YouSaid · the spoken record

Virginia Gamba de Potgieter

lines on the record: 15
first: 2020-06-23
most recent: 2020-06-23
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

“We need to deliver concrete results, and I count on everyone present to support that work. We must advocate for children, like Mariam, who will speak today through the good offices of Save the Children. We must support our child-protection experts and advisers. We must strive for dialogue and peace. And we must support UNICEF and its civil society partners in reintegration efforts so that children can move away from conflicts that they neither started nor chose. Let us give children a real chance at childhood. Let us give children the ability to dream again.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“I call on States to endorse and implement the Paris Principles in order to make reintegration a reality for children, and I encourage them to join our advocacy for adequate and sustainable child reintegration, including through the Global Coalition for the Reintegration of Child Soldiers, which I launched in 2018, together with UNICEF and other key actors, some of whom are here today, including your country, Mr. President, as co-Chair of the Group of Friends of Reintegration. I further ask the Council’s assistance in rolling out the campaign Act to Protect Children Affected by Armed Conflict, which was launched last year, and I look forward to working with everyone present to find opportunities for roll-out. We find ourselves looking back at another year of challenges in the quest for better protecting children in conflict.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“The efforts of all the Groups of Friends of Children and Armed Conflict can make a real difference in that regard. Another way to assist is through supporting effective reintegration programmes, as called for in resolution 2427 (2018) and the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups — the Paris Principles. Reintegration programmes must be long-term, sustainable and gender- and age-sensitive and must provide children with access to health care, mental health, psychosocial support, education and vocational training, civil registration and justice.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“I further plead for an increase of the financial support to UNICEF so that it can conduct its children and armed conflict-mandated functions, as well as its other child-protection work, on the ground. I wish to end my statement by talking about the children. Behind the figures are boys and girls with stolen childhoods and shattered dreams, as well as families and communities torn apart by violence and suffering. The only thing children and communities have in common today is their hope for peace, a better life and a better future. We must rise to meet that expectation. We can do that by engaging all parties to ensure better protection for conflict-affected children, by pleading for their immediate release and by assisting them in their reintegration into normal life.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“Here, I wish to make a special plea to all Member States: the monitoring and reporting mechanism is only as strong as the resources and capacities available for its functioning. Having well-trained, specialized and dedicated child-protection advisers in peace operations, as well as in country offices of the United Nations Children’s Fund, is essential to ensure that the mandate is effective. If Member States want to assist in better protecting children, resources must be provided to maintain and strengthen child-protection capacity on the ground. The Council and the Fifth Committee should ensure that, when a new peacekeeping or political mission is set up or the budget of existing missions is negotiated, enough child-protection capacity is mandated and retained.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“I plead for States and armed groups to facilitate the access of humanitarian workers to deliver much-needed assistance to children. Finally, I would like to underscore my serious concern at the detention of more than 2,500 children for their actual or alleged association with armed groups, including those designated as terrorist by the United Nations, and on national security charges. States must treat these children primarily as victims. Detention should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest period possible, with respect for their fundamental rights, due process and international juvenile justice standards. With the support of the Security Council, we have achieved a lot, but not nearly as much as we need to.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“The targeting of schools by armed groups using extreme violence needs to be better understood in order to engage in effective prevention. Equally, we need to explore the linkages between attacks on health facilities and coronavirus disease lockdowns, which might be a disturbing new trend. During the reporting period, 4,400 incidents of denial of humanitarian access to children were verified, an increase of over 400 per cent from 2018 and, indeed, other previous years. That is overwhelmingly the violation that showed the greatest increase in 2019, with most denials attributed to non-State actors. Violence against humanitarian workers, assets and facilities included, among other things, killings, abductions, assaults and arbitrary detentions.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“It is also critical that armed forces strengthen their training for the prevention of this violation and that prevention be adequately reflected in national legislation criminalizing sexual violence. I am equally troubled by the persistently high number of attacks on schools, hospitals and protected personnel. In 2019, monitors were able to verify 930 attacks, and verified attributions to State forces doubled. I call on all parties to respect the civilian nature of school and health infrastructure. State armed forces have a specific duty to protect them. In that connection, I recall the Safe Schools Declaration and encourage States to endorse and implement its guidelines. When schools are used for military purposes, their sanctity as safe spaces is eroded and teachers and students are at risk of attack.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“However, this violation continues to be disturbingly underreported, including when perpetrated against boys, owing to the fear of stigma and retaliation, the involvement of powerful perpetrators and a lack of services for survivors, all of which discourage children and their families from reporting violations and seeking justice. More disturbing still, the number of cases attributed to State actors and non-State actors are similar and to not seem to be dropping, despite an increasing number of parties having signed commitments with the United Nations to end this violation. Stronger accountability mechanisms and systematic care services for survivors are needed to decisively address this scourge.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“My Office is preparing a technical guidance note to better assist our country task forces in monitoring and reporting on this violation. I encourage the United Nations system and international and regional bodies to continue to work, within their respective mandates, to better understand and address this issue. While the introduction of measures, peace dialogues and enhanced engagement by child-protection actors have led to decreases in some violations, it has not been the case for all violations, starting with sexual violence, including rape. In 2019, over 730 cases of sexual violence were verified.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“That same year, while a decrease in child casualties was verified, resulting from mitigation measures in the conduct of military operations and the establishment of action plans and/or peace processes, the erosion of respect for international humanitarian law still led to high numbers of children being killed or maimed: 10,173 child casualties were verified, including 534 late verifications, a decrease of nearly 2,000 casualties as contrasted with previous years. Killing and maiming remain the highest verified violation in the annual report. Lastly, there was also a decrease in abducted children. Over 1,600 children were verified as having been abducted in 2019, mostly by armed groups — a considerable decrease.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“Country task forces conduct late verifications when access to children has improved, often as a result of enhanced engagement with parties, increased capacity and improved security. In 2019, 7,747 children, including 668 late verifications, were verified as having been recruited and used, the vast majority of those being attributable to non-State actors. On a positive note, action plans and enhanced engagement led to increased access to verify the presence of children within the ranks of conflict parties and to the release of those found. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, hundreds of children were released as a direct result of engagement with parties by the United Nations.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“I now turn to the report before the Council. The number of grave violations verified by the United Nations, although showing a decrease from the previous year, remains very high. Much more work needs to be done to bring those figures down. I ask Member States and parties to conflict to put child protection at the centre of their action. In 2019, actual violations committed against children amounted to 24,422, but our monitoring teams were also able to belatedly verify an additional 1,241 violations committed prior to that date. Thus, the overall verification in 2019 amounted to more than 25,000 grave violations. This represents 70 grave violations against children per day.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“This is the highest number of mutually agreed measures in any one year. At the same time, while accountability remained slow, perpetrators in several situations were prosecuted for violations against children, for instance in Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. Secondly, the search for peace in 2019 yielded seven different peace dialogues and processes in children and armed conflict situations, such as the one in the Central African Republic. The guidelines on ways to include child protection language in peace processes, which were developed by my Office and presented to the Council in February, are now beginning to be applied. Thirdly, as a result of advocacy by the United Nations, including in the context of peace agreements, some 13,200 children were released by parties to conflict in 2019.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source
“On behalf of the Secretary-General, I would like to thank France for organizing this open debate on children and armed conflict. I commend France for the important role it played in the establishment of this mandate, and I welcome its continued support. Before I turn to the content of this year’s report (S/2020/525), I would like to mention three positive developments on the children and armed conflict agenda in 2019. First, through the direct engagement of the United Nations on the ground, supported by my Office, parties to conflict adopted over 30 action plans, road maps, command orders and other measures to better protect children, including in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen; others, such as Somalia and the Sudan, recommitted to action plans.”
2020-06-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/594 (2020) · source