YouSaid · the spoken record

Sarah Cliffe

lines on the record

10

first

2020-08-12

most recent

2020-08-12

sittings or episodes

1

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

1. “The Council often refers to issues such as pandemics as non-traditional issues: there has, of course, been well-merited resistance to securitizing development. But these issues are not really non-traditional: if one were to ask the world’s military agencies, most of them have planned for years for the impact of pandemics, extreme natural disasters and so forth, as potential security risks. Analysing the risk does not, of course, mean that the Council should try to direct health or economic activities. But this is an example of an extreme public health and economic shock that deserves to qualify as a peacebuilding risk. Let the Security Council raise its voice not to “securitize” the issue, but precisely so that it does not become an international peace and security disaster.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

2. “Domestically, we need to embrace the message that even those well-known revolutionaries at The Financial Times have been writing — that this needs to be paid for by higher taxes from those who have reaped a larger share of recent gains. Internationally, developed countries need to sustain and increase aid — which is still a drop in the bucket compared to domestic stimulus packages — and ensure global access to vaccine and treatment technology. Why raise some of these socioeconomic issues in the Security Council? This is my fifth and last point: these problems may become international threats to peace and security if they are not addressed. The way to get them addressed, to raise their profile, is to raise them in political and security as well as developmental terms.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

3. “By embracing conflict-sensitive approaches that are sovereignty-supporting, the United Nations can also help Governments address risks before they escalate — for example, through subnational monitoring of food prices, serious investment to allow elections to proceed safely and reducing inequalities or corruption in the COVID-19 response. Nationally led prevention is also a promising area for greater alignment with the international financial institutions. Fourthly, regarding investment in universal health and equal access to vaccines, let me say that this is an international and not simply a domestic concern, because the pandemic has taught us that no one is safe until everyone is safe.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

4. “The Council could engage more closely with regional and subregional bodies such as the African Union and the regional economic commissions to amplify the call. The Council could also encourage the Secretary-General to report on ceasefire openings and implementation, in line with resolution 2532 (2020). Thirdly, there is an opportunity to use a sustaining peace lens from early in the COVID-19 response. The initial health crisis is now an economic crisis, and without careful action can become a political and security crisis. The United Nations can help by linking its responses across humanitarian, development and peacebuilding areas and by building local capacities, State-citizen trust and a whole-of-society response to the pandemic.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

5. “We are seeing in opinion polls in all regions unprecedented demand for more international collective action. In effect, people have been brutally reminded of what we have Governments and international cooperation for — that without them there are some forms of crisis that cannot be solved by any one individual or country alone. However, trust bubbles typically last less than a year if no action is taken to sustain them; so this is an opportunity, but it is a time-limited one. My second point concerns the call for ceasefires issued by the Secretary- General and supported in resolution 2532 (2020). There is still an opportunity to strengthen implementation, because in many countries COVID-19 is far from being under control and humanitarian needs are increasing.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

6. “Fifthly, I turn to the issue of inequality in access to public-health goods. Developing countries’ difficulty in procuring personal protective equipment, test kits, medicines and equipment has already widened the gap in capacity to suppress COVID-19 and has damaged trust. This gap is set to widen further when vaccines are found. Current dynamics over vaccine development see developed countries outbidding each other in advance orders, with little capacity left for the developing world. These five major drivers of conflict may all increase in the months to come. Many of them are universal, and indeed we have seen tensions rise in rich countries. But they hit disproportionately on already conflict-affected countries. Let me turn to positive opportunities for peacebuilding. My first point is on trust and multilateral action.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

7. “However, we are seeing local spikes in food prices in conflict zones in many countries, such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and Yemen. Food prices are the typical risk to watch, historically, for conflict levels. Fourthly, as regards trends in remittances, trade and migration, remittances are projected by the World Bank to decline by $110 billion this year, or equivalent to more than two thirds of the entire global official development assistance budget. Within the 10 countries that depend most on remittance inflows are eight that are post-conflict or conflict-affected and three that are still on the agenda of the Security Council — Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan. Trade and migration issues post-COVID also have the potential for conflict between countries.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

8. “Disputed elections are a trigger for conflict, and the pandemic makes disputes more likely because of difficulties in access and monitoring. Postponing elections is sometimes the only responsible action to take, but that will mean rising pressure for elections in late 2020 or 2021, when we are now likely to see double the number of countries holding elections from what was originally scheduled. In some countries, the pandemic is also seen as a pretext to postpone elections, shrink civic space and adopt increasingly authoritarian approaches. Thirdly, concerning food insecurity, we already face a global hunger crisis; but at present that is because people do not have income to buy food, not because they cannot get food.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

9. “This shock is the deepest since the Second World War and the broadest since 1870. The projections for 2020 are continually worsening, and I think that we know now that we will be at not a 2 per cent but at a 5-6 per cent global contraction. By coincidence, five percentage points is the level at which we have seen in research major increases, around 50 per cent, in conflict risk. The impact is also exacerbating inequality between different groups, a factor that we also know increases conflict. Secondly, there are practical problems in convening peace processes and elections. Physical meetings are important for trust and confidence-building: the intra-Afghan negotiations, for example, have faced difficulties due to COVID-19 conditions.”

   2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source

10. “It is an honour to participate in this meeting. I will not take up time going over the tragic impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in terms of human suffering or the immediate effects in countries on the agenda of the Security Council, with which I know all members are very familiar. Rather, I will focus on two main questions: how will the second-generation impacts of the pandemic likely affect conflict? What opportunities for peacebuilding may be present? I will cover five quick points under each question. On the impacts, I think that we have to accept that the pandemic has exposed fragility in all countries, in our health systems and our economic, social and political fabric. Some of the key dynamics that affect conflict risk are the following. The first is the still-growing economic shock and rising inequality.”

    2020-08-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/799 (2020) · source