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STORY: UN / PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS
TRT: 06:34
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
22 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“The scaffolding built last century to protect us from inhumanity is crumbling. Those who will die as a result need us to act. Mr. president, last year, the United Nations recorded more than 36,000 civilian deaths in 14 armed conflicts. The real number is, I fear, much higher.”
4. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“Some parties to conflict have committed flagrant violations of the rules of law. Some have justified immense civilian harm through permissive interpretations of the law, loosely defining who is a lawful target, what constitutes a military objective, or what level of civilian harm is proportional.”
6. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator:
“Some states consider the law selectively, depending on the parties concerned or the interests at stake. All this undermines the very purpose of the rules of war, to limit human suffering in armed conflict. All this jeopardizes the protection architecture that took decades to build. There is, though, another path, provided that this Council and Member States take action to salvage what they have built.”
8. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director:
“In war, women and girls are not just caught in the crossfire. They, their bodies, their health, their choices, and their voices are actively targeted. Conflict related sexual violence is a protection crisis that rightfully warrants its own attention.”
10. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director:
“Across too many conflicts, women's bodies become battlegrounds, through sexual violence and also through the deliberate denial of reproductive rights and health services. 61 percent of all maternal deaths occur in just 35 conflict affected countries. In the past year we have seen bombed maternity wards, blockaded medical supplies, and massive funding cuts.”
12. Wide shot, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, addressing Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC):
“The precedent being set on battlefields today will haunt us for a long time. There are no excuses for double standards. Every state has a stake in this.”
14. Wide shot, Egger addressing Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC):
“No one wants to live in a world where the rules of war apply only to your enemies, and not to yourself and to your allies. Civilians will suffer less when all sides commit to the basic principles of humanity and war. Ignoring these rules is a race to the moral bottom, a fast track to chaos and irreversible despair.”
16. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Janti Soeripto, President and Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children, United States:
“Over 470 million children, more than 1 in 6 now lives in live in areas affected by conflict. Grave violations against children are being committed at unprecedent scale and with impunity. Roughly half of the civilian population we seek to protect and assist are children. But children are not small adults. Children are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of war, with a far lower threshold for harm compared to adults.”
18. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Janti Soeripto, President and Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children, United States:
“The laws and norms that humanity has constructed to protect civilians, and in particular children, from harm during situations of armed conflict, are being systematically challenged, undermined and attacked. This is not an erosion, but an assault on the values of humanity. For over 100 years, Save the Children has understood that addressing the symptoms of a crisis can only get us this far. We must tackle its causes too.”
20. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
21. Wide shot, Ambassadors at the stakeout podium
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Giorgos Gerapetritis, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Greece:
“Gaza faces the worst humanitarian crisis since the commencement of hostilities following the attacks of October 7th, 2023, with civilians facing starvation and at critical risk of famine, according to the IPC, and with hundreds of aid workers having been killed since the conflict began. In Sudan, civilians bear the brunt of violence, with millions internally displaced and over half of the population facing high levels of acute food insecurity. Widespread civilian suffering was also reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, and elsewhere. This cannot continue. Today, we come with one clear message. The protection of civilians is not optional. It is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law and a moral imperative we cannot afford to neglect.”
23. Wide shot, Ambassadors at the stakeout podium
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Giorgos Gerapetritis, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Greece:
“Ten out of twelve countries that experience the highest ecological threats are in conflict, while 70 percent of climate vulnerable countries are the most fragile. The burden falls heaviest on the most vulnerable communities, who struggle to protect themselves from this multifaceted and compounding threats. With an estimated 20 million people internally displaced by climate hazards each year, the nexus of conflict, displacement and climate change leads to a constantly evolving protection environment.”
25. Wide shot, ambassadors walk away
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher today (22 May) called on the Security Council to act, as “the scaffolding built last century to protect us from inhumanity is crumbling,”
Fletcher noted that last year, the United Nations recorded “more than 36,000 civilian deaths in 14 armed conflicts,” warning that the real number is “much higher.
The humanitarian official said, “some parties to conflict have committed flagrant violations of the rules of law. Some have justified immense civilian harm through permissive interpretations of the law, loosely defining who is a lawful target, what constitutes a military objective, or what level of civilian harm is proportional.”
Some states, he continued “consider the law selectively, depending on the parties concerned or the interests at stake, stressing that “all this undermines the very purpose of the rules of war, to limit human suffering in armed conflict,” and “jeopardizes the protection architecture that took decades to build.”
Fletcher said that “another path” was possible, “provided that this Council and Member States take action to salvage what they have built.’
In her briefing to the Council, UN Women’s Executive Director Sima Bahous said, “in war, women and girls are not just caught in the crossfire. They, their bodies, their health, their choices, and their voices are actively targeted. Conflict related sexual violence is a protection crisis that rightfully warrants its own attention.”
Bahous said, “across too many conflicts, women's bodies become battlegrounds, through sexual violence and also through the deliberate denial of reproductive rights and health services. 61 percent of all maternal deaths occur in just 35 conflict affected countries. In the past year we have seen bombed maternity wards, blockaded medical supplies, and massive funding cuts.”
The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, for her part told the Council that “the precedent being set on battlefields today will haunt us for a long time,” and added that “there are no excuses for double standards. Every state has a stake in this.”
Spoljaric Egger said, “no one wants to live in a world where the rules of war apply only to your enemies, and not to yourself and to your allies,” and stressed that “civilians will suffer less when all sides commit to the basic principles of humanity and war.”
Ignoring these rules, she said, “is a race to the moral bottom, a fast track to chaos and irreversible despair.”
The President and Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children in the United States, Janti Soeripto, said, “over 470 million children, more than 1 in 6 now lives in live in areas affected by conflict. Grave violations against children are being committed at unprecedent scale and with impunity. Roughly half of the civilian population we seek to protect and assist are children. But children are not small adults. Children are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of war, with a far lower threshold for harm compared to adults.”
Soeripto said, “the laws and norms that humanity has constructed to protect civilians, and in particular children, from harm during situations of armed conflict are being systematically challenged, undermined and attacked.”
She said, “this is not an erosion, but an assault on the values of humanity.”
Outside the Council, before the meeting, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece, Giorgos Gerapetritis, read a statement on behalf of 80 Member States.
Gerapetritis said, “Gaza faces the worst humanitarian crisis since the commencement of hostilities following the attacks of October 7th, 2023, with civilians facing starvation and at critical risk of famine, according to the IPC, and with hundreds of aid workers having been killed since the conflict began. In Sudan, civilians bear the brunt of violence, with millions internally displaced and over half of the population facing high levels of acute food insecurity. Widespread civilian suffering was also reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, and elsewhere.”
He said, “this cannot continue,” and stressed that “the protection of civilians is not optional. It is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law and a moral imperative we cannot afford to neglect.”
Speaking again after the meeting, Gerapetritis read a statement on climate and conflict on behalf of Denmark, France, Guyana, Panama, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and his own country, Greece.
He said, “ten out of twelve countries that experience the highest ecological threats are in conflict, while 70 percent of climate vulnerable countries are the most fragile. The burden falls heaviest on the most vulnerable communities, who struggle to protect themselves from this multifaceted and compounding threats. With an estimated 20 million people internally displaced by climate hazards each year, the nexus of conflict, displacement and climate change leads to a constantly evolving protection environment.”
