drafters of the Charter could not have imagined 75 years ago. The Pacific Island Forum leaders have declared climate crisis as the gravest security threat facing the Pacific islands. We started 2020 with the tragic expression of that grave challenge: the bushfires across Australia tell us we are at war with the planet. The majority of United Nations peace operations are today in regions that face some type of climate-induced stress: water stress, food insecurity, destroyed livelihoods — all are consequences of climate change that fuel intra- and inter-State conflicts.”
2020-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699Resumption1 (2020) · source
“Regional organizations play an increasingly critical role in assisting the Security Council in its peace and security responsibilities. They understand local dynamics. They have connections and a growing capacity to play a critical role in the prevention of conflicts and building peace. The Pacific has provided an excellent demonstration of that role in assisting a fellow member of the Pacific Islands Forum — Solomon Islands — to transition out of conflict. Going forward, that link needs to be strengthened. At the time the Charter was agreed, Fiji was not a free country; we acquired our independence twenty- five years later. We are proud to share the fiftieth anniversary of our independence with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations this year; both are equally important to us.”
2020-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699Resumption1 (2020) · source
“When the Council fails to agree, conflicts become protracted, women and children suffer the most and many lives are lost — it is that simple. There is a wide range of issues that demand the Council’s attention — the heightened tensions in the Middle East; international terrorism; risks arising from new technologies; nuclear proliferation; and the 13 existing peace operations. The Secretary-General, in his briefings this week, spoke about geopolitical fractures and the growing tide of nationalism that is harming multilateralism. He spoke about growing mistrust in the United Nations. I could not agree with him more. All these challenges mean we need a Council that is decisive; that demonstrates purpose and urgency; and that exercises flexibility and creativity but ultimately acts within the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations.”
2020-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699Resumption1 (2020) · source
“I wish to congratulate Viet Nam on assuming the presidency of the Security Council and for having convened this debate, as well as to congratulate all the new members of the Security Council. The United Nations is commemorating 75 years since its founding. The United Nations was founded, as per the opening sentence of the Charter, with a vision to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. That responsibility ultimately lies with the Security Council. The Security Council sits with that burden. That burden could not be clearer in relation to developments in the Middle East over the past few days. The Security Council has since its founding influenced international peace and security. When it acts with speed, it always prevents conflict. When its members act in concert, it saves many thousands of lives.”
2020-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699Resumption1 (2020) · source
“Those commitments respond to the women and peace and security agenda as well as the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. Far more important, however, they respond to our own insights derived from 40 years of peacekeeping. Women peacekeepers are better at diffusing tensions and identifying early signs of conflict-related sexual violence. Women are always more insightful in identifying early-warning conflict stressors. The full version of our statement will be circulated promptly.”
2019-11-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649Resumption2 (2019) · source
“Remarkably, men benefit a lot more when security is returned. The United Nations is also paying more attention to the role ofwomen in United Nations policing. United Nations policing - this week especially - is already playing important roles in mediating climate-induced conflicts, such as around livestock grazing rights and access to water. That role will only become more pronounced. The increased participation of women in policing is a very important part of the solution, but it is only a starting point. Fiji is proud that women make up over 40 per cent of Fijian police officers deployed in United Nations policing operations today in South Sudan and Darfur. We are close to achieving the 18 per cent target for women in all United Nations peace operations.”
2019-11-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649Resumption2 (2019) · source
“All of those affect women harshly, severely and with greater brutality. United Nations peace operations and the Organizations political interventions in conflict zones will increasingly need to respond to that. There are still far too many steps to take. The need for the equal participation of women in peace processes, mediation, conflict resolution and peacebuilding cannot be overstated. Peace is more likely to survive stresses if women are centre-stage. We also know that fragile regions are likely to return to conflict and that women suffer disproportionately when they do. When women are brought into the heart of peacebuilding, we find far better integration of humanitarian, development and security interventions. The result is the durability of peace. The chances of sliding back into conflict are reduced as a result.”
2019-11-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649Resumption2 (2019) · source
“The Pacific Islands Forum's Boe Declaration of 2018 recognized climate change as the single greatest threat faced by our people and countries - a perspective increasingly shared by many other countries. Globally, we know that the vast majority of the United Nations peacekeeping operations today, its political missions and its policing missions are in regions severely affected by the climate crisis. One or another expression of the crisis may have fuelled or contributed to a worsening of the levels of conflict. The women and peace and security framework will increasingly need to be a climate crisis-informed one. It is not so today. Food is weaponized in conflicts, water is weaponized in conflicts, health and education are weaponized in conflicts and gender is weaponized in conflicts.”
2019-11-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649Resumption2 (2019) · source
“The Secretary- General's report confirms that we are facing a growing implementation deficit, the United Nations is facing a trust deficit and both of those trends are fuelling cynicism in our commitment to the women and peace and security agenda. We shall ignore them at our own peril. There is one aspect of the United Nations women and peace and security agenda related to United Nations peacekeeping that I want to especially highlight. More and more of the peacekeeping interventions are in areas exposed to the climate crisis, whereas more and more conflicts are triggered or intensified by it. Water stress, desertification, depletion of food resources and extreme weather events all fuel and intensify conflict.”
2019-11-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649Resumption2 (2019) · source
“I thank you, Madam President, for convening this resumed debate. The Secretary-General calls for bold and urgent action in his report (S/2019/800). He has also reminds Member States that commitments have not been matched by action. In his briefing to the Security Council on 29 October, the Secretary-General noted alarming increases in political violence targeting women in conflict-affected zones. He reported an alarming increase in conflict-related sexual violence. The Secretary-General reminded us that deep-seated inequalities meant that women are far less likely to access education, health and economic opportunities than men in conflict-affected areas. The rhetoric and implementation gap is heart-wrenching.”
2019-11-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8649Resumption2 (2019) · source
“No element of this can be held hostage to financial and administrative constraints. The lives of peacekeepers, as well as the lives of people living in conflict zones where peacekeepers are deployed, are dependent on this. In conclusion, peace operations give space to small TCCs to make their contributions to the global efforts of the United Nations. Small States like Fiji also sometimes bring highly valued expertise and unique soft skills that are increasingly necessary in peace operations. I hope that peace operations will continue to welcome the participation of small States and value the contributions and the expertise that they bring to our global efforts.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“More and more drivers of conflict are climate induced, such as water scarcity and control by armed groups of humanitarian access following climate-induced catastrophes. Fiji has developed a World Health Organization-certified medical unit that can be co-deployed in climate change-induced and other humanitarian disasters in peace operations in conflict settings, if needed. Peace operations are by far the most important intervention that the United Nations as a system makes across the world. It is through peace operations that multilateralism can best demonstrate its power and its force for good. It is critical, therefore, that United Nations operations be well supported and that financial support be predictable over the medium term. The Secretary-General's efforts to reform peace operations need to be fully supported.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“We are working with Australia and New Zealand, our regional partners, to combine our expertise in training and preparation for peace missions. This is proving to have significant benefits not only for us, as a small troop- contributing country (TCC), but also for our partners. Australia and New Zealand are developing even greater levels of interoperability in peace operations. As a small country, we have limited resources, but Fiji is offering its support to other Pacific Island small States so that they can participate in our police and military training programmes for their future opportunities to be involved in United Nations missions. Finally, I must yet again draw the Council's attention to the climate crisis, peace operations and the link between them.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“Women peacekeepers also bring skills that enable missions to build positive rapports with communities that are useful in identifying, for example, sexual exploitation, abuse and other human rights violations early. This is where interventions are most effective. I take this opportunity to thank the Governments of the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, which are assisting Fiji in increasing the numbers of senior women officers in our peace engagements and developing specialized capabilities for their participation in such operations. We are also working with Australia to improve force protection capabilities. Fiji has taken a far-reaching and innovative approach to developing new partnerships.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“We look forward to this continuing partnership with all five permanent members of the Council as we build and enhance our capabilities. Peacekeeping missions need financing that is both predictable and sustainable to meet the requirements of their mandates in an era where conflicts very quickly become very complex. The design of peace operations in ways that combine development and political processes can only be done credibly if financial support for missions are predictable over the medium term. We have some distance to go still. We understand the need to improve the level of participation of women in all peace operations. This is significant in terms of reducing fatalities, as numbers have shown, as well as broadening opportunities for peacebuilding and overall success.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“Fiji pays extensive attention to bringing these soft skills into its preparedness for peace operations. Expecting peacekeeping missions to do more with less is a mistake. Conflicts are not static; they shift and, more often than not, intensify. One day, a land dispute may be the main driver of increased fighting and, another day, water shortages may become that driver in the same conflict area. This requires agility, flexibility and capabilities across peace missions. We are working with all permanent members of the Security Council - Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States ~ to enhance our capabilities, increase our agility and better prepare ourselves for peace operations. and be able to meet the new requirements.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“This often calls for new training, better force protection and new and highly specialized skills. Peacekeepers need to be able to better protect themselves due to the higher number of actors in conflict zones. They need to have the skills to identify and respond to the special needs of many groups and communities. The rise of an era of asymmetric conflicts, in which groups increasingly and systematically abuse women, children and vulnerable groups to influence power dynamics, calls for a step change in peacekeeping capabilities. Many of these capabilities are essentially soft in nature. Peacekeepers need to be able to interact with people and communities better; they need to be able to identify systemic exploitation early and not late; and they need to be able to build positive rapports with communities.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“These apply equally to people and communities that live in regions where United Nations peace operations are deployed. We often overlook that simple fact. When the United Nations does peacekeeping well, we save lives, we promote cohesion in communities, which is so necessary for development to take place, and we are able to demonstrate progress across the SDGs as a result. When we do peacekeeping poorly, politics and development are unable to help communities transition themselves out of conflict, making the SDGs even more distant for those who live in conflict-affected areas. Fiji wholeheartedly supports the Secretary- General's Action for Peacekeeping initiative. Today, United Nations peacekeepers face far more complex and asymmetric conflicts.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“When we fail them, we fail the communities and the people living in those regions. Fiji welcomes the Secretary-General's reforms to make the United Nations more effective. Doing so means that development and human rights must be central elements of the peace and security perspectives that frame United Nations peace operations. Fragmented approaches to peacebuilding come at a great cost to the United Nations. Without inclusive political processes, peacekeeping is ineffective; without development, peace cannot sustain itself. We know these interlinkages only too well. We know that the costs to the people and communities living in conflict is too high when United Nations peacekeeping fails to undertake a cohesive approach. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) list the interconnected development goals that Member States have signed up to.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for giving me this opportunity to address the Council. I congratulate you on reassuming the presidency in this very difficult and challenging month. I welcome Under-Secretary-General Lacroix's challenging and far-reaching observations this morning that invited the Security Council and all Member States to reflect deeply. United Nations peace operations are always about people and communities in the end. One year has passed since we began to implement the Secretary-General's reforms to make the United Nations more effective by focussing more on delivering peace and promoting the protection and development of communities in conflict. Today, over 100,000 military, police and civilian staff serve in missions across the world to deliver on this ambition.”
2019-09-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8612 (2019) · source
“The Security Council may want to call on the Secretariat to provide fresh proposals to improve the mechanisms, expand the obligations of parties and improve the capabilities of the United Nations peacekeepers and specialized agencies in order to aggressively reduce the unacceptable levels of grave violations of the rights of children in conflict zones. A step change is needed. That is the minimum we can do to make the Security Council and the United Nations relevant to the 140 million children living in high-intensity conflict zones, who look to us with great hope and with their prayers today.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“The SDGs provide a framework and a lens through which the United Nations system as a whole can interact cohesively with the authorities in conflict zones and systematically across all phases of conflict. As they do so, they will expand opportunities for development and thereby expand opportunities for the successful reintegration of children. When children are coerced through fear and manipulation to take up arms, we cause irreparable damage to their lives and to the future of their communities. We take away their humanity when they are locked up. Children associated with armed groups are victims 4 nothing more and nothing less. The United Nations system must do much better in working with highly specialized civil society agencies in reintegrating children at a considerably increased speed and scale.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“They allow positive rapport to be built between peacekeepers and local communities. This increases the chances of peacekeepers identifying abuse, exploitation and grave violations of the rights of children early and more systematically. These soft skills increase the chances of identifying the weaponization of food, health and other services in conflict zones. The blunt truth remains that more children will die today from the deliberate denial of food and health care than from weapons. We, as Member States, have given ourselves the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the protection of children cuts across nearly all of them. The SDGs apply equally to communities and children living in conflict zones.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Women peacekeepers are far better at identifying sexual violence faced by children early on. Women in medical support units help overcome deep barriers that victims 4 especially girls - face in accessing medical, psychosocial and other forms of support. On the part of the United Nations, in peace operations there is a need to better prepare missions for child protection in complex conflicts, including by increasing the number of women in policing, military, corrections and all areas of peace operations. Fiji is committed to strengthening its own capabilities in this area and in better preparing for peace operations. Fiji has been participating in United Nations peacekeeping for the past 40 years. We understand that the soft skills that peacekeepers bring to communities are paramount.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Peacekeepers have the reach and capacity to deliver comfort, security and protection. United Nations peacekeeping operations also provide highly specialized skills through their child protection advisers. Since 2001, child protection advisers have been deployed in United Nations peacekeeping missions around the world. They are currently deployed in six United Nations peacekeeping missions and it is paramount that they continue to be well resourced. This function needs to be considerably enhanced and expanded, however. Today, there are only five child protection specialists in United Nations peace operations across the world. This suggests that we are not matching our words with resources. More women peacekeepers are an important part of a revamped, peacekeeping toolkit that is fit for purpose and can better protect children.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source
“Children are coerced to enter into this space as forced labour or sexual slaves and in other roles across these criminalized commodity chains. The space between children in armed conflict and children in slavery has therefore become increasingly grey. Educational and health facilities must remain designated prohibited areas for all parties involved in armed conflicts. Keeping armed parties away from schools is a key step in creating safe spaces for children in conflict zones. Peacebuilding and post-conflict development become so much harder when a whole generation of children are denied education during the conflict period. Fiji is a signatory to the Safe Schools Declaration and we urge all Member States that have not yet signed on to it to do so. UnitedNations peacekeeping plays an important role in protecting children in conflict zones.”
2019-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8591 (2019) · source