Delivered by Permanent Representative of Estonia to UN Mr. Sven Jürgenson
Thank you Mr. Secretary General for the comprehensive briefing.
It is long overdue to discuss COVID-19 pandemic here, in the Security Council. As an old Estonian saying goes: better late than never. COVID-19 has spread across the world with an immense speed. The pandemic has brought with it enormous disruptions for the economies and stress onto healthcare systems, creating a humanitarian, social and political crisis and with it a possible impact on peace and security, which needs to be addressed. In this regard, we fully support the Secretary General’s appeal for an immediate global ceasefire, which would allow us to focus on fighting the pandemic.
The impact of the pandemic underscores the need for all parties to comply with international humanitarian law to protect people in situations of conflict, whose vulnerability is exacerbated by COVID-19. We urge all warring parties to guarantee unimpeded access for humanitarian aid and ensure safety of humanitarian workers. We therefore welcome the Global Humanitarian Response Plan, having contributed to it, and other timely COVID-19 appeals.
The pandemic has made the implementation of peacekeeping mandates much more challenging. The risks for peacekeeping personnel have increased along with the risks for the vulnerable communities they protect. In order to ensure that mandate delivery continues in these new circumstances, we commend the four priorities[1] set out by UN leadership, and urge their rapid implementation. Together with all EU countries, Estonia has committed to retaining our military, police and corrections contributions. We will continue to nominate personnel to UN peace operations and continue to pay our assessments in full and on time, as we also did this year.
Fundamental human rights have to be respected throughout our response to COVID-19, which can further magnify the existing discrimination and inequalities, including those faced by women, children, displaced and older persons, as well as persons with disabilities. We support the Secretary-General’s focus on the impact of the pandemic on women and girls and the call for measures to address the surge in domestic violence. Women’s rights and needs have to be factored into the response to the pandemic and women themselves need to be included in the planning related to it.
In addition to tackling the urgent life-saving humanitarian needs, we need to prepare for the socio-economic impact and consider exit strategies. Digital transformation and preparedness has been an essential element, which has helped the Estonian society to cope in the times of spreading lockdowns, cooling economy and growing uncertainty. Identifying and overcoming gaps in digital development should be weaved into any long term exit strategy of current global emergency, be it on national, regional or global level.
Finally, Estonia fully supports WHO in their response to this pandemic. We must all adhere to their guidance to apply the best possible measures to tackle the virus. This means we have to cooperate. Transparent information sharing among the Member States is the basis for that. We need functioning multilateralism now more than ever, only then can we successfully overcome the crisis.
I thank you.
[1] protecting mission personnel so that operations can continue; helping contain and mitigate the contagion; supporting national authorities; protecting vulnerable communities
