Ukraine: Statement on the Humanitarian Situation

Thank you Madam President,

I thank Deputy High Commissioner Kelly Clements and Director General António Vitorino for their briefings.

I also welcome the participation of the distinguished Permanent Representatives of Ukraine, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Estonia and Slovakia.

Madam President,

The scale of the Ukrainian exodus escaping war is unprecedented in recent history. With the continuation of the aggression which is causing a humanitarian catastrophe, the number of refugees will only continue to increase.

We commend the rapid mobilisation by humanitarian actors, including, but not limited to OCHA, UNHCR, IOM and the ICRC. We urge them to redouble their efforts to ensure that the refugees from Ukraine are protected from forms of modern slavery such as forced labour and forced marriage.

The security services of receiving countries should also make every effort to ensure that these victims of war are protected from the predation that so often comes to those who have fled their countries.

We further recognise, with praise, Ukraine's neighbours for so generously opening their borders to the millions of Ukrainians and other nationals fleeing in fear of violence and atrocity.

We continue to urge them to ensure that all refugees, no matter their race, national origin, or religion, deserve the equal protection in line with International Humanitarian Law.

We call on the Russian Federation to end the war and to return to its important responsibility of protecting international peace and security. Ending the war is the only way to put an end to the humanitarian crisis underway. Continuing it will lead to more suffering, and a steady erosion of the legitimacy and status of the United Nations no matter its efforts to provide humanitarian relief.

We further urge all actors to ensure that there are safe humanitarian corridors provided in Mariupol, Kherson and other besieged cities. The Africans trapped in those cities should be protected by all actors, not only from the harms of bombs and bullets but from racist treatment.

Madam President,

The war is leading to hunger and poverty all over the world. Ukraine's inability to safely harvest, transport and export its commodities and goods due to the war is adding to food insecurity globally. The sanctions, which are unprecedented in scope are also impacting global food and energy prices.

We urge the largest shareholders in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to mobilise these funds to offer far-reaching efforts to cushion the world's most vulnerable countries. It is a particular concern that fertilisers should be made available to those countries that suffer from chronic food insecurity.

But we must go further than offering alms to the poor and victimised. The extent of this crisis should impel us to bold leadership in providing a viable development path to the poorest countries, particularly in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Madam President,

Every crisis has important lessons that can help us heal in a way that gives birth to a kinder and fairer world.

One of those lessons is to recognise and act on the profound danger to all of us from ethnocentrism and racism in all their manifestations.

A few weeks ago, we shared our delegation's interaction with an African student who had been studying medicine in Ukraine. She told us of the many thousands of Africans, who, like her, had to make a terrifying journey to flee the war and find refuge in Europe.

She spoke of the indignities and dangers they experienced from the racist treatment they received along the way.

A similar story that can be told by the thousands who seek to cross the Mediterranean from Africa or travel overland from Asia and the Middle East into Europe.

These are not merely refugee policies, they are pointers to a fundamental flaw in the global order.

It is our contention that racism and ethnocentrism, especially when they are supported and trumpeted by official policies, are the clearest early warning signals of catastrophic war and atrocity.

Europe more than any other continent understands the horrors that emerge when the full, violent logic of racism and ethnocentrism can mobilise armies.

This very United Nations was established after the policies of race and the fake scientific racism of the Nazis — which built on the legacies that had generated transatlantic slavery and other forms of violent racism in the Americas and Europe — killed tens of millions of Europeans, Asians and Africans.

To prevent a new age of destructive wars, and their associated humanitarian crises, we must build anti-racism into the very foundations of the multilateral order.

From how the United Nations agencies are led and work, to refugee and climate change policies, and even in regard to Security Council reform, we must embrace anti-racism as the greatest preventive action to humanitarian emergencies.

Madam President, in closing, the most humane action that can be undertaken is a cessation of hostilities. We call for a cessation that has clearly defined contact lines and humanitarian corridors. And a cessation that sets the foundation for a lasting peace settlement that respects the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Ukraine.

I thank you.