Address by Minister Mauro Vieira at the UN Security Council emergency meeting on the situation in the Gaza Strip

Distinguished representatives,

I thank the briefers for their extensive information on the humanitarian situation on the ground and commend the work of their teams in locus and elsewhere. They honor once again the work of this Organization and everything it stands for.

Following instructions by President Lula, I come before you again today with a profound sense of urgency and dismay.

We must always bear in mind the human faces on both sides of the conflict.

Therefore, I extend Brazil’s deepest condolences to the families and friends of all civilians, including the brave and dedicated United Nations personnel, who have lost their lives in the ongoing crises stemming from the protracted conflict in Israel and Palestine, tragically reignited by the terrorist actions by Hamas against Israel on October 7th. Nothing justifies such crimes. All hostages must be immediately and unconditionally released and access to them by the Red Cross must be immediately granted.

At the same time, the current situation in Gaza is deeply appalling and indefensible by any humane standard and under international humanitarian law. An alarming humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes, with thousands of civilians, including an overwhelming and intolerable number of children, being punished by crimes they have not committed. In 3 weeks, we have watched this conflict claim the lives of more than 8 thousand civilians, of whom more than 3 thousand are children. Since the last time I spoke in this Council, just last week, the count of children deaths increased by 1 thousand. 

Meanwhile, the Security Council holds meetings and hears speeches, without being able to take a fundamental decision: to end the human suffering on the ground. As thousands in Israel and Palestine mourn their loved ones, as Israelis agonize over the fate of hostages, as Gazans suffer under relentless military operations that are killing civilians, including an intolerable number of children, we have the means to get something done and yet we repeatedly and shamefully fail.

Since 7 October, we have met several times and considered four draft resolutions. However, we remain at an impasse due to internal disagreements, particularly among some permanent members, and thanks to the persistent use of the Council to achieve self-oriented purposes, instead of putting the protection of civilians above all. The grave and unprecedented human crises before us require that sterile rivalries be relinquished. That the Council is not able to discharge its responsibility of safeguarding international peace and security due to old antagonisms is morally unacceptable.

Let us not fool ourselves. The eyes of the world are staring at us and will not move away from our distressing inability to act. They all see that our incapacity to unite in response to the human crises facing us today questions the very raison d'être of this Council.  Someone has even written that, in addition to civilians, this body lies beneath the rubles in Gaza. The difference is that we are our own saviors. We just need to do what is right: to spare innocent lives from the scourge of wars.

There may still be time to rescue the Council and sustain the hope that many of us still have in our capacity to be true to our mandate under the Charter. But this is possible only if there is enough political will to compromise, and to be minimally balanced and inclusive in our diagnosis and way forward. Failure to do so – yet another failure - will add an increasingly higher cost in human lives above all, but also to multilateralism, in general, and the United Nations and this Council, in particular.

Last week, a hope for consensus seemed to emerge, echoing the Secretary-General's call for a humanitarian ceasefire, as the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly passed a resolution that called for a humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities. A light at the end of the tunnel seemed to appear also when the Secretary-General, who had personally been in the region to assess the situation on the ground, announced the opening of the Rafah border crossing for some initial aid deliveries, and some hostages were released. The United Nations, through its Secretariat, under the leadership of UNSG Antonio Guterres, UNRWA and other bodies and agencies, has been working tirelessly to address the human crises facing us. It rests on the Security Council the responsibility to follow through.

The price of inaction is unacceptably high. The growing urgency for the families of the hostages and the unbearable pain for the civilian population of Gaza cannot be understated. The positive first steps taken by the UN bodies and agencies do not go far enough, as the escalation of the conflict makes the situation more dire by the hour. The relevance of a resolution of the Security Council lies on the need for sustained humanitarian aid and for granting safe working conditions for those involved in rescuing hostages and providing humanitarian work. The cessation of hostilities is therefore to the benefit of the civilian population on both sides. At the risk of reinstating the obvious, I want to put it bluntly: there cannot be rescuing of hostages and humanitarian aid under shells.

This is why Brazil and fellow E-10 members have been working tirelessly to try to get this Council to act more decisively since the last showdown around proposed resolutions.

In Brazil’s view, the main goals are clear: the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the end of violence, through whatever modalities can be agreed without further delay, so that rapid, safe, unhindered, and sufficient humanitarian aid can be delivered to the strained people of Gaza. Besides the 8 thousand lives lost, many more are about to meet their fatal destiny, as hospitals have no means to keep providing basic treatment for the patients. Therefore, providing essential resources to those in Gaza, including water, food, medical supplies, fuel and electricity, is urgent and imperative.

Surgeries are being performed without anesthetics, lives are being lost at hospitals for lack of energy and the most basic medical supplies. Food and water are scarce, and prices have skyrocketed. And the flow of humanitarian aid, so far, amounts to little more than a photo-op.

Tanks and troops are on the ground in Gaza, and time for action is running out. My questions to you all are: if not now, when? How many more lives will be lost until we finally move from rhetoric to action?

It is also critical and urgent to allow for the safe and immediate evacuation of foreign nationals from Gaza and from elsewhere in the region if they feel threatened.

While every state has the right and duty to protect its citizens, actions must be consistent with international law and international humanitarian law, in particular the principles of distinction, proportionality, precaution, military necessity, and humanity. The right and duty to protect a state’s population cannot and should not come at the cost of more death of civilians and more destruction of civilian infrastructure. As UNSG Guterres has repeatedly reminded us: even wars have rules.

Any indiscriminate attacks against civilians and critical infrastructure, as well as depriving civilians of basic goods and services, are morally unjustifiable and illegal under international humanitarian law. Brazil strongly condemns actions that blur the line between civilians and combatants.

Today, UNRWA shed light on the grim and disheartening reality in Gaza, highlighting the objectionable level of destruction of civilian infrastructure and the tragic loss of innocent lives, including of women, children, and at least 35 of its staff. The World Health Organization has been constantly recalling the urgent need for the cessation of violence and for humanitarian action at a time when Gaza's health infrastructure is on the verge of collapse.

Beyond the immediate and very urgent humanitarian considerations, a threat to regional stability looms, and any repercussions could be catastrophic. Brazil urges a united shift towards de-escalation and calls on all parties to act with the utmost restraint. A cessation of hostilities is urgently needed to create the conditions for a full, durable and respected ceasefire and the resumption of a credible peace process.

All this is at stake as we keep our efforts to get this Council to act with a unified voice.

Distinguished Members of the Council,

International humanitarian law provides a clear path to avoid or at least greatly alleviate civilian suffering. The framework for collective action is clear.

Our collective response to this crisis, which we all fear will only worsen if nothing is done, will be a defining moment for the United Nations. The staggering fact is that the Security Council does not have a reasonable record when it comes to maintaining international peace and security in the Middle East: issues related to the region, in general, received 35% of the 250 vetoes of the Permanent Members. Since 2016, the Council has not been able to pass a single resolution on the situation in Palestine. The situation in the Middle East is therefore by far one of the most blocked issues in the Security Council. This speaks of ineffectiveness of the governance system and of the lack of representation of certain parts of the world in this body.

A decision on the humanitarian aspects of the current crises will certainly not redress the historic failure of the Security Council regarding the situation in the Middle East. It will however stop further human suffering now. Thank you.