{"id":201679,"date":"2011-11-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T18:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=201679"},"modified":"2019-03-12T18:13:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T18:13:13","slug":"auto-insert-201679","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-201679\/","title":{"rendered":"Protection of civilians in armed conflict – SecCo debate – Press release (excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Security Council<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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SC\/10442<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tDepartment of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York<\/strong>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

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Security Council<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n
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6650<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> Meeting (AM & PM)<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

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INNOCENTS WORLDWIDE CONTINUE TO BE DELIBERATELY VIOLATED<\/u><\/strong>,<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS DURING SECURITY COUNCIL OPEN DEBATE ON CIVILIAN PROTECTION<\/u><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Human Rights Commissioner, Assistant Secretary-General<\/u><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Among Speakers Stressing Need for Accountability, Redress for Victims<\/u><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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Background<\/u><\/p><\/div>\n

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The Security Council met this morning to consider “Protection of civilians in armed conflict”.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Briefings<\/u><\/p><\/div>\n

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NAVANETHEM PILLAY, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, …<\/p><\/div>\n

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She strongly condemned the indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza, which flagrantly violated international law, and was concerned that Israeli raids in Gaza were placing civilians at grave risk.  Her office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory had observed an increase in the frequency and severity of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.  She urged Israeli authorities to do more to prevent such attacks and to hold perpetrators accountable.<\/p><\/div>\n

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CATHERINE BRAGG, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, reading a statement attributable to Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, …<\/p><\/div>\n

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Turning to Gaza and southern Israel, she said that in August, a series of attacks launched from Egypt into southern Israel had resulted in the deaths of six Israeli civilians.  In response, Israel conducted air strikes on Gaza, resulting in 30 Palestinian fatalities and 103 injured, the majority of whom were reportedly civilians.  One Israeli civilian had been killed and seven injured by rockets fired from Gaza during that period.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Statements<\/u><\/p><\/div>\n

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LI BAODONG (China<\/u>) … <\/p><\/div>\n

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Many questions needed to be clarified, and the Security Council should never take “hasty” action, he said.  Security Council resolutions should be fully implemented, and no party should wilfully misinterpret a resolution in a way that tolerated attacks on infrastructure and residential areas, or civilian casualties.  Those legitimate concerns demanded answers.  It was also imperative to abandon selectivity and double standards.  All issues should be treated equally, he said, using Gaza, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq as examples.<\/p><\/div>\n

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RUFF BUKUN-OLU WOLE ONEMOLA ( Nigeria<\/u>) said the effectiveness of the United Nations and the Council was measured against its ability to protect civilians, but the Council’s ability to in that regard had been severely tested over the last 10 months.  Through carefully calibrated interventions in Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, stability had been restored.  However, response was lacking regarding the protection of civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza and Western Sahara.<\/p><\/div>\n

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RON PROSOR (Israel<\/u>) said: “We sit here […] to discuss the vital importance of protecting civilians in armed conflict, as rockets continue to rain down on more than 1 million men, women and children in southern Israel.”  There was no question, he said, that Hamas and other terrorists in Gaza deliberately targeted civilians.  It should shock and appal this body, but “not a single word of condemnation has been uttered by the Council.  Not one word.”  One of the most fundamental human rights was the right of people to live their lives without the fear of terrorist attacks.  Day after day, Israeli citizens were denied that right.  Underlying the violence emanating from Gaza was a deeply rooted culture of incitement, a culture that also pervaded the official institutions of the Palestinian Authority.  The international community had a duty to end that culture.<\/p><\/div>\n

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OTHMAN JERANDI (Tunisia<\/u>) said the integration of civilian-protection strategies into peacekeeping mandates was critical and entailed involving host countries and regional organizations, so as to identify operational needs, among other things.  National ownership of international instruments was also important, he added.  Noting that civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory had been the targets of systematic violations of international humanitarian law for “a very long time”, he said all parties to a conflict, including non-State actors, were bound by the obligation not to target civilians, emphasizing that compliance with human rights law was essential in combating impunity.  The issue of people displaced within and outside their borders must be addressed by keeping borders open, he said.<\/p><\/div>\n

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BASHAR JA’AFARI ( Syria<\/u>) said the protection of civilians could not be a matter of selectivity and should not be limited to armed conflict.  The protection of Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese civilians living under Israeli occupation was an important component of the protection of civilians in armed conflict.  Syria was concerned that some countries had their own selective concept of civilians and armed conflict, which contradicted international humanitarian law and international jurisprudence.  International efforts aimed at protecting civilians should be undertaken in strict compliance with the principles of the United Nations Charter, which stipulated respect for the sovereignty of States and non-interference in their internal affairs, he said, emphasizing that national Governments bore primary responsibility for protecting their own civilians — an exclusive responsibility.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Questioning in that regard how some NATO members had killed 130,000 Libyan civilians under the civilian-protection banner, he asked how one could understand the United States’ call to Syrian civilians not to turn in their weapons to the authorities.  Such a policy jeopardized the Arab League’s initiative, he pointed out, going on to stress that remaining silent about Israel’s continuing settlement activities was in contradiction with the most fundamental right of civilians to live in peace and sovereignty over their own lands.  One could no longer close one’s eyes to the illegal occupation of Arab territories, including the Syrian Golan, he said, adding that the colonial countries, in particular France and the United Kingdom who had spoken out against Syria, were wrong to think that historical memory would fail to recall the crimes against humanity they had committed during the eras of colonialism and slavery.<\/p><\/div>\n

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For information media • not an official record<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Security Council SC\/10442 Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York Security Council 6650th Meeting (AM & PM) INNOCENTS WORLDWIDE CONTINUE TO BE DELIBERATELY VIOLATED,   SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS DURING SECURITY COUNCIL OPEN DEBATE ON CIVILIAN PROTECTION   Human Rights Commissioner, Assistant Secretary-General Among Speakers Stressing Need for Accountability, Redress for Victims \/… […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2433,1329],"document-source":[1362,1897],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1813,1749,2309],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542,6541],"class_list":["post-201679","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-french-text","document-category-press-release","document-source-security-council","document-source-united-nations-department-of-public-information-dpi","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-middle-east-situation","document-subject-palestine-question","document-subject-protection","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english","document-language-french"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/201679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/201679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=201679"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=201679"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=201679"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=201679"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=201679"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=201679"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=201679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}