YouSaid · the spoken record

Tomka

lines on the record: 32
first: 1999-08-25
most recent: 2000-11-15
sittings or episodes: 3
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

“This assumes the clear and smooth transition of peacekeeping operations to post-conflict peace-building that addresses all factors and needs related to consolidation and development and thereby maintains the momentum developed by the peacekeeping operation. We share the view that the Security Council must remain engaged throughout all phases of this process. The United Nations has a variety of tools at its disposal for conflict prevention and resolution. While we welcome and support every new and innovative approach that can enhance our efforts towards peace, in addressing the particular situation we should open the existing tool box wide and take out all appropriate tools as the situation requires.”
2000-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4223Resumption1 (2000) · source
“We also encourage the Secretariat to assist Member States and to facilitate such cooperation. With active participation by the Secretariat, this concept should also be applied to the pre-deployment training of potential troop contributors, if necessary, as part of an overall strategy for mission deployment. There is no doubt that the peace process is not complete and that the cooperation and assistance of the international community cannot stop after peace is restored. Durable results and lasting and self-sustaining peace and development cannot be achieved and maintained without adequate follow-up.”
2000-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4223Resumption1 (2000) · source
“We are of the view that the establishment of such a mandate should be based on close and interactive cooperation between the Security Council, as the decision maker, and the troop contributing countries participating in the implementation of the mandate of peacekeeping operations. However, in order to proceed in that fashion and to be able to support the good intentions underlying the deployment of United Nations missions, Member States must be able and willing to provide troops that are adequately prepared for the tasks assigned, thereby also supporting the ability of the United Nations to carry out the tasks it is asked to perform. In that regard, we share and support the view that, where feasible, Member States should enter into effective mutual cooperation that will enable them to form adequately trained and equipped troops.”
2000-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4223Resumption1 (2000) · source
“The information obtained should be frankly discussed with the aim of candidly and openly pointing out existing problems and seeking out appropriate tools to address the problems and resolve conflict situations. We believe that such an approach could lead to a determination of the objectives that are essential for the establishment of a clear mandate for a proposed mission. At the same time, this could avoid unnecessary problems and diminish the need to change a mission's mandate or, even, to withdraw the mission before it achieves its goals. It is evident that a mission should be given an achievable mandate, together with sufficient resources to be able to carry out its objectives.”
2000-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4223Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Only a well designed and developed strategy for United Nations peacekeeping involvement that includes the provision of an adequate mandate and appropriate resources for the operation can bring about success and strengthen the credibility of the United Nations in its peace efforts around the world. We believe that establishing a clear mandate for peacekeeping operations is the primary responsibility of the Security Council, with the strong support of the Secretariat. In this regard, the Secretariat and the Security Council should effectively use the necessary and appropriate means available to them. Those means include, among other things, fact-finding missions, missions by the Security Council, and special representatives of the Secretary-General to obtain proper and reliable information reflecting the real situation on the ground.”
2000-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4223Resumption1 (2000) · source
“Timely and appropriate response to conflict situations is essential in order to prevent the deterioration of situations and achieve the noble goal of durable peace. However, one must agree that a desired outcome cannot be achieved without the right strategy. We share the View - and recent experience has confirmed it - that peacekeeping operations, as one of the fundamental forms of international assistance in today's conflict situations, can achieve a positive result only if they are based on a clearly defined and achievable mandate that reflects the requirements of the situation under consideration.”
2000-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4223Resumption1 (2000) · source
“I wish to begin by congratulating you, Mr. President, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for this month. My delegation also wishes to join previous speakers in thanking you, Mr. President, for convening this important open debate on exit strategies for United Nations peacekeeping operations, the timing of which could, perhaps, not have be better. We commend the delegation of the Netherlands for preparing a thought- provoking paper for today's discussion. We must recognize that, at the threshold of the new millennium, a number of countries and regions still remain afflicted and threatened by conflicts and tensions. There are no more noble goals for the international community and the United Nations than the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development.”
2000-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4223Resumption1 (2000) · source
“The Secretariat and Member States should be further encouraged to provide United Nations peacekeeping missions with more women personnel, including women military and civilian police officers, who could play a very useful role in tackling gender-sensitivity aspects of humanitarian emergencies.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The disintegration of families and the breakdown of the social structure during times of armed conflict leave women and girls especially vulnerable to gender-based violence and sexual exploitation. Women also constitute the majority of refugees and internally displaced persons. Since contact between United Nations peacekeeping personnel and local populations during peacekeeping operations has been increasingly close and direct, it is important that participants in peacekeeping operations be given specific training prior to deployment that addresses local cultural sensitivities, as well as gender-sensitivity issues.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“As recent experience has shown, the effort of combatants to push away the international presence, including humanitarian personnel, from the area of conflict is another ominous sign of impending humanitarian catastrophe. The reason is simple: to avoid or eliminate any potential witnesses of intended or committed atrocities or acts of genocide. Within the context of early warning, the Security Council should be able to react promptly and ensure a preventive monitoring presence in the area or, if necessary, to authorize the deployment of a preventive peacekeeping force. Situations of total war have exposed the most vulnerable sectors of civilian populations, women and children, to horrendous violence.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The Security Council should more actively concentrate on preventing conflicts at an early stage. An early warning system should be further enhanced, and preventive diplomacy should play a more active role in potential conflict situations. The violation of human rights has almost always been the prelude to a conflict which eventually brings about disastrous humanitarian consequences. We fully concur with the Secretary-General that the Security Council should make use of human rights information and analysis originating from experts and mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights as an indicator for potential preventive action by the United Nations.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“We support the work of the working group of the Commission on Human Rights on a draft protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, regarding the involvement of children in armed conflict, as well as the extension of the scope of the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel to all categories of United Nations and associated personnel, including locally recruited staff. In order to push forward a culture of compliance, the Security Council should urge Member States to ratify relevant international treaties, as well as to incorporate them into national law and, in particular, to ensure their full implementation. There should also be a concerted effort to coerce non-State actors into compliance with international law, mainly through the principle of individual criminal responsibility.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Furthermore, not all States have ratified or acceded to the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions or to basic international human rights instruments and conventions concerning refugees. Only four States have ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court so far. Slovakia is a party to all major instruments of international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law. We were among the first to ratify the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, and we signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court last year; we are determined to complete the ratification process next year.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“There are a number of relevant international treaties in this respect, such as the Fourth Geneva Convention and the two Protocols Additional, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, just to mention a few. The setting up of ad hoc Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, and last year's decision to establish a permanent International Criminal Court have been other major steps in combating the culture of impunity. However, the mere existence of these legal instruments without an effective enforcement mechanism does not automatically ensure their implementation.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Most important - and this is to be welcomed - it has recognized in its resolutions adopted in recent years that repression of the civilian population, ethnic cleansing, genocide, large-scale forced displacement and relocation of civilians and other flagrant violations of international humanitarian law constitute a threat to international peace and security. A major problem has been the failure of States to bring to justice those who violate international humanitarian law and human rights.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Most of today's conflicts are fought not only by regular armies but also by irregular armed groups, militias, foreign mercenaries, criminals and other disparate groups that have little knowledge of or respect for the rules of international law. The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian assistance to civilians and refugees by the combatants, using civilians as living shields and employing organized violence against humanitarian and peacekeeping personnel is, in many cases, a major element of their military strategy. According to estimates, civilians are suffering from the effects of conflict and its aftermath in approximately 50 countries around the world. In recent years, United Nations staff and other humanitarian workers have lost their lives or have been abducted in 19 countries.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“While in the Second World War civilians accounted for 48 per cent of the casualties, today up to 90 per cent of conflict casualties around the world are civilians, and increasingly large numbers of these are children and women. Those figures are shocking, and we simply cannot ignore them. As I pointed out in my statement on 25 August, the situation is much more complicated due to a profound shift in the pattern of today's conflicts. Many of them have taken the form of intra-State factional violence, civil strife and ethnic clashes, often marked by the collapse of State institutions and a breakdown of law and order.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“We welcome the report of the Secretary-General (document S/1999/957) submitted to the Security Council in response to its presidential statement (document S/PRST/1999/6) of 12 February 1999. My delegation appreciates the comprehensive and integrated way in which the Secretariat has been dealing with the issue, as well as the 40 recommendations by the Secretary-General on how the Security Council could act to improve both the physical and the legal protection of civilians in situations of armed conflict. We are confident that these recommendations deserve the full attention of the Security Council in its further deliberations. The plight of civilians in armed conflict is of great concern to the international community.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“I wish to express the appreciation of my delegation at the convening of this second open Security Council debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict. The fact that the Council is about to adopt a draft resolution on this occasion attests to the importance of the topic. Slovakia has aligned itself with the statement of the representative of Finland delivered on behalf of the European Union. Nevertheless, allow me to make some additional comments. Only three weeks ago, the Security Council held an open debate on children and armed conflict, an issue of equal importance and actually of the same nature. The delegation of Slovakia participated in that debate, underlining the necessity of a comprehensive approach to an issue which has humanitarian, as well as ethical, political, legal, military and socio-economic aspects.”
1999-09-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The Security Council, in mandating peacekeeping missions and designing peace-building programmes, should take into account the fragile nature of the issue and accommodate mandates to the specific circumstances of individual conflicts. Special attention should be paid to the programmes of demobilization and social reintegration of child combatants, their psychological recovery, the return of displaced and refugee children, and the restoration of access to health care, food and education. In this respect, I cannot but underline the role of relevant agencies, programmes and funds of the United Nations system, in coordination with activities of non- governmental and humanitarian organizations involved in this area.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Well-targeted sanctions can have a real impact without necessarily leading to unbearable humanitarian consequences for the most vulnerable group of the population, the children. The ideas contained in the Secretary-General's report on Africa - of using individual-targeted sanctions against the perpetrators of abuses of human rights and humanitarian law, and of holding these people financially responsible to their victims - deserve full attention. The issue before us has a very important socio- economic aspect since poverty facilitates the recruitment and participation of children in armed conflict. Children are sometimes even sold to armies and guerrilla groups by families thrown into poverty by ethnic conflicts.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“His determined approach and recent trips to a number of African and European countries prove that sanctions committees should be actively engaged in ensuring the concerted efforts of all actors concerned - Governments, international governmental and non-governmental organizations, private companies and opinion leaders - in order to identify the sources of arms flows into zones of conflict and to cut off military forces and rebel groups from their resources and thus eliminate their ability to wage a war and violate international humanitarian law. Moreover, economic sanctions should prevent war criminals from enjoying the fruits of their evil without harming innocent women and children.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Since Africa is a continent suffering from far too many conflicts fed by arms transfers and trafficking in Violation of sanctions imposed by the Security Council, we praise the efforts of the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 864 (1993) concerning the situation in Angola, Ambassador Fowler.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The proliferation of these weapons has made it possible for very young children to be perpetrators of violence. Obviously, a number of conflicts in many places on our planet could not be long sustained without a continued flow of arms and ammunition. Governments, local warlords and rebel groups are spending enormous amounts of money for arms, thus impoverishing their own countries and depriving civil populations, including children, of basic needs. The Security Council should explore all ways and means available to ensure that an arms embargo, once established, is implemented effectively.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Governments should not only be encouraged to ratify relevant international treaties and incorporate them into national law, they should also ensure the full implementation of commitments they have undertaken and bring to justice persons responsible for unlawfully recruiting children and for other serious breaches of the relevant laws. There should be a concerted effort made by Governments and relevant international and regional organizations, as well as by non-governmental organizations, to coerce non- State actors into compliance with international law, mainly through the principle of individual criminal responsibility. The crucial factor contributing to a worldwide culture of violence and indiscriminate killing, as well as to putting guns into the hands of children, is a booming trade in small arms.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Mary Robinson, who, in her statement issued on the occasion of the recent fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Geneva Conventions, underscored that, rather than writing new laws, what is needed today is to implement those that already exist. Indeed, a lot has to be done in this respect. For example, although almost all States are parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, not all States have ratified or acceded to the Additional Protocols or to the basic international instruments on human rights and refugees. Only four States have ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court so far; another 56 ratifications are needed before the Statute enters into force.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“At this juncture, we find very timely the issuance of the Secretary-General's guidelines for all personnel associated with United Nations mandated peacekeeping operations. The guidelines, which entered into force on the fiftieth anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, 12 August 1999, are designed to ensure that all United Nations peacekeepers observe the norms of international humanitarian law. Paragraphs 7.4 and 8 (f) are especially relevant to the subject before us. A legal instrument without an efficient mechanism of monitoring and enforcement gradually loses its normative impact. We concur with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“We welcome the efforts to update the existing legal instruments and strengthen human rights standards, such as the one to raise the legal age for recruitment and participation in hostilities to 18 years through the adoption of an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Furthermore, the setting up of ad hoc Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and last year's decision to establish a permanent International Criminal Court have been other significant developments aiming at assuring the accountability of those who violate international law. Slovakia, as one of a group of like- minded countries, was advocating including in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court a provision making it a war crime to recruit children and involve them in hostilities.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The result has been the development of a culture of impunity in which flagrant Violations of human rights and humanitarian law continually go unpunished. Importantly, the Security Council has for some time recognized that massive violations of humanitarian law can constitute a threat to peace and security. There are several international treaties that make a very solid framework for the purpose of the protection of children in armed conflict. These include the Geneva Conventions and the Additional Protocols to them and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“The deliberate obstruction of humanitarian assistance to civilians by the combatants is, in many cases, a major element of their military strategy. Civilian populations, and far too often children, are principal targets of war, and even its instruments. According to estimates, up to 300,000 children are directly involved in conflict around the world - as soldiers, porters and frequently as all- purpose slaves - in violation of international treaties. Children are conscripted or tricked into volunteering and sometimes sold to armies and guerrilla groups. The international community must ensure that those who target children cannot do so with impunity. A major problem has been the failure of States to bring to justice those who Violate international humanitarian law.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Today, up to 90 per cent of conflict casualties are civilians, and increasingly large numbers of these are children and women. Over the last decade in particular, the nature of conflicts has changed profoundly. Many of them have taken the form of intra- State factional violence, civil strife and ethnic clashes that have disastrous humanitarian implications. The involvement of irregular armed groups, militia, foreign mercenaries, criminals and other disparate groups that have little knowledge of or respect for the rules of international law makes the situation even more difficult. Moreover, there is often a problem of political control over the groups, with local commanders being answerable to no one but themselves.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source
“Mr. President, I wish to express the appreciation of my delegation for your convening of this second open debate on children and armed conflict taking place in the Security Council. The fact that you, Sir, as the Foreign Minister of Namibia, are presiding over this open debate attests to the importance of the topic. Slovakia has aligned itself with the statement of the representative of Finland delivered on behalf of the European Union. Allow me now to make some additional comments. The issue before us is a complex one and should be dealt with as an integral part of a comprehensive approach. It has ethical, political, military, legal, humanitarian and socio-economic aspects, all of equal importance. Experts estimate that children are suffering from the effects of conflict and its aftermath in approximately 50 countries around the world.”
1999-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4037Resumption1 (1999) · source