YouSaid · the spoken record

The Secretary-General

lines on the record: 436
first: 1992-01-31
most recent: 2023-12-08
sittings or episodes: 52
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

“Our strengthened cooperation with ASEAN is crucial to helping advance concrete steps in line with humanitarian principles and the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State. Those recommendations require urgent follow-up in their entirety, including actively creating the necessary conditions for the voluntary return in safety and dignity of Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons to their places of origin or choice. The United Nations also welcomes the constructive dialogue between ASEAN and China towards the maintenance of regional peace and maritime security. We look forward to the conclusion of a code of conduct in the South China Sea to help prevent maritime disputes.”
2020-01-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8711 (2020) · source
“I would like to thank Viet Nam, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia for hosting, on a rotating basis, the Triangular Partnership Project to improve the engineering capacity of peacekeepers in the region and beyond. Since its formation, in 1967, ASEAN has been engaged in many regional initiatives on quiet diplomacy, conflict prevention and peacebuilding in conflict situations. In 2011, the Security Council supported ASEAN’s diplomatic efforts to promote peaceful solutions to end border skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia. More recently, ASEAN’s engagement concerning the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has had enormous importance for the United Nations. It is essential that international efforts find a solution to the plight of displaced persons and refugees still living in desperate conditions.”
2020-01-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8711 (2020) · source
“Approximately 5,000 military and police personnel from seven ASEAN member States are currently serving in missions around the world. The increasing number of women peacekeepers deployed by ASEAN member States is a testament to ASEAN’s recognition of the critical roles that women peacekeepers can and must play in implementing mission mandates. All 10 ASEAN member States have endorsed the Action for Peacekeeping initiative, and we continue to work closely to implement shared commitments and ensure that peacekeeping remains fit for purpose. We are also grateful that six ASEAN countries have made pledges to the Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System.”
2020-01-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8711 (2020) · source
“I thank Viet Nam, as President of the Security Council and Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for 2020, for organizing this briefing. At this time of increasingly complex challenges for global peace and security, cooperative and inclusive multilateral efforts, including strong partnerships between the United Nations and regional organizations, are essential. Since its formalization in 2011, the comprehensive partnership between ASEAN and the United Nations has become an important component of the United Nations broad engagement with regional organizations. Today we are focusing on how ASEAN and the United Nations can strengthen their cooperation in addressing threats to peace and security. First, I would like to recognize the long-standing contributions of ASEAN member States to United Nations peacekeeping.”
2020-01-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8711 (2020) · source
“We must return to the framework that has kept us together. We must come home to the United Nations Charter. Strengthening our commitment to that resilient, adaptable and visionary document — and thus to the very notion of international cooperation itself — remains the most effective way to collectively face the global challenges of this grave moment, and the decade before us. The Charter compels us to do everything in our power to save people from the scourge of war and injustice. As we face new threats, but also new opportunities for a better world, that is the work that must define the seventy-fifth anniversary year.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“Finally, as we commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, I wish to direct a special message to the Security Council. The privilege of membership carries vital responsibilities to uphold the Charter’s tenets and values, particularly in preventing and addressing conflict. Present and past disagreements must not be an obstacle to action on today’s threats. We must avoid double standards; but perceptions of double standards must not be an excuse for no standards at all. War is never inevitable; it is a matter of choice — and often it is the product of easy miscalculations. Peace, too, is never inevitable; it is the product of hard work, and we must never take it for granted. At this time when global fault lines risk exploding, we must return to fundamental principles.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“Throughout its history the Security Council has adapted its work based on the changing nature of conflict and enhanced multilateral cooperation in peace and security. Peacekeeping is not mentioned in the Charter, but it is firmly rooted in its ideals and epitomizes the kind of collective action for peace that the Charter envisaged. Today some 100,000 United Nations peacekeepers protect civilians and promote peace in several of the most troubled regions of the world. United Nations peacekeeping remains a vital and cost-effective investment in global peace and security. But effective peacekeeping requires strong international support. The Action for Peacekeeping initiative stresses our shared commitment to make our peacekeeping missions stronger, safer and fit for the future.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“In addition to prevention, the Charter was visionary in imagining a world in which the United Nations worked dynamically with regional organizations to maintain international peace and security. While Chapter VIII predates most of our regional partners, it sets a framework for cooperation and division of labour. We are investing in regional partnerships in crucial new ways. I have put significant emphasis on a strategic partnership with the African Union, including through its Silencing the Guns initiative and its Agenda 2063. The European Union continues to provide strong support across our agenda. At the same time, we are working to strengthen ties with all other regional organizations. Among them, of course, is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, so ably chaired this year by the Council’s President, Viet Nam.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“I call on the Council to further utilize the powers granted to it by the Charter, including investigations of disputes in accordance with Chapter VI and the referral of legal questions to the International Court of Justice for advisory opinions in accordance with Article 96 of the Charter. Let us also recognize that the Sustainable Development Goals, which are objectives in their own right, are among our best tools for prevention. I urge all Member States to make greater investments in the 2030 Agenda, in particular in gender equality, inclusion, social cohesion, good governance and a fair globalization that advances the rights of all, unleashes the talents of all and gives all a stake in society.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“That includes ensuring the implementation of the Security Council’s decisions by Member States pursuant to Article 25 of the Charter. One of the most effective ways to demonstrate our impact is to invest in prevention. We spend far more time and resources managing and responding to crises than on preventing them. Our approach needs to be rebalanced. The founders of the United Nations had a crystal-clear focus on prevention when drafting the Charter, from the opening words of its Preamble to dedicating an entire Chapter to the pacific settlement of disputes. Chapter VI outlines many available tools, including negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and judicial settlement. We have ample evidence that these can be effective when applied with purpose and unity.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“And clear rules governing the use of force, as set out in Article 2, paragraph 4, and Chapter VII of the Charter. Those principles are not favours or concessions. They are the foundation of international relations. They are core to peace and international law. They have saved lives, advanced economic and social progress and, crucially, avoided a descent into another world war. But when those principles have been flouted, put aside or applied selectively, the result has been catastrophic: conflict, chaos, death, disillusion and mistrust. Our shared challenge is to do far better in upholding the Charter’s values and fulfilling its promise to succeeding generations. While the Charter and its purposes and principles remain as relevant as ever, our tools must adapt to new realities. We must use them with greater determination and creativity.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“It poses a challenge for the Security Council, which under the Charter has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It underscores, more than ever, the focus of today’s meeting, namely, upholding the United Nations Charter. At this time of global divisions and turmoil, the Charter remains our shared framework of international cooperation for the common good. In an era of spreading hatred and impunity, the Charter reminds us of the primacy of the rule of law and human dignity. In a time of rapid transformation and technological change, the Charter’s values and objectives endure. The peaceful settlement of disputes. The equal rights of men and women. Non-intervention, self-determination and the sovereign equality of Member States.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“Conflicts that no one is winning grind on and on and on, from Libya and Syria to Afghanistan and the Sahel. With turbulence on the rise, trust within and among nations is on the decline. We see this trust deficit in streets across the world, as people vent their frustrations and voice their feeling that political establishments are out of touch, incapable or unwilling to deliver. We see it in the work of the United Nations, including the Security Council, when Member States struggle or fail to find reasonable common ground. And, in this vacuum, the climate crisis is now upon us with ever- growing fury, sparing no one. International cooperation is at a crossroads. All of this presents a grave test to multilateralism.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“I thank the Vietnamese presidency of the Council for organizing this timely debate. I congratulate Viet Nam on assuming the presidency of the Security Council at the beginning of its tenure on the Council itself. I also welcome the presence of the Chair of the Elders, Mary Robinson. And I am pleased that we are beginning the year of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations with a discussion on its founding document. Peace is our most precious value and the essence of our work. All that we strive for as a human family depends on peace. But peace depends on us. Unfortunately, the New Year has begun with fresh turmoil and long-standing suffering. Geopolitical tensions have reached dangerous levels, most recently in the Gulf, as well as from traditional military threats to the economy to cyberspace.”
2020-01-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8699 (2020) · source
“I also deeply deplore this further rerious violation of the Angola Peace Accords, especially as it comes only a few days a ter both sides had returned to the negotiating table and issued the joint declaration of Namibe, committing themselves to making the cease-fire effective and stopping all offensive movements throughout the country. I again appeal strongly to both the Government and UNITA to cease hostilities immediately and to seek a peaceful solution to the present crisis through dialogue. UNAVEM II can carry out its tasks effectively only if both sides demonstrate their full commitment to peace by translating the words of the Namibe declaration into deeds and if the safety and security of its personnel are guaranteed.”
1992-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3144 (1992) · source
“I have learned with great sadness that yesterday, Sunday, 29 November 1992, in Vige, in northern Angola, Sergeant Adilson Barbosa Costa, a Brazilian police observer serving with the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM II), was killed as a result of an outbreak of hostilities between Government and UNITA forces in Uige during which the UNAVEM carp was caught in the crossfire. My sincere condolences go to the Government of Brazil, to Sergeant Costas' family and friends, and to his comrades in UNAVEM II.”
1992-11-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3144 (1992) · source
“This operation gives us a historic opportunity to restore peace to Cambodia and to contribute to the advent of a new era in South-East Asia and in international relations. In the final analysis the fate of this operation, this noble enterprise, will depend on the collective will to carry it to a successful conclusion.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“But it should also become the framework and the instrument for a genuine, deep-rooted national reconciliation, based on concern for the best interests of Cambodia and for its long-suffering people, Only under those conditions will the Supreme National Council be able fully to shoulder the responsibilities entrusted to it by the Paris Agreements and thus contribute to the creation of a climate of harmony, peace and trust, which is necessary for their effective implementation. It is essential that throughout this process the Cambodians and the international community as a whole should feel, without the slightest doubt, that the Security Council is united and resolute in its consistent support for UNTAC.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“I have no doubt that this process will proceed in a positive, constructive spirit in order to lay, to the greatest extent possible, the necessary foundations for the success of this operation. I should also like to say that UNTAC's success also depends, and depends primarily, on the full cooperation of the Cambodian parties and all the other parties concerned. They must all scrupulously respect. the commitments they freely entered into with the adoption of the Paris Agreements. In that connection, the Supreme National Council will have a central role to play, under the wise guidance of its Chairman, Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Of course, the Supreme National Council embodies the sovereignty of Cambodia during the transitional period.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“I would stress, however, that UNTAC will be able to discharge its responsibilities effectively only to the extent that it has available the necessary human and financial resources. The scope and scale of this operation require that those resources be available in full by the times imposed by the implementation timetable. In this respect, I am grateful to the Member States for their unanimous acceptance of my proposal to authorize the allocation of an initial tranche of $200 million in contributions to enable the Secretariat to begin without delay the necessary preparations for the implementation of UNTAC. it is my earnest hope that, as has been agreed, those credits will be available in the days to come. Preparation and discussion of UNTAC's complete budget can then take place according to the procedures now in force.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“They must therefore be reviewed in the light of experience and in the light of the situation in the field. My special representative will see to it that the deployment of the various components of UNTAC is carried out according to a precise plan, taking into account the tasks to be carried out in each phase of the operation, and providing for optimal use of resources. For my part, I shall not fail to report to the Council at regular intervals on the progress achieved in implementing the operation, and to propose to the Council any adjustments that may enhance its effectiveness and its cost-effectiveness. I intend to visit Cambodia myself during April in order to examine personally how the whole operation is progressing in the field.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“The proposals were prepared out of a concern to achieve the most rapid deployment possible of UNTAC and to hold elections in the latter part of April or early in May 1993, that is to say, before the rainy season. That date corresponds to the wishes both of the Cambodians and of the international community; it is therefore a major political imperative, and I wish to assure members of the Security Council that everything will be done to hold to that timetable and to carry out in full the mandate entrusted to UNTAC, It will, however, be necessary to show some measure of flexibility in the conduct of this operation: the hypotheses set out in the report before the Council are based on information that cannot be considered definitive or complete.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“It is on the basis of the mandate given under the Paris Agreements that the implementation plan submitted to the Security Council proposes that UNTAC be endowed with a structure comprising seven distinct components covering the following areas: human rights; elections; military arrangements; civil administration; policing; repatriation of refugees and displaced persons; and assistance for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Cambodia during the transitional period. The proposals set out in my report to the Security Council are also based on information gathered by a number of United Nations missions, in particular those that went to Cambodia during the last three months of 1991.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“The implementation plan for this operation is contained in report 8/23613 and has been submitted to the Security Council, as has addendum 1 to the report, containing preliminary estimates of the administrative and financial implications of the plan. The plan may appear ambitious, and its cost rather worrying; however, it merely translates into operational terms the many-faceted and, in some ways, unprecedented mandate conceived by the authors of the Paris Agreements and unanimously endorsed both by the Security Council and by the General Assembly.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“One week after the adoption of resolution 743 (1992) on Yugoslavia, the Security Council has just adopted resolution 745 (1992) and, in so doing, has adopted a draft of capital importance, both for the country concerned and for the United Nations. The Agreements providing for a comprehensive political settlement of the Cambodian conflict signed in Paris on 23 October 1991 called upon the Security Council to establish a United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). That Authority is entrusted with a sensitive and difficult mission, that of putting an end to two decades of war, destruction, suffering and massacres, and of establishing conditions for a lasting peace that can lead the Cambodian people to free and democratic elections.”
1992-02-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3057 (1992) · source
“Their hope will not be in vain if people of good will, courage, compassion and vision take the initiative to resolve the problems that have broken so many human lives, You are those people of good will. On behalf of the men and women who work in this Organization, on behalf of the thousands of civil servants, military people, observers and experts who make history in far-flung countries and try to put an end to war and begin dialogue, I thank you for your presence here among us and for the hope that it awakens in those who pursue their daily Struggle for the triumph of peace and sovereign justice.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“Behind the clamour of conflict, the tumult of aspirations and resentments, there is hope - the hope that the United Nations will act, The peoples expect Member States, and in particular those in a position to help, to rise above their rivalries, to respond to the peoples' need for dignity, equity and justice and to make the spirit of conciliation and dialogue prevail, for without it there can be no peaceful settlement of disputes. At this very moment millions and millions of victims of war, tyranny, fanaticism and economic injustice are anxiously following your deliberations, in the expectation that a remedy will be found to their ills and their misery.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“It will also be necessary to obtain the agreement of the State in crisis as well as that of communities in revolt and to invent new federal formulas for the future. The whole strategy will be pursued under the pressures of extreme urgency, with combat and destruction and images of death, wounded people and refugees clouding the political scene. We have to some extent succeeded in establishing the foundations of this new strategy. We have succeeded in maintaining a cease-fire or restoring peace in Africa, Central America, Asia and Europe. We have gone even further; we have even touched on the sphere of the institutional management of national reconciliation.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“Peace, first threatened by ethnic conflicts and tribal wars, could then often be troubled by border disputes. The United Nations will have to adopt a new strategy to respond to the irredentist claims of ethnic and cultural communities or their calls for autonomy. It will have to take into account the abundant supply of arms, the aggravation of economic inequalities between various communities and the flow of refugees. 'We legitimately emphasize preventive diplomacy, which means identifying potential zones of conflict, offering good offices while those conflicts are still in the gestation stage and resolving crises before they degenerate into armed confrontation. That requires means for observation, a sophisticated communications network and new financial resources.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“With all the be convulsions in global society, only one power is left that can impose order on incipient chaos: it is the power of principles transcending changing perceptions of expediency. (spoke in French) Now that the cold war has come to an end we must work to avoid the outbreak or resurgence of new conflicts. The explosion of nationalities, which is pushing countries with many ethnic groups towards division, is a new challenge to peace and security. Could the United Nations discharge its responsibilities if, imstead of being composed of 166 States, it had double that number of Members? Nationalist fever will increase ad _ infinitum the number of communities claiming sovereignty, for there will always be dissatisfied minorities within those minorities that achieve independence.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“The narrow nationalism that would oppose or disregard the norms of a stable international order and the micro-nationalism that resists healthy economic or political integration can disrupt a peaceful global existence. Nations are too interdependent, national frontiers are too porous and transnational realities - in the spheres of technology and investment, on the one side, and poverty and misery, on the other - too dangerous to permit egocentric isolationism, Collective security can be based only on collective confidence and good faith - confidence in the principles by which it is governed and good faith in the means by which it is sought to be ensured.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“At both levels, democracy is a delicate plant that needs the nourishing soil of peace, security and economic development, New ways of preventing internal disputes and inter-State confrontations will therefore need to be developed. - State sovereignty takes a new meaning in this context. Added to its dimension of right is the dimension of responsibility, both internal and external, Violation of State sovereignty is, and will remain, an offence against the global order. But its misuse also may undermine human rights and jeopardize a peaceful global life, Civil wars 'are no longer civil, and the Carnage they inflict will not let the world remain indifferent.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“For global society, it means the democratization of international relations and the participation of all States in developing new norms of international life. Small States can play large constructive roles, and the record of the United Nations proves that political will and imagination can make more fruitful contributions to peace than military power or economic power. Where such participation is not fully forthcoming, it needs to be encouraged. That, in turn, requires the willingness to accommodate different viewpoints and a readiness to offer special assistance to the democratization process. - It would, of course, be naive to suppose that democratization alone, whether at the national or at the planetary level, will solve all our problems.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“The revolution that is sweeping large parts of the world derives its momentum and authenticity not from any outdated or recycled ideology but from the primal need of peoples for freedom, for justice, for solidarity and for recognition of their identities. The contours of the global order to which it will lead are not yet clearly perceivable. But several lessons are already being driven home: - Democratization at the national level dictates a corresponding process at the global level. At both levels, it aims at the rule of law. For national societies, democracy means strengthening the institutions of popular participation and consent, political pluralism and the defence of human rights, including those of minorities.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“It is the leaders of nations, engaged in joint deliberations, who can address not only the apparent problems but also the frustrations and fears that underlie and intensify them. As other summit gatherings are held regularly, it would be in tune with this time of the acceleration of history that the Security Council also meet at the summit level periodically to take stock of the state of the world. If this suggestion of mine is well received, it would strengthen the tone of authority that the United Nations needs at this critical stage. It would also help to assure that transfiguration of this house which the world hopes to be completed before its fiftieth anniversary, in 1995. There has hardly been a stage more critical in modern history.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source
“The SECRETARY- GENERAL: Mr. President, Excellencies: it is a great honour for me to welcome you to this historic meeting of the Security Council. The significance of this gathering exceeds its symbolic value. It is one of those occasions when symbol enhances substance. Your presence here is a striking demonstration of your reliance on the United Nations. This expression of support is profoundly gratifying to the Secretary-General whom you have just elected. This meeting could not have been more timely. As the new'era begins, it calls for both ideas and action to place international life on stronger foundations. What shape the emerging order will take, what defences will be built against anarchy and terrorism, and how entrenched inequities can be removed will depend greatly on the wisdom, foresight and compassion of the world's leadership.”
1992-01-31 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3046 (1992) · source