Abstract This dissertation is a comparative study of the great powers in the Mediterranean world during the third and second centuries BC: the imperial republics of Rome and Carthage in the West, and the great Hellenistic dynasties of Antigonid Macedonia, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Seleucid Near East. These states fought a series of wars among one another; the end result was the establishment of Roman hegemony across the entire Mediterranean. Why Rome? This dissertation treats two metrics of state power, manpower mobilization and state revenues, and examines them in relationship to the known outcomes of interstate warfare. Part I of the dissertation reconstructs the manpower resources of each power. Each chapter in this section focuses on a particular power and explores three separate issues. I first determine the maximum mobilization each state could achieve. Next, I explore the strategies each state used to obtain recruits, in particular citizen soldiers, subject levies, and mercenary hires. Finally, each chapter concludes with a discussion of the military organization employed by each state in arranging coherent fighting units. Part II reconstructs the state revenues of each power, using a method of forensic accounting based on estimated expenditures (in particular the cost of armies) and critical examination of fragmentary source references to tax rates, mining revenues, and other sources of state income. The dissertation concludes that the Romans enjoyed a substantial comparative advantage over any of the Hellenistic powers in terms of the maximum mobilization rate, with a peak deployment of 175,000 soldiers in 190 BC. By comparison, the maximum Seleucid and Ptolemaic mobilizations both stood at around 80,000, while the Macedonian mobilization peaked at approximately 45,000. While this advantage has important explanatory power as to why Rome defeated the Seleucid and Macedonian kingdoms, is important to note that Rome deployed only a fraction of her manpower against these kingdoms, and frequently fought outnumbered in the decisive battles of the period. Moreover, Rome lacked significant manpower superiority over Carthage during much of the Second Punic War. In fact, during the opening decade of the war, Carthage deployed more soldiers than Rome did. Here the varying manpower strategies of the two states proved decisive. While Carthage managed to detach some of Rome's Italian allies, an enormous core of citizen manpower remained to Rome's advantage. While Carthage's military deployment rivaled Rome's in size, with approximately 170,000 troops deployed in 215 BC, it lacked a similar core of citizen troops. Through force and diplomacy, the Romans peeled away the subject populations that provided the bulk of Carthaginian manpower, in particular the Iberians and Numidians. On the side of state finance, the dissertation finds surprising disconnects between state revenues and military success. The wealthiest state, the Ptolemaic dynasty, extracted enormous revenues from the agricultural regions of Egypt (roughly 90 million drachmai), but after the middle of the third century the geopolitical fortunes of the dynasty declined markedly. Meanwhile, the Romans had perhaps the smallest revenues during the third century, and their lack of fiscal sophistication was represented by a clumsy system of caste bronze coinage. Roman revenues did rise over the course of the successful imperial activity in the second century, but remained comparatively modest even during the period of unquestioned military dominance. The organization of the Roman state accounts for its ability to mobilize more men for less money. The Roman habit of exploiting subject populations in Italy for unpaid military service dramatically lowered Roman military costs. Furthermore, citizen troops served for far lower pay than their counterparts in the Hellenistic East. Finally, the Republican nature of the Roman state (and Carthage as well) eliminated the substantial expense of maintaining a sumptuous royal court. The dissertation concludes by discussing the role of resources in the arc of Mediterranean history during the period. It argues that Macedonia was an under resourced state both in terms of manpower and revenues, but one that "punched above its weight" due to an effective, well-organized army based on a heavily militarized citizenry. It notes that the geographic position of both the Seleucids and the Ptolemies made it difficult for them to exert control over the entirety of the Mediterranean, although each had the resources to gain hegemony over the Eastern Mediterranean, in the manner of the Ottoman Turks in the early modern period. Yet dynastic difficulties in both states and a tripartite balance of power in the East prevented either power from gaining permanent control over the east. Ultimately, the dissertation concludes that, on the level of resources, Carthage was the only serious challenger to Rome. Like Rome, Carthage was centrally located, a geographic advantage that could have supported extending domination over the whole Mediterranean basin. During the Second Punic War, Carthage's revenues and manpower mobilization equaled, and at times exceeded, that of Rome. It is not difficult to imagine an alternative history in which Carthage gained hegemony of the Mediterranean. Nonetheless, Rome's republican system of government, its expansive system of citizenship, and its exploitation of Italian subjects for military service allowed it to raise unusually large, effective military forces despite a limited fiscal base. As a result, Rome was not only an effective conquest state, but the only state in history to unify the Mediterranean.
This paper represents the attempt of the authors to point to the political consequences of the long-term use of the violence on the Balkan by the Albanian separatist terrorist movement towards the Serbs. Its aim is also to point to the great mistakes of western powers which have continuously encouraged the Albanians on the Balkan to use violence. In the second part of the XX century, they have the most directly encouraged the national prepotency of the Albanians, by encouraging them to conduct the Albanian terror, whose ideology is Albanism, and the form is the ultra-right or fascistic terrorism. It took the most intense form in the second half of the XX century and at the beginning of the XXI century, when the political consequences of that violence warn and threat to the security of the region. The threat to the security of the Balkan at the beginning of the XXI century is even more expressed, and the violence over Serbia by some western powers is even more intense. Since the formation of the Serbian state on the Balkan, the Serbs have always struggled only for the existence and survival. By analyzing the historical documents about the expatriation of the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija in the last three centuries (1690-2006), one can conclude that from the former Old Serbia (today Kosovo and Metohija), approximately 1.150.000 Serbs have been violently expelled, about 200.000 have been killed, and about 150-200.000 have been converted to Islam. In the Middle Ages there was no special name for this area, except for the general name Serbia. At the beginning of the XXI century, the Albanian separatist terrorist movement represents the great threat to the security on the Balkan, especially after the seizure of 10.887 km2 of the territory of Serbia with the help of the western allies. The Serbs have the constitutional and historical right on Kosovo and Metohija, which is always older than the ethnic right, and the international law is also on the side of Serbia, because the UN Charter forbids the violent seizure of parts of sovereign states. The size of a national community is not determined by its size within one part of the state, but in comparison to the state as a whole, and according to that criteria, the Albanians constitute the national minority in Serbia. No national minority in the world has had the right to its own state. A national community cannot declare itself a nation or a national minority. The political consequences of the effects of the Albanian separatist terrorist movement on the Balkan at the beginning of the XXI century warn UN and EU, because the disintegration processes on the Balkan haven't been finished, according to their opinion, and it is well known that the change of the borders is followed by long and exhausting wars. ; Ovaj rad je pokušaj autora da ukažu na političke posledice dugotrajne primene nasilja na Balkanu od strane albanskog separatističko terorističkog pokreta prema Srbima. Takođe, da se ukaže na velike greške zapadnih sila koje su u kontinuitetu ohrabrivale Albance na Balkanu da primenjuju nasilje. U drugoj polovini XX veka, one su najdirektnije podsticale nacionalnu prepotentnost Albanaca, ohrabrujući ih da sprovode albanoteror čija je ideologija albanizam a forma ultradesni ili fašisoidni terorizam i to najintenzivnije u drugoj polovini XX i na početku XXI veka kada političke posledice toga nasilja upozoravaju i prete bezbednosti regiona. Pretnja bezbednosti Balkana je na početku XXI veka još izraženija, a nasilje nad Srbijom od strane nekih zapadnih sila još intenzivnije. Od nastanka Srpske države na Balkanu Srbi su se uvek borili samo za postojanje i opstanak. Analizom istorijskih dokumenata o proterivanju Srba sa Kosova i Metohije u poslednja tri veka (1690-2006) može se zaključiti da je iz nekadašnje Stare Srbije (današnje Kosovo i Metohija), nasilno proterano oko 1 150 000 Srba, da ih je oko 200 000 pobijeno i 150-200 000 albanizovano, odnosno prevedeno u islamsku veru. U srednjem veku nije postojalo posebno ime za ovu pokrajinu, osim opšteg imena Srbija. Na početku XXI veka albanski separatističko teroristički pokret predstavlja veliku pretnju bezbednosti na Balkanu, posebno nakon otimanja uz pomoć njihovih zapadnih saveznika 10887 kvadratnih kilometara teritorije Srbije. Srbi imaju ustavno i istorijsko pravo na Kosovu i Metohiji, koje je uvek starije od etničkog prava, a i međunarodno pravo je na strani Srbije, jer Povelja OUN zabranjuje nasilno otimanje delova suverenih zemalja. Brojnost jedne nacionalne zajednice se ne određuje njenim brojnim stanjem u okviru jednog dela države, već njenim brojnim stanjem u okviru cele države, pa i na osnovu tog kriterijuma Albanci su nacionalna manjina u Srbiji. Nigde u svetu do sada nacionalna manjina nije imala pravo na svoju državu. Jedna nacionalna zajednica ne može sama za sebe određivati da li je narod ili nacionalna manjina. Političke posledice delovanja albanskog separatističko terorističkog pokreta na Balkanu na početku XXI upozoravaju OUN i EU, jer se dezintegracioni procesi na Balkanu po njihovom mišljenju još nisu završili, a poznato je da svako menjanje granica prate dugotrajni i iscrpljujući ratovi.
[ITALIANO] La ricerca intende evidenziare alcune problematiche urbanistiche relative al caso di mitigazione consensuale in atto nell'area vesuviana. Guardando prevalentemente all'aspetto giuridico dei provvedimenti atti ad intervenire sul territorio, l'attenzione si concentra, in un primo momento, sul significato deontico dei risultati analitici provenienti dall'analisi del rischio. Questa è analizzata, in riferimento alle proprie relazioni con la pianificazione territoriale, da un punto di vista etico per l'attività del pianificatore. Per comprendere le relazioni con la pianificazione territoriale e le scelte localizzative si ragiona sull'opportunità del perseguimento di un approccio non impositivo nella mitigazione del rischio naturale mediante riduzione del valore esposto, in relazione al contesto insediativo e, quindi, anche allo stato di diritto delle popolazioni residenti nell'area in esame. Lo sfondo tematico iniziale della ricerca, sfiorando il dibattito relativo all'oggettività della gravità di un rischio e all'opportunità d'inserire elementi soggettivi per valutarla in funzione della percezione del pericolo, si focalizza sulle implicazioni delle possibili politiche di mitigazione legate alla riduzione del valore esposto e oscillanti, come in altri campi, tra due approcci privilegianti rispettivamente due impostazioni estreme ovvero quella dirigista e quella liberista tra cui la via di mezzo è di tipo concertativo/consensuale. Per comprende il quadro regolamentativo in cui il provvedimento di mitigazione in atto nell'area vesuviana si va inserendo, essendo un blocco dell'edificabilità residenziale il punto di partenza del programma regionale di mitigazione "Vesuvia", s'inquadra il conteso in esame analizzando gli strumenti urbanistici dei diciotto comuni alle pendici del vulcano, da cui sono state stimate le superfici edificabili residue. Oltre agli strumenti urbanistici comunali è stato considerato anche il regime normativo imposto dai piani di area vasta e, dal lavoro effettuato, è emerso che i piani dell'area interna avevano ancora una consistente offerta di edificabilità e che, nel complesso, la tendenza, negli ultimi 50 anni, è stata quella non di frenare, ma, semmai, di attrarre la popolazione verso la zona vesuviana, assecondando la forte domanda abitativa dell'area napoletana. L'approccio programmatico esaminato presenta sicuramente caratteri di innovazione che, però, per essere meglio compreso, richiede la conoscenza di alcune esperienze pregresse, non remote, inerenti il rapporto tra la pianificazione, le trasformazioni territoriali e il rischio naturale, nell'area metropolitana napoletana, come gli eventi bradisismici di Pozzuoli e la nascita del quartiere satellite di Monteruscello. Emerge che un processo di mitigazione del rischio, ponendosi determinati obiettivi settoriali da raggiungere attraverso azioni specifiche, incontra le problematiche connesse a tempi e modalità delle trasformazioni, regolate da uno strumento ordinario, come quando s'inseriscono nel quadro urbanistico processi con caratteri di revisionabilità e flessibilità tipici della pianificazione strategica e della programmazione complessa. Ci si chiede, quindi, come possa la pianificazione ordinaria rispondere a certe esigenze che generano, richiedendo tempi più rapidi, interventi settoriali dispersi e difficilmente articolabili e riordinabili in un assetto territoriale organico. Prendendo spunto da quanto emerso dai precedenti ragionamenti, evidenziando le principali voci del dibattito italiano sull'innovazione della pianificazione urbanistica e la tipologia di domanda di piano, si schematizza il dibattito sulla pianificazione strategica, le sue connessioni con la programmazione complessa e le relazioni tra queste e le leggi regionali, in un contesto nazionale non privo di formulazioni teoriche sui modelli di piano, con una riforma urbanistica in atto. In conclusione, partendo dallo stato normativo della Regione Campania, a valle di interviste a tecnici e docenti, attori del processo innovativo descritto, si evidenziano i problemi principali, connessi all'efficacia procedurale degli strumenti introdotti, focalizzando l'attenzione sulle problematiche connesse alla fase di transizione al nuovo regime normativo. Ragionando sulle implicazioni di approcci straordinari e, a volte, deregolativi, si prova, quindi, a tracciare le possibili vie per una compatibilità tra caratteri previsionali a lungo termine e processi dinamici e flessibili, alla luce delle domande di piano emergenti, superando lo specifico caso dell'area vesuviana. / [ENGLISH] This search wants to examine some planning questions dealt with a consensual approach used to reduce volcanic risk in the Vesuvian area. Focusing the attention on the regulation topics about land use and physical transformation, the search observes the relation between the mathematical objects used in the risk analysis and their physical meanings, considering also an ethical point of view for the planner. To understand the land rule background of the Vesuvian area, the work analyzes the urban plans and the other planning instruments related with the territory at maximum risk (called "red zone"). After an estimate of the building areas, before the decreasing risk regional program called "Vesuvia" (which stopped the faculty to build residential building in 18 municipalities under the volcano), it is showed a past trend which improved densification under the Vesuvius. To understand the role of a consensual approach, a middle way between an impositive method and liberal one, the search resumes past experiences, even if in emergency time and not in an ordinary one, in the metropolitan area of Naples. It is showed that a sector program has ever relations with ordinary processes about urban plan, so the search evidences the most relevant innovations in the kinds of ordinary instruments described in regional laws, considering also the actual national reform process. In this normative scenario it is possible to introduce some suggestions to avoid continuing little changes in parts of urban plans, improving the flexibility in the examined laws, but also guaranteeing the controls and the evaluations of the transformation effects.
International audience ; The Angara River is the origin of the settlement and development of eastern Siberia. But the crisis of the 1990s led to rethinking Russian land use planning, so that the regions through which the Angara River runs are more and more differentiated. The paper consists in a bibliographic summary and in unpublished information from three on-site missions and an internship at the Energy Systems Institute of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The first part insists on the conception of the planning of the Angarian territory as a whole by the Soviet authorities. The second part presents the Upper Angara. Upstream of Lake Baikal, it has remained more or less wild, despite the construction of the BAM in the 1970s and 1980s. The third part studies the Middle Angara as an engineered river with its cascade of three dams and hydroelectric power stations: Irkutsk, Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk. The fourth part studies the Lower Angara as a river under construction. This planned construction is revised downwards from year to year. The Bogoutchany dam is completed, but it is no functional, for more than ten years, so that it is the centre of environmental and socio-ethnological controversies. ; L'Angara a été à l'origine du peuplement et du développement de la Sibérie orientale. Mais la crise des années 1990 amène à repenser l'aménagement du territoire russe, de sorte que les régions traversées par l'Angara se différencient de plus en plus fortement. L'article est une synthèse bibliographique, augmentée de tableaux donnant des chiffres inédits issus d'un stage effectué par l'auteur à l'Institut de l'Energie de l'Académie des Sciences Russe d'Irkoutsk en 1996.La première partie insiste sur le fait que l'aménagement du territoire angarien avait été pensé comme un tout par les autorités soviétiques. Le harnachement de l'Angara par une succession de barrages s'appuyait sur d'importantes potentialités naturelles, mais les contraintes étaient très fortes, en particulier celles liées au pergélisol. L'Angara était une pièce majeure de l'avancée du front pionnier et de la politique soviétique de Complexe Territorial de Production. Les projets avaient été pensés dès les années 1920 à l'échelle de la Sibérie tout entière, mais ils réclamaient aussi un important développement local. C'est à partir des années 1950 que la mise en œuvre de ces projets devint effective. La deuxième partie présente l'Angara Supérieure. En amont du lac Baïkal, celle-ci est restée plus ou moins sauvage, malgré la construction du BAM dans les années 1970 et 1980. Le Complexe Territorial de Production du Baïkal Septentrional n'a pas encore conduit à la mise en valeur de la région.La troisième partie étudie l'Angara moyenne, une Angara construite, transformée en une succession de trois lacs de barrage : Irkoutsk, Bratsk et Oust-Ilimsk. (i) Il est d'abord souligné combien la construction des barrages a formé une chaîne, tant énergétique qu'industrielle et urbaine. Les travaux de Bratsk ont commencé avec des générateurs diesel alors que le barrage d'Irkoutsk n'était pas terminé, mais c'est l'achèvement de celui-ci qui a permis, par l'acheminement de la nouvelle énergie produite, de finir celui-là. Le même enchaînement s'est reproduit entre Bratsk et Oust-Ilimsk. La main d'œuvre, après la période de pointe, passait au barrage suivant, laissant au précédent une équipe moins nombreuse, terminant l'ouvrage engagé. En outre, l'invention de grilles chauffantes de protection des turbines et l'expérience de construction en pergélisol, acquises à Irkoutsk, autorisèrent un gain de temps pour Bratsk. Et l'expérience des coupes forestières, de la démoustication et de l'urbanisme ex-nihilo de Bratsk permit d'améliorer l'efficacité des travaux à Oust-Ilimsk. (ii) Dans un second temps, le point est fait sur la révision des priorités en cours, en particulier la nouvelle prise en compte des questions écologiques. Il en résulte l'abaissement de niveau du barrage d'Irkoutsk et son obligation de tenir les niveaux stables durant les périodes de frai. Enfin, la région produit tellement d'électricité qu'elle ne peut être toute utilisée sur place, malgré la forte consommation des raffineries d'aluminium, si bien qu'une partie est exportée.La quatrième partie présente l'Angara inférieure (dite aussi Toungouska supérieure dans l'ancienne toponymie), une Angara en construction ou, plutôt, en projet de construction revu à la baisse d'année en année. Achevé, mais non fonctionnel, depuis plus de dix ans, le barrage de Bogoutchany se trouve au cœur des controverses environnementales et socio-ethnologiques. La situation d'attente de Bogoutchany, et, en aval de celui-ci, l'arrêt de la construction des barrages de Kossaïa Chivera et de celui de Mourojny Byk, s'ils sont regardés par les groupes de pression écologistes comme une bonne nouvelle, n'en posent pas moins de graves problèmes. Les gens, souvent âgés, qui sont restés manifestent et en arrivent à des situations de bataille désespérées contre les hydrauliciens logés dans la ville-nouvelle de Kodinsk. Mais ceux, souvent plus jeunes, qui sont partis se sentent lésés eux aussi, car ils ont abandonné la maison de leurs ancêtres et ont perdu leur terrain constitué de bons sols alluviaux, avec le sentiment, dix ans après, de l'avoir fait pour rien.
The late nineteen-eighties have been the occasion for a spate of birthday celebrations in law schools around the Commonwealth. This reflects the fact that the nineteen sixties saw an enormous expansion of legal education throughout the common law world, including the foundation of many new law schools, some of them the first in a given jurisdiction, country or region. The age of majority of a law school seems almost invariably to be set at either twenty or twenty-five years. Some institutions have marked their coming of age by publishing collections of essays that in different ways reflect on the past with pride or nostalgia or disillusion. Most view the future with apprehension, largely because of the economic crisis that faces higher education in nearly all countries in the English speaking world. Four recent publications exemplify the mood. The Faculty of Law of the University of Lagos, born in 1961, celebrated its anniversary with a collection of essays on Law and Development to mark the event. Dar-es-Salaam, born within weeks of Lagos, but hardly an identical twin, produced an imaginatively conceived collection of largely autobiographical essays poignantly entitled Limits of Legal Radicalism. Two other recent publications perform similar functions for legal scholarship: the now venerable Modern Law Review marked its fiftieth birthday with an illuminating survey of the state of legal scholarship in the common law world; this exhibits the wry acceptance of lowering of sights by an ageing radical. Finally a relative youngster, the University of Trento, has published an interesting symposium on Legal Scholarship in Africa which even more clearly that other documents many of the practical constraints, political, economic and social, under which contemporary legal researchers and scholars operate, especially in the Third World. In their different ways all of these publications combine reports of significant achievements with a sense of aspirations not really fulfilled and a quiet pessimism about the future about the future. In short, the mood of many institutions on their twenties seems to be one middle-aged acceptance of second best. Nearly all of these documents have quite understandably adopted the relatively parochial standpoint of academic lawyers in university or polytechnic law schools. The central concerns are with the familiar, but narrow, issues of curriculum, scholarly output and what might be called the ideology of legal education . the much-rehearsed litany of differing approaches to academic law loosely labelled "blackletter" or "expository", "trade school", "socio-legal", "contextual", "law and development", "clinical", "skills", "critical" and so on. In this paper I propose to adopt a broader perspective in two respects: I shall look at some general trends and issues in the Commonwealth, that vast and amorphous network of countries that are loosely linked together by a shared imperial past, by the common law, and perhaps most important in the long run, by the English language: I shall interpret legal education more broody to include not only specialized education and vocational training in university, polytechnic and independent professional training schools, but also a whole range of activities from law in schools to continuing education of the judiciary at all levels; from formation of paraprofessionals to the development and retraining of specialists; and the vast but relatively neglected subject of legal education for non-lawyers, which ranges far beyond mis-named "service" teaching of law for businessmen, accountants , social workers and the police to include activities aimed at raising the consciousness of and providing practical tools for grass-roots activists, trade unionists and ordinary citizens to help them to understand and use and cope with law as it affects them in their daily lives and work. In one respect, however, my focus will be narrow: legal education (or mis-education) is delivered and takes place in many arena and contexts besides specialized law schools. It occurs in law offices, government departments, plush hotels, schools, factories, villages and the home. It is delivered by non-lawyers and the media as well as by those who call themselves law teachers. However, I shall focus on specialized law schools as the actual or potential hub of any system of legal education. In the second part of the paper I phase law schools need to take more seriously than they have done in the past the idea that they should conceived, planned, financed, and equipped to become multipurpose centres that are concerned in a sustained way with all levels of legal education in society. This argument is not new. It was advanced in a report by the International Legal Center in 1975 entitled Legal Education in a Changing World5 with which Professor Yash Ghai and I were associated. That exercise was an education for me. Since then the world, legal professions, patterns of practice, legal education and some of my own views and perceptions have changed, but largely in ways that confirm and strengthen the main themes of that report. The argument is not intended to provide a blue-print for all law schools to follow; it is rather to suggest that perceptions, discussions and decisions within the higher reaches of legal education need to take account of some far-reaching trends and a wider agenda of issues than the traditionally inward-looking discourse of legal education has encompassed.
El objetivo del estudio que se informa fue describir y analizar los componentes de la identidad nacional argentina y su relación con la orientación de la dominancia social (ODS) y la tolerancia a la transgresión normativa. Para tal fin, se realizaron encuestas a 170 sujetos que residían en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires y el Conurbano Bonaerense (República Argentina). Los resultados evidencian un grado de identificación medio-alto con la categoría social argentino, a la vez que muestran una autoestima colectiva medio-alta. Los atributos autoestereotípicos que conforman la identidad nacional comprenden tres dimensiones: argentino positivo, argentino negativo y argentino avivado. Esta última dimensión fue la que presentó mayor consenso entre los participantes, lo que sugiere que la viveza es percibida como una interface entre lo negativo y lo positivo por sus características adaptativas y funcionales. Los resultados muestran además que la ODS se relaciona inversamente con los componentes positivos, y directamente con los componentes negativos de la identidad nacional, lo que lleva a pensar que el ser argentino no necesariamente se vincula con el estatus o poder en personas dominantes. Finalmente, en relación con la tolerancia a la transgresión, los niveles de acuerdo con la misma son bajos en la muestra. Las caracterizaciones del argentino negativo y argentino avivado se vinculan con la tolerancia hacia ciertos comportamientos transgresores, especialmente con aquellos considerados menos graves y que no perjudican directamente a terceros. ; From early beginnings of the last century, the stereotypes and categorizations about the Argentineans where predominantly negative, both for foreigners as for Argentineans themselves (D'adamo & García Beaudoux, 1994). This lack of a positive nationalism has been related to the lack of adherence to the norm and corruption, as well as to the bias towards the European countries shown by the Argentinean society and its members. This negative social self-concept among Argentineans is not unique in the region, in fact, a study carried out in the 90's revealed that most of Latin American countries had negative national identities (Salazar, J. M. & Salazar, M. A., 1998). However, more recent studies carried out in countries such as Peru or Mexico suggest that there might be a shift in some aspects of their national identities, from a mainly negative one to a more ambivalent one, with some positive and some negative aspects. Some of these studies also evidenced certain relations between the national identity and other psychosocial variables such as the social dominance orientation (SDO) and the political ideology. Both high levels of SDO and a right wing political ideology had a negative impact on the different components of the national identity. These results may enlighten the study of the national identity in Argentina, that's why the aim of this study was to describe and analyze some components of the Argentinean national identity and their relationship to SDO and tolerance towards transgressive behaviors. To this end, a survey with 170 residents in Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires and its surroundings was carried out. Results showed middle-high levels of identification and collective self-esteem related to the Argentinean social category. The national self-stereotypes that conform Argentinean identity were gathered in three dimensions: Positive argentine, Negative argentine, and Crafty argentine. The last dimension was the most consensual among participants, suggesting that craftiness is perceived as an interface between the negative and positive self-stereotype dimensions, because of its functionality and adaptability characteristics. The results also showed that the SDO was inversely related to the positive dimension, and directly related to the negative dimension of national identity, which suggests that the Argentine social category is not linked to status or power in dominant people. Finally, scores of tolerance toward normative transgression were low in the sample. However, negative argentine and crafty argentine dimensions were more tolerant toward transgressor behaviors that could be considered less serious and not harmful to others. The results confirm the negative relation between the SDO and the positive national identity, although the causes of this relation are yet to be studied. The research also suggests that there might be a shift in some of the components and expressions of the national identity. As well as in other countries of Latin America, this shift is characterized for its ambivalence between some positive aspects and other negative ones. Perhaps this ambivalence is best characterized by the craftiness, where the negative aspects of norm transgression and individualism meet the positive aspects of social warmth, adaptability and creativity. As for further investigations, it's important to study how the different national identities interact with specific scenarios, and how this interaction has an impact on the individual behavior. Altogether, this kind of research helps to understand the national identity more deeply, and therefore, enlighten us to make a positive change in order to develop a healthy social identity, based on mutual trust and respect. ; Fil: Monsegur, Santiago. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina ; Argentina ; Fil: Espinosa, Agustín. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú; Perú ; Fil: Beramendi, Maite Regina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
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This past Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down for an interview in which he yet again made clear that, despite the insistence of pro-diplomacy voices in the West, he was not ready to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war, because Kyiv's uncertain battlefield prospects meant Russia could secure further advances by continuing the war. "It would be ridiculous for us to start negotiating with Ukraine just because it's running out of ammunition," Putin told interviewer Dmitry Kiselyov, according to one particularly viral and widely cited tweet by Wall Street Journal chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov. Except that's not what Putin said. In fact, by reading the full text and seeing the quote in context instead of as a selectively edited soundbite, it's clear he was putting out the exact opposite message: "For us to hold negotiations now just because they are running out of ammunition would be ridiculous. Nevertheless, we are open to a serious discussion, and we are eager to resolve all conflicts, especially this one, by peaceful means."What is true is that Putin once more restated the more stringent conditions for peace talks he adopted last year, namely that Moscow will not give up the four regions it officially annexed in September 2022 and that, given the state of the battlefield, Ukraine will have to accept the loss of this territory. "Are we ready to negotiate? We sure are," he said. "But we are definitely not ready for talks that are based on some kind of 'wishful thinking' which comes after the use of psychotropic drugs, but we are ready for talks based on the realities that have developed, as they say in such cases, on the ground."This didn't stop the truncated version of the first quote from being spread far and wide on social media and being held up, often by reporters at top newspapers like Trofimov and other authoritative voices, as definitive proof that negotiations to end the war were impossible and that prolonged war is the only option. "Republican leadership of the House cutting off military supplies to Ukraine has made Putin drop his pretense about desiring peace talks. He wants it all," was Trofimov's summary of the interview. "Putin indicated he won't discuss surrendering territory annexed from Ukraine and appeared confident Russia's army could advance further," the Financial Times Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon reported, before offering the clipped quote as evidence. "Russia spreads rumors about negotiations. Uncritical people write naive articles. US cuts off aid to Ukraine. Putin says — thanks, with your help I'll win the war [and] destroy Ukraine," wrote historian Timothy Snyder, citing Trofminov's summary. "War criminal Putin doesn't want to negotiate, only to rape, murder & pilage innocent Ukrainians," tweeted Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt. "The only way this war ends is if we step up and give Ukrainians what they ask for. Those in the West calling for negotiations serve this monster."Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) used it to claim the GOP's hold-up of military aid was "fueling Putin's aggression and the Russian war effort." Identical arguments — that the truncated quote showed Putin's talk of negotiations was a smokescreen, and that the only way to get to a peaceful end to the war is to double down on a military solution — were, and still are today, being spread by a wide variety of prominent, influential and often hawkish voices, largely piggybacking off Trofimov and Seddon's misrepresentation of the remarks. It's not been much better outside of social media. Putin's comments about negotiations were left entirely out of Western media reports on his interview at Reuters, the Associated Press, PBS and Voice of America. Only CNBC included the comments with the full quote; CNN also reported that "Putin said Russia would be willing to negotiate," though citing only his remark about "realities on the ground." Others double down on using the shortened quote for a misleading framing, such as this Washington Examiner headline, or this Telegraph report. The latter went beyond merely the headline and opened by telling readers that Putin "has ruled out opening peace talks with Ukraine," before putting together a composite quote from the interview that deliberately skipped over his remark that Moscow was open to talks and eager to resolve the conflicts diplomatically.Why is this important? Hawks would charge that simply daring to correct the record here is a sign of suspicious pro-Putin sympathies. But willingness to negotiate has nothing to do with moral virtue: the violently repressive Saudi government, which recently went on an execution spree, also eventually negotiated an end to its horrific war on Yemen despite the horror it had unleashed on the country. More recently, Hamas has shown a willingness to negotiate throughout the Israeli assault on Gaza, talks that bore fruit back in November with a ceasefire and hostage swap, none of which absolves it for the atrocities of October 7 or renders its members model citizens. Just as in those cases, one does not need to trust in Putin here, an authoritarian and practiced politician, to proceed with talks. Peace negotiations are, by their very nature, carried out between parties without ample reserves of faith in and goodwill towards each other, and part of any talks involves devising a mechanism with acceptable security guarantees for each party that removes the need to rely on mere trust. The surest way to verify if someone is serious about such negotiations is to actually try them. The fact that Putin insists he's open to negotiations, albeit with major territorial concessions from the Ukrainian side, should be encouraging news for anyone who genuinely cares about Ukraine. The RAND Institute argued in January last year that the economic and social damage caused by a longer war outweighed the possible benefits of military reconquest of lost territory. Indeed, the effects of prolonging the war in search of a morally satisfying military victory have been devastating for the country: tens of thousands killed and wounded, widespread destruction of infrastructure, a demographic crisis, and massive debt that will leave the country vulnerable to rapacious creditors. Many thousands of Ukrainians are desperately dodging conscription to avoid dying in the war, with a plurality of 48 percent of Ukrainian men admitting they are not prepared to fight. These remarks by Putin are only the latest signal that Moscow is ready to enter talks. Putin similarly told Tucker Carlson in February several times that Russia was "ready" to negotiate. More importantly, three separate reports in the New York Times, Bloomberg and Reuters have revealed behind-the-scenes overtures by Moscow, reportedly as early as last September, to Washington for peace talks, which the Biden administration has so far not acted on. We can't know for sure if Putin's remarks are serious until they're tested in negotiations. But that doesn't give journalists and commentators free rein to mislead the public that they don't exist, all for the purpose of undermining the possibility of peacefully ending a war that more and more Ukrainians don't want to fight in.
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For a conflict discussed in starkly moralistic terms, the ways the Ukraine war is talked about by its most enthusiastic Western supporters can be remarkably cynical about the human carnage involved. "Aiding Ukraine, giving the money to Ukraine is the cheapest possible way for the U.S. to enhance its security," Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of the Economist, recently told the Daily Show's Jon Stewart. "The fighting is being done by the Ukrainians, they're the people who are being killed." This view is not unique to Beddoes. It's been widely expressed by those most in favor of an open-ended, prolonged war and most against the kind of peace negotiations that would shorten it. "Four months into this thing, I like the structural path we're on here. As long as we help Ukraine with the weapons they need and the economic support, they will fight to the last person," said Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) early into the war, accidentally voicing what the war's critics have often said about the war — that the U.S. will fight it "to the last Ukrainian." Later, Graham called it the "best money we've ever spent." "It is a relatively modest amount that we are contributing without being asked to risk life and limb," Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Associated Press last year. "The Ukrainians are willing to fight the fight for us if the West will give them the provisions. It's a pretty good deal." "I call that a bargain," North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has said about the war funding, pointing to the damage Ukrainian forces had inflicted on the Russian military. "No Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. We're rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that," U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remarked.Americans "should be satisfied that we're getting our money's worth on our Ukraine investment," wrote Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), because "for less than 3 percent of our nation's military budget, we've enabled Ukraine to degrade Russia's military strength by half," and "all without a single American service woman or man injured or lost." But politicians aren't the only armchair warriors who look at the enormous death and destruction suffered by Ukraine by prolonging the war as akin to a brilliant business decision. Hawkish think tanks have made similar arguments. "When viewed from a bang-per-buck perspective, U.S. and Western support for Ukraine is an incredibly cost-effective investment," Timothy Garten Ashe wrote for the weapons maker-funded Center for European Policy Analysis. "Support for Ukraine remains a bargain for American national security," wrote Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia Peter Rough. "For about 5 percent of total U.S. defense spending over the past 20 months, Ukraine has badly degraded Russia, one of the United States' top adversaries, without shedding a single drop of American blood." And major U.S. newspapers have likewise published similar perspectives. "We have a determined partner in Ukraine that is willing to bear the consequences of war so that we do not have to do so ourselves in the future," former top George W. Bush officials Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates celebrated in the pages of the Washington Post. "For all the aid we've given Ukraine, we are the true beneficiaries in the relationship, and they the true benefactors," wrote Bret Stephens at the New York Times, pointing to the fact that NATO is paying in only money, while "Ukrainians are counting their costs in lives and limbs lost." What's distasteful about this is not just the flippant way it treats the unimaginable scale of loss of life, permanent disability and emerging long-term crises being experienced by Ukrainians — as mere abacus beads to be moved around in a cost-benefit analysis centered on the United States and its NATO allies. It's also the fact that, far from being "willing," "determined" and ready to "fight to the last person," many Ukrainians have demonstrated that they do not want to risk their lives in this war — a share of the population that is getting larger and more vocal the longer the war has gone on. Since the start of the war, when many fleeing Ukrainian men were stopped at the border and ordered to return to potentially fight, thousands of Ukrainians have defied the government's ban on men aged between 18 and 60 leaving the country — to the point of spending large sums of money and even risking their lives to get out. Many hunkered down in their homes to dodge enlistment officers, while tens of thousands signed a petition opposing increasingly aggressive conscription practices. Early last year, Ukraine's parliament upped the punishment for desertion, which soldiers have this year admitted is still a growing problem. By November 2023, the BBC determined that a total of nearly 20,000 Ukrainian men had fled the country to avoid being drafted, while the State Border Service revealed a month later that more than 16,500 had been stopped from leaving. At one point, the country's law enforcement uncovered a massive scheme across nearly a dozen regions that gave out falsified medical certificates declaring someone unfit for military service in return for as much as $10,000. This phenomenon has only intensified as Kyiv has dramatically expanded its conscription plans to make up its disadvantage in manpower, including proposals for lowering the draft age and creating a central database of potential recruits, all while resorting to more aggressive drafting tactics and recruiting increasingly older and less healthy men. These plans have engendered massive opposition, with protests by soldiers' families that have taken place around the country since last year calling for a cap on the length of military service continuing and intensifying; earlier this month. One hundred women blocked a road and mistakenly attacked another woman due to rumors of draft officials coming to take the village's men away. "I don't see the 500,000 more people ready to die," admitted a former Ukrainian government minister and current army captain last November. It increasingly appears that many of those who are most enthusiastic to keep the war going and avoid a negotiated end aren't, as we keep being told, the Ukrainians who are most likely to be killed or wounded in the fighting. Instead they are politicians and commentators far, far away from the front line in other countries who view its attendant death and destruction as akin to a board game — or, in their words, as a "good deal," a "bargain," and a satisfying "investment" for their own countries.In other words, it looks increasingly like all too many other U.S.-led wars.
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UPDATE: 10/9: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and a bipartisan delegation of Senators met with Chinese President Xi Jinping today in Beijing. Among the issues addressed: the U.S. fentanyl crisis, human rights and "economic reciprocity" between the two countries. The meeting was overshadowed however, according to Bloomberg News, by Schumer's stated disappointment with China's response to the Hamas attacks on Israel over the weekend. China called for a ceasefire and for a two-state solution, with an independent state for Palestinians. A bipartisan senate delegation led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) touched down in Shanghai on Sunday, the first stop in a diplomatic mission that also includes Japan and South Korea."We are prepared to compete but we do not seek to conflict," Schumer told a Chinese official, reflecting the Biden administration's continued attempts to strike a balance between engagement and competition with Beijing even as relations between the world's two leading powers have sharply declined over the past several years.In an earlier statement this week, China said it hoped the visit would "contribute to a more objective understanding of China in the U.S. Congress."The high-level talks are accompanied by fresh affirmations from the White House that there is tentative agreement on a Biden-Xi summit in San Francisco, with officials adding that plans for the meeting will take a more concrete form after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's upcoming visit to Washington. "It's pretty firm" that there will be a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders, an administration official told the Washington Post. The Senate delegation trip comes on the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's meeting with Xi earlier this summer. The Blinken-Xi talks, which were followed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's four-day visit to China in July, are part of an ongoing effort by the Biden administration to stabilize U.S.-Chinese relations amid mounting military tensions over Taiwan, U.S. allegations of Chinese human rights abuses, and simmering frustration that China's booming trade with Russia is hobbling the Western sanctions regime established in response to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration has tried to balance its mounting competition with Beijing by seeking out areas of bilateral cooperation, particularly including a suite of climate change initiatives being championed by John Kerry, U.S. special envoy on climate change. The full scope of the Senate delegation's mission to China has not been revealed. Senator Bill Cassidy (R- La.), one of the group's republican members, reiterated hopes that the delegation will be able to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, clarifying that such a meeting has not been scheduled. "If the talks proceed well, there is the possibility that President Xi will meet Schumer," said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, to the Associated Press. "If their meeting is realized, the chances for a Xi-Biden meeting will become greater."The senators are widely expected to raise thorny issues of human rights and what U.S. officials have described as deadly inflows of fentanyl from China. There is little to suggest that the delegation's Chinese interlocutors will reciprocate positively on either issue. Beijing has vigorously rebuffed accusations of systemic abuses carried out against China's Muslim Uyghur population in the northwestern Xinjiang region, with top Chinese officials previously denouncing such claims as malicious slander. Attempts by Blinken to broach the human rights issue at a 2021 bilateral summit in Anchorage, Alaska prompted a "lecture" from Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi. "The United States does not have the qualification to say that it wants to speak to China from a position of strength," Yang said, adding that it is "important for the United States to change its own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world." Beijing has adopted a similarly defensive posture on "fentanyl-related issues," dismissing them as a smear against China and a pretext for "illegal sanctions on Chinese counter-narcotics institutions" in a heated response to recent Justice Department charges against China-based companies accused of being involved in the fentanyl trade."They are fueling the fentanyl crisis that is poisoning communities across the United States," said Schumer, referring to the Chinese producers in question. "Every one of us knows families who have lost young men and women to fentanyl."China has forcefully and consistently rejected Washington's positions on human rights and fentanyl issues; there is nothing to suggest that the upcoming Senate delegation can yield a different result. An aide to Schumer said the senators plan to "raise concerns related to global competition and what many of them considered China's unfair business and trade practices," according to The New York Times. Here, too, the two sides are unlikely to find common ground, as successive waves of new U.S. export controls --with similar measures being considered by the EU — auguring an expanding trade war between Washington and Beijing. The Senate delegation will also visit Japan and South Korea, key players in East Asia that have found themselves increasingly at odds with Beijing in recent months. The agenda for these two stops is less clear, but they come amid attempts by the White House to corral Tokyo and Seoul into a regional bloc with the purpose of thwarting Chinese ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.Beijing has previously responded to what it sees as grievous missteps by U.S. officials and politicians by cutting off bilateral contacts, as it did shortly following former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Stable channels of military communication between Washington and Beijing have still not been restored despite repeated appeals by Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and President Joe Biden. There is scant basis for anticipating, nor has Schumer or any delegation member promised, concrete bilateral agreements or other propitious developments from the senators' upcoming China trip. It is, however, easy to see how bilateral relations could further deteriorate, with Beijing in no hurry to restore diplomatic contacts or to work with Washington in the few remaining areas where cooperation still seems feasible. The White House, meanwhile, is increasingly coming under fire from congressional Republicans arguing that the administration has little to show for its efforts to calm tensions with China. The delicate balancing act between competition and engagement with Beijing appears increasingly difficult to sustain in the absence of clear diplomatic results. It is unclear if the upcoming senate delegation will prove to be a step in the direction of breaking the emerging diplomatic impasses that exist between the two countries, or make it worse.
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First introduced by Republicans as part of the Contract with America, the child tax credit (CTC) has won wide bipartisan support as an income‐transfer program to fight poverty, a subsidy to middle‐class families, and a tool to boost declining fertility, yet it is poorly suited to meet each of these goals. Republicans doubled the CTC in their 2017 tax reform, and Democrats temporarily expanded it again in their 2021 COVID package, increasing the dollar value and removing the de facto work requirements. Republicans and Democrats agree that the CTC should be larger, the only disagreement is on how much the credit should be enhanced. There are bipartisan efforts in the House and the Senate to expand the CTC, while some states have moved forward with their own child tax credit programs. The CTC is a costly transfer program for taxpayers with kids who do not need government handouts and who do not meaningfully change their fertility decisions in response to larger payments. As an anti‐poverty program, the CTC is poorly targeted, and without income requirements, regular no‐strings‐attached payments from Washington are counterproductive for the most vulnerable families. There are better ways to support families by reducing the regulations and other barriers that increase the costs of core child‐related goods and services. Without substantial deregulation, increasing direct government payments to families will simply lead to higher prices rather than expanded supply. By making payments through the tax code, the CTC allows Republicans to support spending they would otherwise oppose since tax credits operate outside the annual Congressional appropriations process. Democrats support the CTC because they recognize it for what it is, a subsidy program administered through the tax code. Congress should repeal the CTC and use the savings to lower tax rates for Americans broadly. It certainly should not be expanded. History of the CTC The child tax credit was first introduced in 1997 as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act. It quickly increased from $400 to $1,000 while lowering the earned income requirement from $10,000 to $3,000. The credit was further expanded in 2017 as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which increased the credit to $2,000 per child, lowered the earned income threshold, and raised the beginning of the income phaseout from $110,000 to $400,000 for married taxpayers ($75,000 to $200,000, single). The 2017 reform also eliminated the child and dependent exemption, which was more than offset by the $1,000 increase in the CTC for a taxpayer at or below the 25 percent income tax bracket (about $150,000). Along with a majority of the other changes enacted in 2017, the CTC and additional exemptions return to their previous values in 2026. In 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act temporarily increased the CTC for just one year to $3,600 for children under 6 years old and $3,000 for children under 18 years old. The full credit was also made temporarily fully refundable by removing the earned income requirements, and half of the credit was delivered as advance payments directly into taxpayers' bank accounts each month. Figure 1 shows the maximum CTC amount from its introduction through 2026 for 0–5‑year-olds, including the scheduled reduction under current law.
Is the Child Tax Credit an effective subsidy? The CTC provides a large subsidy to families with children. Unlike the earned income tax credit (EITC), cash aid (TANF), food aid (WIC, SNAP), and public health care (Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program), the CTC is primarily a subsidy for middle‐ and upper‐income Americans. As currently designed, the CTC is not primarily an anti‐poverty program. Only 19 percent of child tax credit expenditures are claimed by the lowest quintile of income earners. Jacob Goldin and Katherine Michelmore find that 87 percent of filers in the bottom income decile of AGI are completely ineligible for the CTC, and "the majority of filers in the bottom thirty percent of the distribution are only eligible for a partial credit." Arguments for expanding the CTC usually assume that the cost of raising a child has increased and affordability has broadly declined. Relatedly, some proponents worry that U.S. fertility is below the replacement rate and believe that expanding government subsidies will meaningfully increase women's lifetime fertility. Still, others focus on how larger income transfers could reduce poverty. The CTC is poorly targeted to meet each of these goals. Poverty Because the CTC phases in for filers with income over $2,500 at a 15 percent rate, the credit creates an incentive to work by adding a 15‐cent subsidy to each additional dollar earned, until the full credit is reached. As is the case with the EITC, the work incentives are often partly or fully offset by the "income effect," under which the subsidy allows a worker to meet his material needs with fewer hours worked.[1] Expanding the dollar value of the credit will have income effects that at least partially offset the work incentive. To better target the lowest income families, others propose permanently increasing the credit and eliminating the earned income requirement, as was temporarily done in 2021 during the pandemic. Proponents claim that such a permanent change would reduce child poverty by more than 40 percent. Such estimates fail to account for how newly eligible families will change their behavior. Taking behavioral effects into account, Kevin Corinth, Bruce Meyer, Matthew Stadnicki, and Derek Wu estimate that the larger CTC without income requirements would lead 1.5 million workers to stop working (83 percent of whom would be the sole earner in the household). The net effect of expanding the CTC would reduce overall child poverty by 22 percent and would not reduce deep poverty (50 percent of the poverty line). Results from the Joint Committee on Taxation found that the expanded CTC would result in similar reductions in labor supply. Corinth and Meyer estimate that any reductions in poverty from a larger CTC that is targeted at families without market income would come at a fiscal cost that is almost double that of other programs, such as food stamps. The CTC is neither an efficient nor an effective policy tool to reduce child poverty. Cost of raising a child Although Americans frequently cite affordability concerns as an obstacle to fertility, analysis indicates that family costs have not outpaced incomes and that the cost of raising a child has fallen, not grown, over time. For example, Angela Rachidi compares family incomes to family‐related costs and finds that family incomes have grown steadily since the 1980s and costs have generally not outpaced them. Instead, Rachidi suggests that family's increasing expectations around—and consumption of—various goods and services (home size, vehicle ownership, clothing) drive perceptions of affordability decline. Moreover, various measures of social support and community support have declined in ways that may make it more difficult to raise a family. Economist Jeremy Horpedahl similarly finds that the annual cost of raising a child in the United States has fallen from 21.8 percent of median family income in 1960 to 12.6 percent of median family income in 2020 for two‐earner families, with the 2020 figure constituting the lowest cost yet (Figure 2). For single‐earner families, the annual cost of raising a child in the United States fell from 27 percent of median family income in 1960 to 23.7 percent of median family income in 2020.[2]
Some proponents of the CTC argue that the presence of children reduces a family's ability to pay and thus deserves an offsetting subsidy, regardless of whether the cost of raising a child is increasing or decreasing. While children do come with additional costs, so do many other decisions individuals and families make, such as living in a high‐cost area for economic or educational reasons. Lastly, subsidies could be counterproductive as they will tend to be captured as higher prices of child‐related services without supply‐side reforms to expand access. Although evidence indicates that family affordability is not broadly in decline, the price of core child‐related goods and services could certainly be lower with regulatory reforms. Fertility U.S. fertility is below‐replacement level and converging with the low fertility rates of other countries. Subsidies for families with children, including the CTC, have been proposed as one way to mitigate this decline. Such financial transfers or cash benefits are especially ineffective at reducing fertility decline. A review of studies with experimental or quasi‐experimental designs finds that financial transfers result in a short‐term increase in births while leaving the long‐term total unaffected. A United Nations working paper finds that financial transfers' "impact on completed fertility is rather small… Furthermore, the effects of financial transfers usually have the biggest influence on fertility of the low educated, low‐income, or jobless for whom public transfers are of higher value." As stated elsewhere, these low‐income households rarely qualify for the CTC's middle‐ and upper‐income benefit. The CTC is thus doubly ineffective at increasing fertility: not only do financial transfers have a small or insignificant effect to begin with—altering fertility timing rather than total births—but the CTC does not target the demographic that would be most influenced to increase their fertility behaviors in the presence of financial benefits. Targeting low‐income households comes with other costs to labor force participation and more fundamental questions about the prudence of governments' involvement in fertility decisions. A better way? Although the CTC fails at many objectives, there are numerous options for state, local, and federal policymakers interested in supporting families and making family life easier. To increase affordability, reforms to housing, food, formula, and childcare policy should be enacted. To reduce stress, increase opportunity, and reduce the cost associated with buying a home in the "right" neighborhood, further reforms to educational choice must be adopted. Parents typically have limited financial resources, but just as importantly, limited time. Enacting reasonable independence laws and reforming home supervision laws would reduce the time cost of parenting while providing growth opportunities for school‐age kids. Overly burdensome car seat requirements, with little associated safety benefit, should also be reconsidered. Adopting these reforms would do much more for parents and children than expanding the CTC. On the other hand, expanding CTC spending without deregulating the goods and services that parents demand would be counterproductive and regressive. Ultimately, Congress should repeal the CTC entirely.
[1] Incentives depend on whether a person is not working or working to begin with, and whether the worker's earnings place them on the phase‐in, plateau, or phase‐out region of the benefit schedule. See here.
[2] Where single‐earner families includes both single parent families and married couples where one parent is in the labor force.
Confession without Borders: 1st Wave Feminism against Woman's Right Disproportion in AtiqRahimi'sThe Patience Stone TitikHariPangestu English Literature Faculty of Languages and Arts State University of Surabaya Titik_hari@ymail.com Diana Budi Darma, SS. M.Pd. English Department Faculty of Languages and Arts State University of Surabaya Dianabd9@gmail.com Abstrak Penelitianinimemfokuskanpadaketidakseimbanganatashak-hakperempuan di Afghanistan denganmenggunakantindakantokohutamadalam novel inisebagaisumberdalamtesisini. Ktidakseimbanganhakmunculsebagaiakibatdaridominasisatusisikesisi lain. Masalahpertamadalamtesisiniberbicaratentangdominasilaki-laki. Yang keduamengungkapkanpengakuanperempuansebagaicerminandarifeminismegelombangpertama. Dalammenjawabpertanyaanpertama, penelitianinididukungolehteoripatriarki, sertadidukungolehbukuNawal El – Saadawi, dimanabukuiniberfokuspadadominasilaki-laki di wilayahArab. Permasalahankeduaakandijawabdenganmenggunakanteoridarifeminism, yang mengkhususkanpada feminismgelombangpertama. Analisisiniakanmenunjukkanbahwaketidakseimbanganperempuandisebabkanolehadanyawarisan agama danbudayasecaraturuntemurundalamkomunitasini. Setelahmenggambarkandoominasikaumpria, selanjutnyatesisiniakanmenggambarkanbagaimanaperempuan di wilayahinimenghadapiketidakseimbanganini. Tesisiniakanmengemukakan,sistemPatriarki yangdinilaisebagaipenyebabmunculnyaketidakseimbangantersebut,.Ketidakseimbanganinimemberikantekananbesartercermindalampengakuanistri, yang padaakhirnyamemberinyakekuatanuntukmelawanterhadapketidakseimbanganini. Kata kunci: Patriarki ,FeminismeGelombangPertama Abstract This study focuses on depicting Afghan women's rights disproportion by using main character's act inside this novel. Right disproportion appears as a result of the domination of one sides to the other. The first problem talks about the domination of men's. The second reveal the women's confession represent first wave feminism. In answering first question, this research is supported by patriarchy theory, and supported by Nawal-El-Saadawi's book which focus on men's domination in this region. The second statement of problem will be answered by using a theory from the first wave feminism. The analysis reveals the disproportion of women right caused by hereditary thought of their religion and cultural and also how women in this region face this disproportion. Patriarchal believes is use as a cause of the disproportion. Furthermore, this disproportion which cause a huge pressure analyzing by wife's confession finally give her a power to fight back against this disproportion. Keywords: Patriarchy, First Wave Feminism INTRODUCTION Offending to women in the society, especially to traditional system, it must dribble a fact of disproportion of women within it. This fact finally grounds the responder of it, especially to whom it may concern with cultural study to talk to. Besides that, this phenomenon also creates an unforgettable experience to author to write it down in utterance of beautiful work, especially novel that brings conflicts in detail. According to Rene Wellek and Austin Warren say that literary work is the representation of the author toward social life and society (Wellek & Warren, 1949: 90). According those quotation, literary can be affected by society because the author is part of the society. His idea can come from his or her society. The author combining his experience with some fiction than use this as the main source of literary works. In other word, between literary work and society or social life is tightly related each other. By using particular literary work, a researcher can identify a social condition in a particular area. Empirically, women are seen as the weakness subject. They are only put in in the second position in this life. Their duties only focus on domestic area such as bearing a child, cook for the household, and clean the house. Functionally, in war era women are only used for king and warrior sex satisfaction. They do not have any important role struggling for the war. Women's involvement in the war seen as a problem. They are seen as the weakness creature that will cause difficulties and also seen as a stupid creature who does not understand about war strategy. So, in this era, they were only used as the object for the warrior's sexual desire. Institutionally women are consider as the womb of baby child before it is born to the world. Unfortunately after their birth, the right of their naming is totally in their father hands. For example, in Chines system of family name, the structural of their kids name is come from their father family name. From those explanation, it can be conclude that women only seen from their function rather than their role. Women do not have their own in making important decision, to give their opinions, especially deliver about their feeling. They cannot live with their own will. Their man is the center of their live. They have to fulfill what their man need. This Traditional gender role cast men as rational, strong, protective, and decisive. They cast women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing, and submissive (Lois Tyson, 2006: 84). Men is the leader of their women, they have total control in decide how the women behave and act. However, in fact this traditional gender role still occur in this modern era, especially in Middle East country such as Afghanistan. This country known as an Islamic country which is uses Koran as their main laws, and guidance of their live. In Koran. Islam had been stated that "Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because God has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient and guard in the husband's absence what God orders them to guard. It is also said that men are little bit higher than women and they are oblised to protect and save the women. Patriarchy has become an inevitable issue of the growth of Afghanistan as a Muslim country. Especially during the Taliban leadership, which began in 1996 till 2001. Taliban as a part of Arabian world has different perception in apply Islamic laws. The Taliban's version ofIslamappears too many Muslims to be a new-bornfaithdeveloped, canonized, and interpreted by Taliban scholars with the reclusive supreme leader, Mohammed Omar at the helm giving his stamp of approval for implementation. Afghan women were forced to wear theburqaat all times in public which is quite different with burqa from Arabian women. Afghan women cover all of parts their body including their face except their eyes area. Taliban see face of a woman is a source of corruption for men who are not related to them.In a systematic segregation sometimes referred to asgender apartheid, women were not allowed to work, they were not allowed to be educated after the age of eight, and until then were permitted only to study theQur'an. Women were beaten for showing a bit of ankle or wearing noisy shoes. They could not speak in public or to men who were not relatives. They were beaten, even killed, for minor violations of these rules. But all of that oppression does not make women in Afghanistan hate Taliban men. Marrying Taliban warrior seen as one of the pride in their life. It cause the Taliban warrior seen as the hero in Afghanistan. They were struggling for their freedom from the western shackles, even in fact their coming give another suffering for women in Afghanistan. Marry them can increase the assessed value and the social status of a family. They will be considered as a family of heroes who fought for his country. So, it is pride for any Afghanistan women to married a Taliban warrior even they know what kind of consequence that they will face. Finally, it sharpen to a problem about the relation of them, Islam, Taliban, Patriarchy, and women in the world, especially to the facts reflected in Atiq Rahimi's The Patience Stone. Generally, religion have a patriarchal view of the relationship between the genders. The relation between Adam and Eve how many religion view woman. As Al-Hibri writes, God was declared male, and man was declared to be created in His likeness. Eve became the symbol of temptation and sin. The woman was consequently judged as a less likely candidate for salvation and an everlasting life in heaven than man. (Al-Hibri, 1981:176). Islam inherited the old image of Eve and of women that depict them as the close followers and instrument of Satan, the body of women being his abode (Saadawi, 2001:274). So, it is important to envelop them in veils and flowing robes (Saadawi, 2001:275). As the living carrier of the danger of sexuality and its infinite social destructive forces, women have to be controlled. Since Islam regards women as an active sexual power, it is important to restrict women's sexual power over men. The result is isolating women and men in different worlds. In talking about women's oppression, feminism thought as the appropriate philosophy in investigate this phenomenon. Feminism is an awareness of women's oppression and exploitation in society. This theory is struggling to achieve dignity, rights, and freedom for women to control their lives and bodies within home and outside. According to its movement, this philosophy were divided into three waves, first wave, second and third wave. First wave is concern about equality, second wave concern about the commitment of diversity, and third wave concern in diversity in specific normative. And according to the problem which is appear in the explanation above, the first wave movement of feminism, is appropriate movement that will be used to answer this question. Originally it focus on the promotion of equal contract and property rights for women and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women (and their children) by their husbands. This movement begin with Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Wollstonecraft's was the first to issue an outspoken rallying cry to middle-class women, especially mothers, as major influences on society (Gamble, 2001:15). Her emphasis was on the need to make women rational, till women are more rationally educated. Furthermore, this thesis will become a great analysis when it is known that the object of this thesis, AtiqRahimi's The Patience Stone, is the winner of prestigious Goncourt Prize in France, and is a deceptively simple book written in a spare, poetic style. It is rich read, part allegory, part of tale of retribution, part an exploration of honour, love sex, marriage, and war. It is without doubt an important and courageous book. This voice is in giving voice to those who, as the fable goes, suffer the most and cry out the least (Khaled Hosseini, The Patience Stone's Preface). The Patient Stone is a France novel which is translated in English version. Set almost entirely in one room - the bedroom of the husband and just about the only character who talks is the wife. The woman open up her feeling and thought to the men in her society, confronting the taboo of female oppression and sexuality. Her voice can describe the darkness in her live, her painful and her sorrow for being as a women. Her monologue definitely drive out the reader to think as the woman side, without eliminating the other character in this novel. Besides The Patience StoneAtiqRahimi also wrote some canon novel and won some prestigious appreciation. The first novel is Earth and Ashes, written in Persian and become an instant best seller in Europe and South America. A movie based on this book, directed by Rahimi, was awarded the Prix du Regard versl'Avenir at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. The film was featured in 50 festivals, winning a total of 25 awards including the one at Cannes and a Golden Dhow award for best feature film at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. And the others work is A thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear. Working on disproportion of women right for study is always an interesting and courageous idea. Through the confession of "Wife" character in this novel, this study can reveal that there is a rebellion and courageous, and how this character survive from the disproportion in Taliban era. Wife already thought since she was young that man is leader for woman, so she must obey him. Rather than fight back against her husband, she choose to use her silence as a form of rebellion. By using this character, it is can be seen that there is a rebellion inside of hereditary understanding regarding woman and man positioned. With discussing this topic, there is a description about what happened in this country especially about the inequality and also how far the disproportion of the women right still exist in this country. RESEARCH METHOD As has been stated in the description above, literature is a reflection of a society portray and the combination of the author fiction. Literary work is meaningful. Hence, it delivers many meanings and interpretations that can be caught by the reader as an interpreter. In other word, to find the accounted result, it needs a method that is based on the problems to avoid the blurry result. This study take novel from Atiq Rahimi The Patience Stone as the main source, and using some quotation inside it as the data. The type of this research is qualitative research because it produces descriptive data. The problem in this study is concerning about man's domination and woman's inequality treatment that will be analyzed by using patriarchy and first wave feminism from several feminists. WOMAN IN ISLAM Islam already stated that man is a leader for woman so they obliged to educate, protect and maintain the woman. God had been created man little bit more than the woman. It can be seen by the existence of their muscle. This gift, make man as the stronger one so they are seen as the appropriate one to be a leader while woman is the follower. So, woman must follow and obey their husband. According to Saadawi's book, Islam inherited the old image of Eve and of women that depict them as the close followers and instrument of Satan, the body of women being his abode (Saadawi, 2001:274). So, it is important to envelop them in veils and flowing robes (Saadawi, 2001:275). In other word, this society position woman as the guilty one dealing with their body and sexuality. That is why, woman in Islam, especially in Patriarchy country must get married, so they need man to control their temptation. Islam makes marriage as the only institution where sex between men and women can be done in a way that is more moral (Saadawi, 2001:280). Sex is done outside this institution directly transformed into an act of sin and evil, even masturbation was not permitted. Based on Ibnu Abbas' (friend of Prophet Muhammad) statement "and married a slave is better than masturbation and fornication (zina)". Therefore an unmarried men divided into three sins, first married a slave, then masturbation the foremost is fornication (zina). In other words, marriage is an established system for sex where one part uses to avoid slander (fitnah) and the other side used it as the legalization for reproduction as much as they want, and off course get good agreement to acquire pleasure within the bounds of Islam (Saadawi, 2001:281). Based on the Al-Ghazali an Arabian philosopher statement in Nawal's book, besides for reproduction, the purpose marital is immunity against demons, break the sharp tip of the desire, distance from danger of lust, keep our eye from what who supposed not to be seen, protect male sexual organ, as well as follow the advice our prophet (Saadawi, 2001:276). But this institution is still different for men and women, especially dealing with their rights and obligations not only inside in their house hold but also in their society. In their household activities, wife only concern about their domestic business. Their main job only raising their children, cleaning their house and satisfying their husband in bed. They do not allowed to care about what happened outside their area. Marriage makes men's heart free from household and clean their house, so they can concern to their job, religion and science in other word, they can concern in developing themselves. Al-Ghazali states in Saadawi's book "In fact, your wife let you to work on the final day and she concern about your house and relieve your lust" (Saadawi, 2001:284). Therefore, a man is seen not able to devote themself in science development and religion unless they have a wife that can handle their household. ARABIC SOCIETY Arabic culture is male centered. Males dominate most cultural, political and social institutions. This has a direct impact on the cultural status of women in both Arabic and Islamic countries. While Islam emphasizes the equality of men and women, Arabic culture minimizes it. A Jewish Arab in Morocco or a Christian Arab in Syria adheres to the same system and thus would have the same views on the role and status of women. The socially-rooted conceptualizations of differences in women's and men's sexualities and their biological nature are so frequently evoked to the extent that they become part and parcel of the individual and collective consciousness. In this regard, the "natural role" of women is one of the most deeply rooted interventions at the conscious and unconscious levels. Consequently, women's fulfillment of their "natural role" associated with the reproductive process becomes compulsory and coercive. In the end, this leads to women's lives becoming regulated through the sharia, constitutions, laws, and predominant social norms, in ways that far exceed what applies to men. In Arab societies, women's status is mainly defined by their roles as mothers and wives. Their main job only concern about raising children, cleaning their house and also serve their husband (Saadawi, 2001:285). Different from the husband's position as head of the family, they are taking control over their families, so that the actual duty as a husband in this culture region is to control and supervise the family and finally it position woman in second position after their husband. Women could not make decisions based on their own beliefs, and had little control over their marriages. Society create that the noble obligation for a wife to completely obedient to their husband, they cannot be different, no asking a question or refused their orders, (Saadawi, 2001:286). In other words, there is no independent decision for women. Their freedom is limited or moreover it is deleted because the ideal women in this society is a woman who can follow her husband without complaining about anything. Essentially. So, it can be conclude women were slaves to men and made no decisions on anything, whether it be something that directly impacted them or not. LOVE AND SEX IN ARABIC SOCIETY The strong influence of the cultural background of the Arab and Islamic values which strongly stuck in Arabic life makes this nation see love and sex as something taboo and full of mystery. In this region, woman take crucial part in this ritual. As the legacy from cultural background and also religion values the Arabic seen women without exception as cause of fitnah (fornication). Arab woman adorned with temptation and fitnah. Where in this sense they become part of the spirit of Islam, which force women into sexual temptation in the community who bring libel. In this case is related to a conspiracy libel, resistance, which interfere with any order that has been built by the gods. So, they are very closely related to sex and sin (Saadawi, 2001:273). Men on the other hand, though had great sex appetite, not accused of sin unless driven by temptation and seduction of women. The power of the male sex being a part of the soul of the Arabs and its soul is connected with virility (Saadawi, 2001:294). Thus, man is ordered to marry in order to defeat the evil and the woman temptation. Despite the desire of sex are owned by both parties, but in fact women in this region bear all the restraints. Man sexuality is connected with virility different with women sexuality which their sex connected with sins and devil. So, it will be ashamed if men in this region have a problem in their sexuality that is impotent and the only one who can know this, is woman. But the solution taken upon of these problem were quite surprisingly. As quoted in Saadawi's book "Virgins were not permitted to know far about sex, while a widow who already have experience from her previous marriage definitely can recognize this weakness. That is why they give "Lower" for their label" (Saadawi, 2001:295). These restraints were taken up in order to protect men from women so they cannot drop them. Women must keep their virginity by their own self. A woman who lost her virginity before marriage will be confuse and fear of family rejection both from family or society, but men who come save her will be seen as a hero and respectful (Mernissi, 1999:86). In a marriage, blood of virginity is very important. In the first night after their marriage, commonly they will use white sheet in order to see virginity blood and this blood is an evidence of chastity and honor of family (Saadawi, 2001: 295). Contrary with men who cannot be identified their virginity from their physical and the limitation of the girls knowledge about sex, it makes them do not have any burden even they already ever had sex out of the marriage. So it can be said that Arabic society were more tolerate to men in their sexuality rather than women. Beside virginity blood, the other blood which is very crucial for Arabian society is menstruation "haid". In Islam haidseen as a dirt. In an authoritative Arab dictionary named Lisa Al'-Arab menstruation mean al- khubts (Viciousness combined with cruelty), al-makr (the desire to destroy been prepared with despicable). Menstruation for women is related with their sexuality. They are seen ready for their sexuality when they already in this period. So, when they arrive in this period, in Arabian culture means that their temptation was completed. And based on Surah above women in this period time were seen as the impurity women. PATRIARCHY IN TALIBAN When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, the status of women declined rapidly until women were completely confined to home, or only allowed to leave home with a male escort while wearing a burqa. If a woman seen outside without being covered from head to toe, even if only a little skin was exposed, she would be beaten. These rules complicated things completely for women who no longer have a living male relative, or women who are too poor to be able to purchase a burqa.The other extreme rules confining women during Taliban are, the window in homes to be painted to prevent others from viewing women from the outside, women must not laugh, talk loudly, or make any noise at all when in public. All of these rules among others made women prisoners in their own homes, unable to go anywhere or do anything without being under the watch of man. Based on the explanation above, it can be conclude that there is a disproportion of rights in this sexes. The sense of patriarchy is definitely appear in regime. Taliban imposed straight rules for women or it is also can be said they tend to jail women., limited their access, hide them from worldwide and also do whatever they want to women. According to Millet, patriarchy's chief institution is family, where patriarchal ideology well maintained traditionally and modern. As the smallest unit, family contribute in strengthening this ideology (Millet, 1970:33). Encourage every family members to think and behave in accordance with the rules of the community who embraced the patriarchy. In this institution, commonly this ideology will be It will be taught into two categorize, that is how girl's role and boy's role. They will learn character, role and status between wife and husband and also father and mother. According to Millet, patriarchal ideology socialized into three categories. First, temperament involves the formation of human personality along stereotyped line of sex category ("masculine" and feminine), based on the needs and values of the dominant group and dictated by what its members cherish an themselves and find convenient in subordinates: aggression, intelligence, force, and efficacy in the male: passivity, ignorance, docility, "virtue" and ineffectuality in the female. This is complemented by a second factor, sex role, which decrees a consonant and highly elaborate code of conduct, gesture and attitude for each sex. In terms of activity, sex role assigns domestic service and attendance upon infants to the female, the rest of human achievement interest and ambition to the male (Millet 1970:26). Patriarchal ideology is very difficult to remove from this society because they still maintain it. Stereotypes attached to women as domestic workers made him weak because they did not get money from their work to take care of the household. Domestic work is taken for granted and it was her duty as a woman. She does not need to earn money from their work and the result she always dependent on her husband. Millet stated that patriarchal ideology cannot be torn down because women are economically dependent on men. Dependence that occurs throughout life. Conventionally men are the main source of income in the family while the woman is the housekeeper. Men worked outside for their economy and women living at home to do all the housework. Women are not allowed to make money, because men make it as property when they got married (Millet, 1970: 40). In a patriarchal system, men have full power to women so that they can do whatever it wants with his wife. Women economically dependent on her husband because they did not earn his money out of pain. According to De Beauvoir, regarded as a slave wife, while the husband is her master. This can lead to the occurrence of domestic violence (Beauvoir, 1989: xv). FIRST WAVE FEMINISM Feminist theory addresses two fundamental differences in the view of women and men. Expression of male-female differences in the biological aspects of the show as the essence of natural, innate. While expression masculine feminine is psychological and cultural aspects of difference (Megawangi, 2004: 184). Si mon de Beauvoir stated that in a patriarchal society, women are placed as the "Other", as second-class human beings, lower by nature (Selden, 1985: 137). Position as the "Other" affect all forms of social and cultural existence of women (Cavallaro, 2001: 202). Patriarchal society using a certain fact about the physiology of women and men as a basis to build a series of identity and masculine and feminine behaviors are enacted to empower men on one side and women on the other weakens. Patriarchal society convince themself that the construction of culture is "natural" and therefore "normality" depends on one's ability to demonstrate gender identity and behavior. This behavior is culturally associated with one's biological sex. Patriarchal society uses rigid gender roles to ensure women remain passive (loving, obedient, responsive to sympathy and approval, cheerful, kind, friendly) and men remain active (strong, aggressive, inquisitive, ambitious, full of plans, responsible, original, and competitive) Meanwhile, according to Millet, patriarchal ideology in academia, religious institutions, and family justify and affirm the subordination of women to men who lead for most women to internalize self to men (Millet, 1970:26). One way to understand the various dimensions of feminist theories and their theoretical approaches to understand patriarchy is to locate them within the broader philosophical and political perspectives that have been broadly classified as first, second and third feminism movement. This theory were categorize in three waves according to its concern about. First wave is concern about equality, second wave concern about the commitment of diversity, and third wave concern in diversity in specific normative. However, there are some ideological differences among the feminist groups, they are united in struggle against women inequality and hierarchical relationship between women and men. To be more focused on equality of women phenomenon, the first wave of this movement thought as the appropriate approach in analyzing this issue. The first wave of feminism took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emerging out of an environment of urban industrialism and liberal, social politics. The goal of this wave was to open up opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage.The feminist in this movement assumes that there is basically no difference between men and women. Therefore, women should have the same rights as men. Nevertheless, liberal feminists reject the overall equation between men and women. In some cases remain distinction (distinction) between men and women. However, the function of the female reproductive organs logical consequences in social life (Ratna Megawangi, 1999: 228). Mary Wollstonecraft is one of the pioneer for this movement. In her book Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) she talked about her life and personal significance as an icon of the women's movement. Wollstonecraft's was the first to issue an outspoken rallying cry to middle-classwomen, especially mothers, as major influences on society (Gamble, 2001:15). Her emphasis was on the need to make women rational. Far from portraying women as superior to men, Wollstonecraft wanted to raise their overall moral and intellectual stature to make them into more rational citizens. For the most part, she did not envisage their leaving the domesticsphere, nor did she ask for anything as radical as the vote. Even she accepted that women in middle-class would marry and remain at home, but she want every girls get same education as a purpose for their freedom and dignity rather than the ability to fascinate potential husband (Gamble, 2001:16). Not only Wollstonecraft who does not agree with this disproportion. Rosemarie Putnam Tong in her books "Feminist-Though: A More Comprehensive Introduction" imply that there is a restriction of women's activity and it cause they lack of power and knowledge so that they cannot develop themselves. DOMINATION REPRESENTED IN NOVEL The Arabian world are very thick by the influence of their culture either before or after Islam. Where both are directly or indirectly gave a special position for men rather than women. If the granting of this position was originally intended to separate human's daily task, but in fact this positioning has grown to become a leader and the led. Develop as the domination of one side to the other sides. Through this novel, this domination will be exposed as a reflection of the real condition in the country inside this novel. In this region Patriarchy ideology has been used as root for society structural in this region. This ideology still maintained in this modern era, make this ideology quite difficult to be changed or removed (Millet, 1970:40). Since their a little, boys and girl were already given an example by their parents behave, and when their already in their puberty time, they were thought how man and woman behave, and unconsciously differentiate them in two different position. As an example in this passage, 'When I got engaged, I knew nothing of men. Nothing of married life. I knew only my Parents. And what an example! All my dad cared about were his quails, his fighting quails! I often saw him kissing those quail but never my mother, nor us, his children. There were seven of us. Seven girls starved of affection (Rahimi, 2010:57). In this passage can be criticize that family is chief institution for this ideology to get developed. Family has huge contribution in strengthening this ideology. According to this passage, her family was the only example for her to understand about how is marriage life. Her father only care about his quails and never the girls and also her mother, but she never saw her mother complain about it. Made this situation seems normal and that how it was supposed to. Wife should not disturb her husband, especially complaining about what they do. Because wife's job only concern about their household and fulfill husband's satisfaction (Millet, 1970:40). Concerning about husband satisfaction, letting him do what they want to do can also meant as an effort in satisfying her husband and women is this family was supposed to be quite and submissively. In this group, women are defined as something odd, deviate from a prototype of human's body, physically passive and contain of emotional, different with man's body who have active and ably mind result a conclusion that women considered as a carrier for men's seed, so the real creator is the men (Millet, 1970:54) As what the author had been explained above, men is leader for women because God create them a little bit more than women, so they should follow their command. (Back to the passage 'Look, I breathe just like you! (Rahimi, 2008:7), and also in the passage "You know that I live only for you, at your side, by your breath" (Rahimi, 2010:9). Through those passage, women should follow their husband in every way. They led them in every case, metaphor with "breath" which can be meant that women should follow them in every way, and bow down to their rule (HR. Tirmidzi verse. 1159). Women must following the rhythm of their husband breath, walk inside their shadow, and hide behind their shoulders. It is also mean that men are take control of women's life. Mean have a charge to change the rhythm to their breath or even stop it when they want it, it is all their right, and women should follow them. No asking and complaining as can be seen in this part 'I hope you are able to think, to hear, to see…to see, and hear me…' (Rahimi, 2010: 52). This part can be used as a reflection that women in this society do not have a voice to deliver their feeling, never have a chance to be thought, and seen as the important subject. Those description can be used as the early indication about how men dominate women's life in this region especially in their marital section. Human in this region separated into two different world, women's world and men's world. As the author already said, men have their special world as a heritage from their culture and also their religion. Men in this regime do not have any straight boundaries. Start from how their outfit and also how they behave. Different with women which have to concern about what they do, and how they do it. Man created a little bit more. It can be seen with their muscle, where muscle is related with physically power, and finally spread in many aspect. In other hand, women who are created without muscle are directly related to the weakness and finally prison them in domestic job. The differences of their body led different attitude towards both. Women in this society who does not penis considered less than man is seen as the embracing one. Penis who located in outside seen as sign of autonomy and power, while women's genital are putted inside and hide (Beauvoir, 1989:18). As an example in this novel 'I was a piece of meat, into which you could stuff your dirty dick. (Rahimi, 2010:112). According to this passage penetrate woman also can be meant show their authority and power while woman only used as a bowl to put this power. According those explanation, women in this ideology were putted in inferior position which mean that they only putted in second class. Their existence indirectly eliminated in this regime. In order to keep maintain this existence patriarchy ideology woman only have one conditional, that is companied by her mahram, or husband (Beauvoir, 1989; 225). Patriarchal society provide scary threat for women who is living without men beside her. As can be seen in the page 17 in this novel, 'And you leaving him in this state? What about his children? And me? You can't, you can't, you've no right to leave us like this, without a man!' (Rahimi, 2010:17). In this passage, wife feels afraid if her husband died and let her alone. It is because she will be left alone, not only by her husband but also because of the society and her family. Hence, they should get married. Women in this ideology does not allowed to choose their husband. As can be seen in this monologue before her marriage, her mother-in-law came to her house and asked her to married her son (Rahimi, 2010:53). According this passage, women in this region do not have any right to choose their husband. Her father or family never asked about her opinion or her criteria about her ideal man, and accepted without slightest hesitation. In contrary, men can choose which one they want to get married. Married in this region also can be criticized as a transaction. They used Maharas a tool in this transaction, (Saadawi, 2001: 283) a transaction between abolishing family anxiety because of their virgin daughter and find the legality of fulfillment of lust. But if be observed further marriage can be said as announcement for their leadership, and independence for a man, different with the women. As the consequence, a virgin who agree to get married must throw their freedom and get ready of any rules that had been made by her husband. When a man had married they have a freedom in sexual intercourse that just being a story when they were teenagers. They also allowed to set up a small country named family that ultimately gave them a power. And women, unconsciously walk into a trap which restrictive their freedom as seen in this part, 'Three years! For three years I wasn't allowed to see my friend, or my family…It wasn't allowed to see my friends, or my family…it was considered proper for a young married virgin to spend time with other married women. Such rubbish! (Rahimi, 2010: 54). This passage can reflect the exile from the association in women side, different with man which does not any significance differences, or limitation of their association. Seems like marriage is also a way for them develop themselves about science and knowledge, as an example is a war. Commonly when a women marry because of arranged marriage, usually their marriage are not based on love. For woman in this ideology love is not always about feelings, but also about the commitment throughout body and soul unconditionally (Beauvoir, 1989:526). In fact love is very important for a woman, they can sacrifice anything while she did not realize that this feeling can make her suffering. Love can be illustrated as an essence of sexual oppression for women, because men can used it as cultural power to dominate women (firestone, 1972:121). As an example, when wife decided to accept her mother-in-law proposed "Who were you, really? No one knew. To all of us, you were just a title: the Hero! And like every hero, far away. Engagement to a hero was a lovely thing, for a seventeen- years-old girl. (Rahimi, 2010:54). She directly falling in love with someone that she never known before. The reason was because of he was a hero, and it was a lovely thing married with a hero. But in fact, this love unconsciously made her sacrifice her freedom, and prepare to be a slave for her husband. He use her love to satisfy her lust, to bear their child and to clean and prepare for their meal. Love beat the rational thought of women, it was realize that the bride got married without her groom presence, 'At the ceremony, you were present in the form a photo, and that wretched khanjar, which they put next to me in place of you' (Rahimi, 2010:54). In this snippet of her monologue can be interpret the importance of man in women life. Even they have to marry with a strange men, whom only known from his photograph. This stage of live can be said as the place where patriarchy is definitely felt by women. Men have huge chance in developing their self because the already have wife who will concern about the domestic job (Ghazali,IhyaUlum ad-Din, 1964:699). As reflected in this passage 'Did you think about us for even a second, when you shouldered that fucking Kalashnikov? You son of a…'.the word suppressed again. (Rahimi, 2010:14). This passage can reflect that husband only concern about his struggle toward his enemy. Totally concern about his war, without understand his family. He throw domestic responsibility to his wife, and use her natural fate as his justification. Women should run in her roles as a wife who must serve their husband, bear a child, and satisfied her husband in their bed. This ideology see everything including about women with the male point of view (Beauvoir, 1989:xx). By using men likeness or dislike, patriarchy ideology make rule and prison them under men feet. As can be seen in this passage, It was not considered proper for a young married virgin to spend time with other married women, (Rahimi, 2010:54). Based on the passage above, woman could not see her friend or more is gossiping about many thing. Gossiping is not allowed in Taliban regime, because they see it as something useful. But if it see deeper, they are not allowed to see their friend especially among marriage woman because they afraid of being betrayed. Men never directly deliver this fears, they hide it hereditary. That is why they used this banning as law in their family. They use women's fear to control their behavior. And women who hereditary not rewarded by any right against her husband, do not have any effort except silent and following their command. Beside become the follower for the men, this region also put woman as place for bearing a child. This society make that women should birth a child, because it is their natural faith, and with that you will be the perfect women. So, it will be a huge problem if woman is infertile, they will be seen as imperfect or unideal woman because she cannot fulfill her nature destiny as a mother, she face divorce threat, and get low view from her society. As can be seen in aunt character. She got divorce because she cannot bear a child, and finally get exiled by her family. Society unilaterally blame her without care with her feeling and sadness because she cannot perfect as a woman. Different in man sides. If woman have their infertile problem, man will feel ashamed if he is impotence. But through this novel, it is not a big deal for men because the society seems like protect them for their weakness. In this novel there is a big secret that had been hidden since their marriage, the secret that only known by wife and her mother in–law. Start from her mother in-law unilateral decision that she was barren, 'Your mother had decided I was barren, and kept hassling me all the time' (Rahimi, 2010:65). From this part it can be used as an identification that in this region woman is the most important part in bearing a child, without care that woman also need man so they can bear a child. They blame all in woman shoulder, and try to find a solution as an interest of a descendant. And polygamy is the able solution for this case. Polygamy is allowed by the religion and of course make man have a big smile because of this policy. As reflected in the passage 'Your mother was dying to see you to take a second wife' (Rahmi, 2010:66). Based on this monologue, her mother in-law only concern about the real function of woman as a child bearing rather than a human. However unexpected situation came up and reveal that her husband is the infertile one. 'Because that child was not yours!' She falls silent, impatient to see her man finally crack. (Rahimi, 2010:131), 'Yes my sang-e sabur, those two girls are not yours! 'She sits up. 'And do you know why? Because you were the infertile one. Not me!' (Rahimi, 2010:132). The fact is, now they have two beautiful daughters and they are their real parent. Nobody know the secret except those women. Seems like everything was fine, and they can fulfill their natural fate. But if it is seen deeper, they create this scenario in order to keep save a husband. After her mother in-law knew that hers son is the weakness son, she did something that is contrary with her religion. She sent her to a Hakim, a kind of shaman until she is going to pregnant, as reflected in this passage 'She spent a lot of cash that day, I can tell you. And then I visited the Hakim several times, until I feel pregnant. As if by magic! But you know what, that Hakim was just my aunt's pimp. He mated me with a guy they had blindfolded '(Rahimi, 2010:132). The mother-in-law was willing to do anything for saving her son from bad view of social groups even she have to turn aside from her religion. In contrary with wife's aunt, because she is the infertile one, her family never look for a solution to save her, but they directly throw her from her family and forget about her. From those example can be criticize that society give a huge tolerant for men, gave more privilege to be understanding for their weakness. Hereditary it is done by the society. Give men some privilege either it is openly such as polygamy or closely by protecting their weakness. By sacrificing women's feeling. This condition finally raised women's anxiety for her husband satisfaction. According to this passage 'Although it often seemed to me that you weren't satisfied. And then I would guilty. I told myself that it was my fault, that I didn't know how to do it right. (Rahimi, 2010:105). According to this passage, wife feels guilty because of she believe that she cannot satisfied her husband. It was her fault because she believe that it was her duty as a field for her husband. Lacking of sexual knowledge make her blame herself (Saadawi, 2001:295). But after have several sexual intercourse she realize that it was her husband weakness, 'After a year, I discovered that actually, it was all coming from you, you gave nothing. Nothing' (Rahimi, 2010:105). Now he can find her husband weakness, but because of her position as woman which is does not have any voice, make her only keep inside her mouth. In sexual intercourse, although it was done by two subjects but in fact man is taking control for any movement or position in this intercourse. It because man is a leader for woman according to the religion. State by Al-Hasan an Islamic scholar in Saadawi's book state that man does not allowed to fulfill his woman command because he will throw into hell in the judgment day (Saadawi, 2001:286).In this monologue "If I'd asked all that to you…my God! I'd have got a broken nose! And yet it's not difficult…you just have to listen to your body. But you never listened to it (Rahimi, 2010:111). A woman can't make a favor though is aimed for their satisfaction. Women only follow the men, but in the end blame themselves if the husband feel unsatisfied in this intercourse. If in their personal intercourse, women must keep silent how about their daily live. Monologue above can used as the example that women in this region are completely silent. They feel afraid because they will get a punishment because of their favor. Men are allowed to beat their wife after they do advise and forsake them from bed. But in fact, for any reason that make her husband angry, he will directly beat them. As an example in this monologue, 'He beat up my mother, my sister and me, because we hadn't kept watch over his quail' (Rahimi, 2010:60). Her father beat them without clear reason. Because of he cannot find his quail make him angry and find an impingement. It is can be seen that his father forget about several steps before beating her wife, he only see "beat" word which is mean it was legally done by any chance. From those example above women in this region had already knew that marriage is not always beautiful like what they thought. But because of they live in patriarchy circle which put men as the central part make women in this region, completely need men. It would really frighten for a woman living without a man beside her, although it was just a name. In this novel wife only live with her husband name for three years, she must deal with her husband absence as a consequence having a hero husband. But it is fine for her, because she now has a man beside her, have somebody who is believed as her guardian, give her a distance as an accusation of temptation carrier. But when the husband back in a dying state and his wife, are required to maintain him, she still afraid of her society view, especially threat of widowed. In her monologue she stated 'She stands up. 'Even injured, you've been spared suffering' (Rahimi, 2010: 21). It can interpret even her husband lay down, suffering because of the shot, he never feel suffer because all of social cruelty come to her. She is afraid if her husband died brother in-law will come and harassing her. Afraid for become a widow and get exiled from her family. In other words it can be inferred that marriage is very important for a woman in compare man. Without marriage, which also mean that there is no man beside her, woman cannot retain their existence as part of their society. Excommunicated by the negative view about woman that hereditary this society inherited either from their religion and cultural background. Without marriage they will be seen as a devil with the temptation inside it. The devil who can bring trouble for their family and society. Always seen as the imperfect creature, which full of dirt and irrational emotion. CONFESSION WITHOUT BORDERS AGAINST DISPROPORTION Essentially, gender differences are not a problem as long as this difference create discriminative for one sides. There is a significance differences of the rights between women and men in this patriarchal world. Men are placed as the central, leader, and finally named as "The self"' while women who is seen physically weakness later differentiate as "the other" (Selden, 1985:137). As can be seen in this quotation, "There were seven of us. Seven girls starved of affection" (Rahimi, 2010:57). In this quotation, this girls feel starving of affection, although they have complete family. By using Selden's quotation above, seven of them feels less of affection because they do not get a figure of a father, in other hand their father only concern about his quail, and love it more than his family. This cold attitude can be seen as a disappointed feeling because they do not have a son, a son that can be a symbol of power, and heir his leadership. In other word, he see women as the unimportant one. As a formed of this disappointed, he use a quail. A quail is better than women, at least his quail can won and be a subject that he can proud of. In this regime, women in this region is not more meaningful rather than a display, 'She is still laughing. 'That story is so true. "You men! As soon have you have guns, you forget your women." (Rahimi, 2010:57), same like the theory about "women as the other". According this quotation, women are alienate with inanimate object or this inanimate is more prestigious than a women. When she speak about it she is laughing, this laugh can be seen as an expression that she has same level with that thing. But she cannot do anything against this attitude, except smile as her laugh at her sex bad destiny. Since in childhood she always alienate with inanimate, either with quail or a gun the positioning of women as "the other" has been tough since their childhood (Nunuk, 2004:76), so that they will adapt and unconsciously get usual with this called. According this situation it also can be imply that Family played a major role in this believed (Millet, 1970:26), parents become main teacher of this situation, especially mother who is seen as the real example for her daughter. In this region, where women performed as en-soi(Being-in-itself), while men performed as pour-soi(Being-for-itself) (Tong, 1998:181) will attempt to free from men's pressure. This is how was the normal human will struggle when they were in huge pressure. 'At that time, I was only ten …no…'She thinks about it. 'Yes, ten years old. I was scared. Scared that I too would become the stakes of a bet. So, do you know what I did with the quail?' She pauses a moment. It is unclear whether this is to make her story more exciting, or because she is afraid to reveal the next part (Rahimi, 2010:59).She was afraid, a quail is a danger for her. If it was lose, she will sent to live with a man like what happened with her sister. So, she will do anything to eliminate this danger. According this passage, there is a power inside this women's silence. She eliminate the quail to keep save, hope that by killed that bird she will not be used as bet. Using theory from Sartre, when there is a subject trying to free itself from the other, there is another subject who want to enslave it (Sartre, 1956:362). When her father trying to enslave her by using her as a bet, or beat her when he lose he find a way to free from him, that is by killed his bird. Started from this step, she finds a way to still save. And when she had enough to marry, she choose it as a solution for her to free from his father, but in fact after she got married, her husband enslave her. He put her as place to fulfill his sexual and also rearing a child. In other word it can be conclude that marriage is not a place to get a freedom, it is a form of slavery (Beauvoir, 1989:500). It is ultimately wrong if this society put women as the weak and fool creature only by using the weakness of their body. Because of they do not have a muscle and penis which always as a form of power because it penetrate women, does not mean that they are fool (Beauvoir, 1989:41). It is not enough use their body as the reason to put them as the inferior one. In those quotation we can see how women ability in order to protect themselves and the people she loves. She was lying, but it is work. She did keep her husband alive from the other shoot which directly kill him. She use her brain, her ability, her experience, and also the society norm to fight back. So it can be conclude that woman is not the other because of their lack of penis, but because of their lack of power,( Beauvoir, 1989:55), or it is also can be said that they were not allowed to get this power. In other word, if women put in same position with men, they would develop the same character (Wollstonecraft, 1975:23). But because of this society hereditary thought that women is lower than men, makes them deny their ability, which finally force them to keep silence, and killed their self-development. From this confession, she hide the fact, she did not want people to know about this, because she would be seen as a demon. So she kept silence, keep hide her power but indirectly she still use it to save her. But unconsciously she confess to her husband while he was lying powerless. Make her afraid if her husband hear it and finally beat her without understanding what will happened to her if this quail still alive. So it can conclude, because of this society treatment, who only blame women and hereditary this sex with the foulness of Eve (Saadawi, 2001: 278), they must hide it. Even use these weapons are not because they want to fight against their husband, but they use it in order to keep them save. Psychology and biological differences in the most contribute aspect in this disproportion. Men with their sperm give a life for the wife with their egg inside (Beauvoir, 1974:24), so it can be conclude that women is place while men is the real creature. CONCLUSION Live in patriarchy circle, make this women cannot do anything they want. As had been explain by the Beauvoir, women in this circle putted as passive, and submissive. Because of they are the weakness they need the superiority one to keep them as a part of this society. In other word, they need marriage to keep save inside this circle. In this region marriage can be seen as turning point that bestows prestige, recognition, and societal approval on both partners, particularly the bride. It also can be said as a social and economic contract between two families. But in other hand, marriage in this region is a new beginning of slavery that will happened to women. They have to sacrifice their freedom and concern about their household, but for men side marriage is a declaration for their leadership. And finally make them can be more focus in their self-development. Marriage is a form of slavery in all aspect related to women's body and sexuality including blood inside them. This research reveal the importance of virginity blood that is so important for women as its used as a proved that they can keep their dignity, and it is also make them as the ideal women that deserve to be married, contrary with menstruation blood which drop them in the lowest point as a women. It is happened because this society see menstruation blood as a dirt according by their holly book in verse 2:222. This research also reveal the differences treatment between a virgin and a widow. By using Saadawi's statement, based on the knowledge, this society limited virgin knowledge about sexuality, and widow is putted in bottom position as seen as the embracing one. This effort is taken as a way to protect men from their virility problem. So, it can be conclude that this society is more tolerant to men rather than to women. The Second statement of problem is the confession of women voiced by wife character in this novel. She reveal the real condition caused by the pressure that the society gave to her sex. Inside this confession, she deliver the disproportion that she gave in order to save her husband. As had been explained by Putnam Tong, this confession explicitly imply that she was created inside a men (en-soi), hide inside their body and shadow while men was created for their own self (pour-soi). This society believed that it was a natural faith that women must sacrifice themselves, and also follow what the leader had been said. But even it was already thought as their norm since their childhood, by using her confession this research reveal that they do not accept it totally. By using her husband dying body confess all her depress and her disappointed to her world. According her monologue, there are senses of hatred, insult, and harassment that happened to this woman, that make her angry and hate them. But because of the society will gave worse punishment to the women who against her husband who also seen as the rebellion, she only keep silence, but inside this silence she struggling by using her innocence, sexual and temptation . But this struggling is more to protect herself rather than fight back to her husband. Finally this confession make her realize what happened to her, how her society was being unfair to her. The accumulation of these unfair treatment make finally fight back and finally kill her husband by a Khanjar. REFERENCES Abrams, Meyer. H. 1971. The Mirror and The Lamp: Romantic Theory and The Critical Tradition. London: Oxford University Press. Rahimi, Atiq. 2010. The Patient Stone. London: Chatto&Windus.New Burke, Edmund. 1999. The social History of the Modern Middle East. Colorado:Westview Press. Millet, Kate. 1970. Sexual Politics, New York: Doubleday. Beauvoir, De. 1989. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books Shulamith, Firestone. 1972. The dialectic of sex, the case for feminist revolution. USA: William Morrow and company Inc. Gamble, Sarah. 2006. The Routlege Companion to Feminism and Post Feminism. New York. Routlege. Saadawi, El-Nawal. 2001. PerempuanDalamBudayaPatriarki. Yogyakarta: PustakaBelajar Mernissi, Fatima. 1999. PemberontakanWanita: PeranIntelektualKaumWanitaDalamSejarah Muslim. Yogyakarta: Mizan. Gorsky, Susan Robinov. 1992. Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the Nineteenth Century, New York: Twayne Publisher. Tong, Putnam. 1998. Feminist Thought: A more Comprehensive Introduction. Colorado: Westview Press. Sumbulah, Umi. 2008. Spektrum Gender, KilasanInsklusi Gender di PerguruanTinggi. Malang: UIN. ARTICLE SOURCE MARRIAGE IN THE ARAB WORLD by Hoda Rashad, Magued Osman, and FarzanehRoudi-Fahimi INTERNET SOURCES www.mtholyoke.edu/-macne. www.Astyariah.com/godaan-dunia-dan-wanita.html.
The Situation In The Middle East Report Of The Secretary-General On The Implementation Of Security Council Resolutions 2139 (2014), 2165 (2014), 2191 (2014), 2258 (2015), 2332 (2016) And 2393 (2017) ; United Nations S/PV.8201 Security Council Seventy-third year 8201st meeting Monday, 12 March 2018, 11 a.m. New York Provisional President: Mr. Van Oosterom. . (Netherlands) Members: Bolivia (Plurinational State of). . Mr. Llorentty Solíz China. . Mr. Ma Zhaoxu Côte d'Ivoire. . Mr. Tanoh-Boutchoue Equatorial Guinea. . Mr. Ndong Mba Ethiopia. . Mr. Alemu France. . Mr. Delattre Kazakhstan. . Mr. Umarov Kuwait. . Mr. Alotaibi Peru. . Mr. Meza-Cuadra Poland. . Ms. Wronecka Russian Federation. . Mr. Nebenzia Sweden . Mr. Skoog United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . Mr. Allen United States of America. . Mrs. Haley Agenda The situation in the Middle East This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the translation of speeches delivered in other languages. The final text will be printed in the Official Records of the Security Council. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room U-0506 (verbatimrecords@un.org). Corrected records will be reissued electronically on the Official Document System of the United Nations (http://documents.un.org). 18-06756 (E) *1806756* S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 2/23 18-06756 The meeting was called to order at 11.15 a.m. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. The situation in the Middle East The President: In accordance with rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. I would like to warmly welcome the Secretary- General, His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, and to give him the floor. The Secretary-General: I am here to report on the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018), which the Council adopted unanimously on 24 February. But I am keenly aware that I am doing so just as the bloodletting in Syria enters its eighth year. I would like to highlight just one stark fact on this grimmest of anniversaries, which is that in 2017, more children were killed in Syria than in any other year since the war began. I am deeply saddened by the immense loss and cascading suffering of the Syrian people. And I am deeply disappointed by all those who, year after year, by action or inaction, design or indifference, have allowed this to happen. My grief and frustration are compounded by all that I know of the people of Syria. As United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the aftermath of the Iraq war, I saw the remarkable hospitality of the Syrian people in hosting 1.5 million Iraqi refugees — not in camps, but in their communities across the country. Syria was a place where refugees could live in security as they tried to rebuild their lives and raise their families. Today, so many of those generous Syrians who shared so much have themselves been forced from their homes, becoming refugees or internally displaced. In neighbouring countries — whose enormous hospitality I have also witnessed, but who are burdened by overwhelming needs — the vast majority of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line. Many of the Syrians who journeyed even farther from home in search of safety have found the doors that they once opened to others in need shut in their faces. A country known for its ancient civilization and a people known for their rich diversity have been betrayed, and Syria is bleeding inside and out. There should be one agenda only for all of us — ending the suffering of the Syrian people and finding a political solution to the conflict. And the Council has a particular responsibility in that regard. Let me now turn to the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) and the issue of the compliance of all the relevant parties in Syria. I do so with a caveat. The United Nations is following developments closely, but we do not have the full picture, owing to our limited presence and restricted access on the ground. Resolution 2401 (2018) demands that all parties "cease hostilities without delay, and engage immediately to ensure full and comprehensive implementation . for a durable humanitarian pause for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria", while still countering Da'esh and other groups designated as terrorists by the Council. It is true that in some areas, such as Deir ez-Zor and Douma, where there has been a recent ceasefire that I will address later, the conflict is diminishing in intensity. Yet there has been no cessation of hostilities. Violence continues in eastern Ghouta and beyond, including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and into Damascus and its suburbs. In eastern Ghouta in particular, the air strikes, shelling and ground offensives have intensified since the resolution's adoption and have claimed hundreds of civilian lives. Some reports even put the toll at more than 1,000. The resolution further demands the enabling of "the safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services". Despite some limited convoy deliveries, the provision of humanitarian aid and services has been neither safe, unimpeded or sustained. The resolution calls on "all parties to immediately lift the sieges of populated areas, including in eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk, Fo'ah and Kafraya". No sieges have been lifted. The resolution demands medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded. To our knowledge, not one critically sick or wounded person has so far been evacuated. But I will come back to that later in relation to a recent announcement. The resolution reiterates its demand "reminding in particular the Syrian authorities, that all parties immediately comply with their obligations under international law, including international human rights law, as applicable, and international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians". And I remind all involved that even efforts to combat groups identified as terrorists by the Council do not supersede those obligations. Yet we 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 3/23 see egregious violations, indiscriminate attacks and a failure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. Since the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), my Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura and I have been focused on helping to create the conditions for a cessation of hostilities in eastern Ghouta, where, as I said to the Council two weeks ago, people have been living in a hell on Earth (see S/PV.8185). As the Special Envoy told the Council a few days ago, eastern Ghouta is the most urgent situation, because it is where we have the clearest potential to try to support the de-escalation in concrete ways, and because we have been concretely approached. On 26 February, the Russian Federation announced a five-hour daily humanitarian pause in eastern Ghouta. I will speak to that later in my remarks. On 27 February, the President of the Security Council and I received a letter from the Syrian National Committee conveying another letter from the three armed opposition groups in eastern Ghouta — Jaysh Al-Islam, Faylaq Al-Rahman and Ahrar Al-Sham. They expressed their commitment "to the full implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions, especially resolution 2401 (2018)", and to expelling from eastern Ghouta "the armed groups of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the Al-Nusra Front and Al-Qaida and all of those belonging to them". They also promised to ensure humanitarian access and the facilitation of the work of United Nations agencies. On receiving the letter, the Office of the Special Envoy opened channels with all three groups, inside and outside the enclave. The respective commanders issued further letters, expressing the groups' readiness to negotiate with the Russian Federation in Geneva. In parallel, both I and my Special Envoy engaged with the relevant authorities of the Russian Federation. My team on the ground did likewise, and also engaged with the Government of Syria. We offered the good offices of the United Nations to facilitate and observe any meeting between the representatives of the armed opposition groups, the Syrian Government and the Russian Federation. Despite our best efforts over the course of a few days, it was not possible to schedule any meeting. Meanwhile, on 6 March, the Syrian Government addressed a letter to me and to the President of the Security Council. That letter stated that Syria positively welcomed resolution 2401 (2018), as it "stresses firm commitment to the Syrian State's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Charter and calls for implementing a humanitarian truce across Syria to ensure a safe, sustainable and unhindered access of humanitarian aid." That same day, my Special Envoy informed the Russian Federation of his intention to invite the three armed opposition groups to a meeting with the Russian Federation in Geneva three days later. On 7 March, his interlocutors replied that they did not think a meeting in Geneva was the best option and were pursuing contacts on the ground with the relevant armed opposition groups. As those diplomatic efforts were taking place, fighting went on. The Syrian Government and its allies intensified air strikes and launched a ground offensive, progressively gaining control of parts of eastern Ghouta from about 10 per cent of the enclave on 3 March to more than 60 per cent today. The offensive initially took place in less populated areas, steadily moving to urban centres and forcing large-scale displacement. In the follow up to the efforts I have described, it was possible on 8 and 10 March to convene two meetings between Russian officials and Jaysh Al-Islam in the outskirts of eastern Ghouta, with the United Nations as an observer. In those meetings, progress was made in relation to the removal of a number of members of the Al-Nusra Front, as well as other aspects, including the potential for a ceasefire and improved humanitarian access. The first group of Al-Nusra Front fighters and their families were since evacuated from eastern Ghouta. Nevertheless, it has not been possible to facilitate contact between the Russian authorities and Faylak Al-Rahman. The group insisted that the meeting take place in Geneva. The Russian Federation insisted that the meeting take place on the ground. On 10 March, Government forces intensified their offensive, capturing the city of Misraba in a movement aiming at dividing the enclave into three separate areas. On the evening of that same day, the Russian Federation informed the United Nations that a unilateral ceasefire would take place at midnight, in relation to Jaysh Al-Islam in Douma. It was agreed that a meeting would be held on 11 March with the facilitation of the United Nations. On that day, with the ceasefire between the Government S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 4/23 18-06756 and Jaysh Al-Islam forces largely holding in Douma, the meeting took place, followed by a meeting today. As I speak to the Council now, I have not yet received a full report on the results of today's meeting. But I was informed by our people in Damascus as I was entering the Chamber that there has been progress with regard to civilian evacuations and humanitarian aid. Furthermore, I take note of a statement issued today by Jaysh Al-Islam: "[i] n the context of Security Council resolutions 2254 (2015) and 2401 (2018), an agreement was reached with the Russian side through the United Nations for a humanitarian medical evacuation of the wounded for treatment outside of eastern Ghouta." We are also hearing reports of tentative initiatives, both by tribal leaders and the Russian Federation, for contact with other groups on the ground. I wish to underscore the urgency of seeing medical evacuations, civilian protection and full, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access as soon as possible. Meanwhile, attacks on other parts of eastern Ghouta continue, with the enclave now split into three separate pockets. During this whole period, the shelling from eastern Ghouta to Damascus was also ongoing, causing dozens of civilian deaths and injuries, with some reports putting the number close to 100. My Special Envoy and I have remained apprised at each step of the diplomatic engagement, offering support and guidance to ensure the implementation in letter and spirit of the resolution. In short, as my Special Envoy has said to the Council, we are leaving no stone unturned in trying to bring all major stakeholders to the table and contribute in a concrete fashion to find a sustainable solution for the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). As the situation continues to unfold, the Turkish offensive in Afrin — pursued with armed opposition group allies — intensified with air strikes and ground advances against Partiya Yekitiya Demokrat/People's Protection Units fighters, reinforced, in turn, by elements coming from eastern Syria, where they were combating Da'esh. Pro-Syrian Government forces have also deployed inside of Afrin. The fighting resulted in significant civilian displacement, with reports of numerous casualties and damage to infrastructure. With the cooperation of Syrian armed opposition groups, Turkish forces established a so-called buffer zone inside Syrian territory, linking northern rural Aleppo and Idlib, and surrounding Afrin from three sides. The offensive is now pushing ever closer towards the city, with its large civilian population. Allow me to now turn to our efforts to address the humanitarian crisis. When resolution 2401 (2018) was adopted, the United Nations and its humanitarian partners stood ready to deliver. Plans were in place for multiple convoys each week to agreed-upon locations, in response to independently assessed needs. Unfortunately, the actual delivery did not match our plan. Let me describe what it was possible to do in the past two weeks. On 1 March, humanitarian organizations delivered assistance to some 50,000 people in the hard-to-reach areas of Afrin and Tell Rifaat, north of Aleppo. On 4 March, a convoy of 19 trucks organized by the United Nations, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and partners reached Dar Kabira, in northern Homs. It provided assistance to 33,500 people of the requested 40,250. However, the Government of Syria did not allow the delivery of life-saving medicines, such as insulin, nor key items, including solar lamps, syringes and paediatric scales. As I mentioned earlier, in eastern Ghouta, the Russian Federation unilaterally announced a daily five-hour humanitarian pause in the fighting, starting from 27 February, to prevent civilian victims and to enable civilians to leave the enclave. In reality, few civilians left. On the one hand, sufficient protection standards were not in place for voluntary movement. Moreover, armed groups prevented others from leaving. In that context, even though the five-hour window was insufficient to enable the safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services, as demanded in the resolution, on 5 March the United Nations sent an inter-agency convoy of 46 trucks to Douma, in eastern Ghouta, with food for 27,500 people, along with health and nutrition supplies. Yet those 27,500 represented only a third of the requested beneficiaries, all in desperate need. And most of the health supplies were removed by the Syrian authorities, including basic medicines, dialysis treatments and trauma and surgical materials, such as burn dressings and adrenaline, despite the provisions of paragraph 8 of resolution 2401 (2018). According to the World Health Organization, only about 30 per cent of medical supplies in the convoy 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 5/23 were allowed in. United Nations personnel from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs accompanying the convoy were also denied access to eastern Ghouta. Violence rendered the operation extremely perilous, despite prior assurances from the parties to the conflict. The insecurity forced the team to reluctantly halt unloading and to return to Damascus with a large share of the food aid still on the trucks. On 9 March, a convoy of 13 trucks reached Douma, delivering the remaining food assistance that could not be offloaded four days earlier. Once again, shelling occurred nearby, despite assurances having been provided by all parties. In those difficult circumstances, I commend the valiant humanitarian workers risking their lives to provide assistance and protection to people in need. But we are obviously far from safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid, as demanded in resolution 2401 (2018), as well as other relevant Security Council resolutions. And so the humanitarian and human rights situation is becoming more desperate by the day. In Douma, relief workers who reached the city last week described conditions as shocking and overwhelming. People are sheltering in overcrowded basements. Access to food, water and sanitation is limited. In relation to Douma, we have a convoy ready that I hope will be allowed to proceed in the coming days, especially after the results of today's meeting. As in all conflict settings, the specific needs of women are not receiving sufficient attention, including access to safe spaces, critical health services, medicine and baby formula for their children. In eastern Ghouta, health partners on the ground advise that more than 1,000 people are in urgent need of medical evacuation. The United Nations is ready to support these medical evacuations, in cooperation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other partners. A prioritized list of those in greatest need, mostly children, has been shared with the Syrian authorities. I urge a positive response, hoping that today's meeting will allow these actions to take place in the immediate future. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has announced its intention to send a relief convoy to Afrin as soon as security conditions allows. A United Nations humanitarian mission is awaiting Government authorization to immediately deploy to Raqqa for assessments of security and needs. There are also new disturbing allegations of the use of chlorine gas. Even if we cannot verify them, we cannot ignore them. I continue to urge the Council to find unity on this issue. Having said what I said, I believe that despite all the difficulties, lack of trust, mutual suspicions and cold calculations, it should be possible to implement resolution 2401 (2018). It should be possible to have a cessation of hostilities. It should be possible to deliver aid. It should be possible to evacuate the sick and wounded. It should be possible to lift the sieges. It should be possible to accelerate humanitarian mine action throughout Syria. It should also be possible to remove Security Council-listed terrorist fighters from conflict zones without massive and indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. We cannot give up, for the sake of the Syrian people. I appeal to all parties to ensure the full implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) throughout the whole of Syrian territory. The United Nations is ready to assist in any effort to make that happen. I call on all States with influence to exercise it in support of the efforts of the United Nations and the implementation of the resolution. I hope that this week's Astana ministerial meeting, which will gather the guarantors of de-escalation, will concretely restore de-escalation arrangements, and take real steps on detainees, abductees and missing persons. The dramatic situation I have described — the calamity across the country, the rivalries, the cynicism, the cruelty — highlight the need for a political solution. My Special Envoy continues to work towards the full implementation of resolution 2254 (2015). On Thursday, the conflict will enter its eighth year. I refuse to lose my hope to see Syria rising from the ashes. To see a united, democratic Syria able to avoid fragmentation and sectarianism and with its sovereignty and territorial integrity respected, and to see a Syrian people able to freely decide their future and choose their political leadership. The President: I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing. I now give the floor to those Council members who wish to make statements. Recalling the Security Council's latest note 507 on its working methods (S/2017/507), I wish to encourage all participants, both members and non-members of the Council, to deliver their statements in five minutes or less. S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 6/23 18-06756 Mr. Alotaibi (Kuwait) (spoke in Arabic): I deliver this speech today on behalf of Kuwait and Sweden. At the outset I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for convening this meeting at the request of the delegations of Kuwait and Sweden, pursuant to resolution 2401 (2018). I also thank Secretary-General António Guterres for his presence here today and for his briefing about the implementation of this resolution. Fifteen days have passed since the Security Council's unanimous adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), which demands that all parties implement a 30-day ceasefire throughout Syria without delay in order to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in need and to end the siege of residential areas. It is with great regret that we continue to witness a clear failure to implement the resolution's provisions while military operations across Syria continue to prevent humanitarian and medical assistance, particularly in eastern Ghouta and specifically on the part of the Syrian authorities. This has prevented United Nations teams and their humanitarian partners from safely providing humanitarian assistance to eastern Ghouta, which has been a primary locus among Syrian areas in need of assistance ever since its siege began in 2013, and which is home to about 400,000 people. In this regard, we would like to make a number of observations, as follows. First, we have followed with deep concern the inability of the United Nations and its humanitarian partners to enter the besieged areas, and the obstacles and impediments that they have faced during their operations in some areas. In that regard, we would refer to events in Douma, eastern Ghouta, on 5 March, which proved to be the deadliest day since the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), with at least 100 people having been killed on that day alone. On that day, the hopes of civilians hinged on receiving lifesaving humanitarian aid, and we looked forward to that first positive initiative reaching 90,000 people in need of assistance in eastern Ghouta. However, what happened was that the number of beneficiaries dropped to less than half due to the Syrian authorities having removed necessary medical supplies from the convoy's load without clear justification, despite the fact that they had been given prior notification, based on standard operating procedures, of the entirety of the humanitarian convoy's content. It is also a matter of deep concern that convoys administered by the United Nations and its partners were compelled to cease their operations before completely unloading their cargo due to continued aerial bombardment on Douma. We demand that the Syrian authorities give immediate permission for two convoys per week to eastern Ghouta and other destinations, at the request of the United Nations. We call on all parties to provide appropriate security guarantees for these convoys and to permit United Nations staff to accompany the convoys. In this regard, we reaffirm the need for all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, to assume their responsibilities to protect all humanitarian workers, including United Nations agencies and their relevant partners. We welcome the entry of the remaining humanitarian convoys provided by the Red Cross and the World Food Program into Douma on 9 March to deliver the remaining food assistance. This was the second time such convoys had been allowed to enter Douma in one week. There is a need to build on this so as to increase the number of weekly convoys to eastern Ghouta in a sustainable manner. Secondly, we reiterate the Council's demand for immediate unconditional medical evacuations based on medical need, starting this week, and we call on the Syrian authorities to give permission and work with the United Nations and its implementing partners to that end. Thirdly, the continued fighting in eastern Ghouta, particularly the incessant air strikes, prompts us to again call specifically on the Syrian authorities to comply with the provisions of the resolution and of international law in order to facilitate humanitarian assistance to reach those in need. We believe that a daily five-hour truce in eastern Ghouta does not support the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). Fourthly, the United Nations has confirmed that the number of combatants associated with terrorist groups designated by the Security Council in eastern Ghouta does not exceed 350. We cannot accept continued military operations under the pretext of combating terrorism when they effectively prevent the delivery of humanitarian assistance, contrary to the requirements of the resolution. Resolution 2401 (2018), which was adopted unanimously, took effect immediately and is applicable to all parties. In that regard, we note the willingness of certain opposition groups in eastern Ghouta to abide by the provisions of the resolution and to expel terrorist groups designated by the Security Council. We express our support for the 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 7/23 efforts of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Mr. Staffan de Mistura, to operationalize this matter without delay. Fifthly, listening to the Secretary-General's briefing today on the status of the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) constitutes one of the monitoring tools included in the resolution. But the main mechanisms remain the existing ceasefire agreements between the parties to the conflict, most notably the Astana accord with Russia, Turkey and Iran as its guarantors, and the agreement supervised by the United States and the Russian Federation that emanated from the International Syria Support Group. The resolution stresses the need to activate those agreements in order to reach a 30- day ceasefire aimed at allowing sustainable access to humanitarian assistance in all regions in Syria. We call again on the parties to those agreements to redouble their efforts in order to implement the provisions of resolution 2401 (2018). The unanimous position that the Security Council conveyed to the Syrian people and to the world by adopting resolution 2401 (2018) on 24 February must be built on in a speedy and effective manner, especially as the resolution is primarily of a humanitarian nature. There is a collective responsibility on us as members of the Security Council, specifically on influential parties, to maintain our credibility before the world and work to implement the provisions of resolution 2401 (2018). We would like here to stress that the provisions of the resolution are valid even after 30 days from the date of its adoption. We affirm our full commitment to continue to closely follow the status of the implementation of the resolution in the Council monthly reports. We will spare no effort to make progress on its implementation. This month marks the beginning of the eighth year of the conflict in Syria. Sadly, there is still a need for the violence to cease, for sustained humanitarian access through weekly cross-line convoys, for medical evacuations, for the protection of civilians and hospitals and for lifting the siege. We cannot let the Syrian people down, and we will continue to strive to implement the joint demands that we have set out. Finally, we recall that the lack of a political settlement to the conflict in Syria based on resolution 2254 (2015) will lead to further deterioration of the humanitarian situation. Mrs. Haley (United States of America): I would like to congratulate the Netherlands and your team, Mr. President, on having assumed the presidency of the Security Council for this month. I also want to thank Secretary-General Guterres for his briefing and for all of his efforts on behalf of peace in Syria Sixteen days ago, we sat around the negotiating table with our Security Council colleagues and agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in the brutal bombardment of civilians in Syria. The negotiations were long and difficult. Every minute we delayed meant more innocent people were killed. But the Russian delegation stalled and drew out the talks. They had conditions they insisted on before they would allow the killing to stop. The United States was reluctant to accept those conditions. But, in order to stop the killing in Syria, we accepted them. We attempted to work with Russia in good faith to end the violence in Syria. As a result, 16 days ago we came to an agreement. Russia cast its vote in favour of the agreement (see S/PV.8188). With that vote Russia promised its support for a 30-day cease-fire, as did the rest of the members of the security Council. With that vote Russia said that it too wanted to create the conditions for food and medicine to reach starving Syrian families. With that vote Russia told us it would use its influence with the Syrian regime to silence the guns in Syria. It told us that the Russians would themselves honour the ceasefire they voted to demand. With that vote Russia made a commitment to us, to the Syrian people and to the world — a commitment to stop the killing in Syria. Today we know that the Russians did not keep their commitment. Today we see their actions do not match those commitments, as bombs continue dropping on the children of eastern Ghouta. Today we must ask whether Russia can no longer influence the Al-Assad regime to stop the horrific destruction of hospitals, medical clinics and ambulances and to stop dropping chemical weapons on villages. Has the situation in Syria reversed, and Russia is now the tool of Al-Assad — or worse, Iran? We must ask those questions because we know the Russians themselves have continued their own bombing. In the first four days following the ceasefire, Russian military aircraft conducted at least 20 daily bombing missions in Damascus and eastern Ghouta. The Russians negotiated the wording of the ceasefire down to the commas and the periods. They voted for the S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 8/23 18-06756 ceasefire. And they immediately disregarded it. In the past 16 days, over 500 civilians have died. Some reports put the death toll even higher. That is unacceptable. Thousands of Syrians are in desperate need of medical care. But none of the United Nations list has been evacuated. We have heard the conversations are ongoing with the regime to medically evacuate 25 people in the coming weeks. While those civilians should be rushed to medical care, we ask why it took so long. When will the more than 1,000 identified medical cases be evacuated? There have been almost no deliveries of medicine or surgical equipment, because the Al-Assad regime remove them from the United Nations humanitarian convoys. The convoy that made it to eastern Ghouta on 5 March had to navigate around constant regime airstrikes. The bombing was so severe that the United Nations could barely unload the food the trucks were carrying. And in the past 16 days, there have been three separate allegations of chlorine-gas attacks. This is no ceasefire. This is the Al-Assad regime, Iran and Russia continuing to wage war against their political opponents. And there is another reason we know the Syrians and Russians never intended to implement the ceasefire: they planned for it. Over the past two weeks, the Russian and Syrian regimes have been busy labelling every opposition group in eastern Ghouta a "terrorist group". Why? So they can exploit a provision in the ceasefire resolution (resolution 2401 (2018)) that allows for military operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and Al-Qaida. There are terrorists in Syria, but the Russian and Syrian regimes label anyone as terrorists who resist their absolute control. In the eyes of Russia, Iran and Al-Assad, the neighbourhoods of eastern Ghouta are full of terrorists. The hospitals are full of terrorists. The schools are full of terrorists. The Syrian and Russian regimes insist that they are targeting terrorists, but their bombs and artillery continue to fall on hospitals and schools and on innocent civilians. They have deliberately and with premeditation exploited a loophole they negotiated in the ceasefire to continue starving and pummelling hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians. They have made a mockery of this process and this institution. For the sake of the Syrian people and the integrity of the Council, we must respond and take action. During the negotiations, the United States put all parties on notice that we needed to act if the ceasefire was not honoured. Members of the Security Council agreed. Now that day has come. The ceasefire has failed. The situation of the civilians in eastern Ghouta is dire. The United States is acting. We have drafted a new ceasefire draft resolution that provides no room for evasion. It is simple, straightforward and binding. It will take effect immediately upon adoption by the Council. It contains no counter-terrorism loopholes for Al-Assad, Iran and the Russians to hide behind. And it focuses on the area the Secretary-General has identified and that the world can see holds the greatest urgency for the lives of innocent civilians, that is, Damascus city and eastern Ghouta. If Russia, Iran and Al-Assad cannot agree to stop the bombing in that limited part of Syria for that limited amount of time, they will not agree to anything that is worthwhile. If they will not keep their word once they have agreed to a ceasefire, then how can we trust them? In the end, that is what makes the work of the Council possible: trust. If we cannot count on the members of the Council to honour their agreements, we cannot accomplish anything. If we cannot act when children are dying, we have no business being here. If we cannot save families that have not seen the sun for weeks because they have been hiding underground to escape barrel bombs, then the Security Council is as impotent as its worst critics say it is. Almost a year ago in the aftermath of the Syrian regime sarin gas attack on Khan Shaykhoun, the United States offered a warning to the Council. We said that when the international community consistently fails to act, there are times when States are compelled to take their own action. The Security Council failed to act, and the United States successfully struck the air base from which Al-Assad had launched his chemical attack. We repeat that warning today. We welcome all nations that will work together to finally provide relief for the Syrian people, and we support the United Nations political process that seeks to end the war in Syria. However, we also warn that any nation that is determined to impose its will through chemical attacks and inflicting human suffering, most especially the outlaw Syrian regime, the United States remains prepared to act if we must. It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take. We are prepared to take it again. 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 9/23 Mr. Allen (United Kingdom): I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and, through him, may I thank all of those trying to supply the desperately needed humanitarian response on the ground. They are indeed valiant. Sixteen days ago, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2401 (2018). We did so because we and the world were sickened by the slaughter of innocents in Syria, particularly in eastern Ghouta. Russia used every tactic in its playbook to weaken the resolution and buy time for its ally, the Al-Assad regime, to bomb indiscriminately. But when it raises its hand in support, we hope that Russia and its clients would keep their word and implement the resolution. Sadly, as the Secretary-General's briefing has made clear, our resolution has not been implemented. What has happened? First, has there been a ceasefire? No. The violence continues and civilian deaths continue to rise. In those 16 days, 607 people have reportedly been killed, including 99 children and 79 women. The opposition armed groups committed to implementing resolution 2401 (2018) in full, but the Al-Assad regime's air strikes continue. Despite voting for a ceasefire, between 24 and 28 February, Russian military aircraft conducted 20 bombing missions in eastern Ghouta and Damascus every day. Russia has failed to confirm that it is only conducting air strikes against groups that are listed as terrorist groups by the Council. During the so-called daily humanitarian pause, over 56 air strikes hit eastern Ghouta between 27 February and 7 March, including at least six air strikes by Russian aircraft, according to monitors on the ground. Let us recall that only last year Russia declared the whole area to be a de-escalation zone. It has claimed that its bombardments are about fighting terrorists. That is manifestly not the case. There is one terrorist group recognized by the Security Council in eastern Ghouta, which accounts for less than not even 1 per cent of the population of the enclave. The other fighters are members of the opposition armed groups, which Russia has itself invited to the Astana meetings. Those groups have written stating their readiness to expel Al-Nusra Front from the enclave. Instead, Russia bombs them, undermining the political process that it is a part of. We are pleased that the members of the High Negotiations Committee of the Syrian opposition will be able to discuss the situation in Syria with Council members later today. I repeat my consistent condemnation of attacks against Damascus. What about our resolution's second demand, that is, safe, unimpeded and sustained access for humanitarian convoys, including medical and surgical supplies? Only one convoy has been able to enter besieged eastern Ghouta in the past 16 days, in two movements following shelling. They delivered supplies for 27,500 people — a fraction of the 400,000 civilians besieged in eastern Ghouta. What is stopping the aid from getting to the people that so desperately need it? Again, it is the regime. The ongoing violence that it perpetrates is an important factor, and its failure to grant access is another. On 5 March, the regime removed nearly 70 per cent of the medical supplies from a humanitarian convoy destined for 90,000 people. That happened at a time when the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is warning that malnutrition and disease are so prevalent that people will soon die from hunger and sickness even more than from air strikes. Finally, have there been any medical evacuations for the approximately 1,000 people who need them? Not a single one. Again, it is the regime that will not permit its civilians to reach urgently needed medical care. Some may point to an aid convoy or an announced pause in air strikes as a sign of improvement, and claim that those actions implement the resolution. They do not. Our resolution was clear: a ceasefire without delay, humanitarian access and medical evacuations. None have happened. Instead, the truth is that the regime will continue to pound eastern Ghouta until it has a complete military victory there, and Russia will continue to protect its ally, whatever the cost to the people of Syria and its own reputation. As we sit here, watching Al-Assad inscribing eastern Ghouta, again, on the roll call of atrocities and war crimes that he has committed over the eight years of the bloody conflict, let me say clearly that there will be future accountability for those crimes, and Russia's role, bombing alongside him and protecting him from accountability, will never be forgotten. There is still time. If Russia is able to announce a five-hour ceasefire, it can announce a full ceasefire. If it can get one aid convoy through, it can get more through. I urge Russia to give its unconditional support to resolution 2401 (2018) and a ceasefire to enable the delivery of humanitarian S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 10/23 18-06756 assistance, respect international humanitarian law and protect civilians. Mr. Delattre (France) (spoke in French): I would first like to thank the Secretary-General for his strong and particularly enlightening briefing, as well as for his personal commitment, in addition to that of the staff of the Secretariat and Mr. Staffan de Mistura, to spare no effort in implementing resolution 2401 (2018). Allow me, on behalf of France, to especially commend the United Nations teams and all the humanitarian actors working under extremely difficult conditions in Syria. Two weeks ago, we unanimously adopted a text calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities of at least 30 days, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access and medical evacuations in Syria. I would remind those present that those demands apply to the whole of Syria and all parties. We negotiated the text together for several weeks and, I repeat, unanimously adopted it. Each member of the Council around this table has therefore endorsed the content by deciding to assume responsibility. That responsibility fell particularly on Russia, as a permanent member that voted for resolution 2401 (2018), sponsor of the Astana talks and a Power engaged in the Syrian situation, as it claims to be. We had agreed to a clause to meet 15 days later to review its implementation. The Secretary-General has just provided us with a very clear picture of that. Since 24 February, civilian casualties have continued to climb into the hundreds every week. The regime is pursuing, in defiance of its people and the Council, an air and land offensive that it has never intended to halt, with the support of Russia and Iran. However, let us not be deceived that civilians are not the "collateral victims" of those military operations. Rather, they are themselves being targeted by the regime, deliberately and methodically to starve and rape, destroy their health centres, kill and sow terror and death. The hell on Earth experienced by eastern Ghouta is not just the effect of the regime's policy; it is the very purpose of the regime's murderous madness, with its daily tally of war crimes and crimes against humanity, for which the regime will have to answer. Let us call a spade a spade: Who can stop the Syrian regime? Everyone knows that, apart from a military operation, it is Russia that is in the best position to do so today. It is therefore legitimate that today, more than ever before, everyone looks expectantly towards Russia, which has so far been unwilling, or unable, to exert sufficient pressure on the regime. Two weeks after the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), we are here in the Chamber to face the facts. First, what has happened since the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018)? In the light of the inexorable worsening of the humanitarian situation in eastern Ghouta, the Security Council has rallied around a cessation of hostilities and made every effort to seek consensus, and finally did reach consensus on 24 February. We knew then, and we said so, that this result was only a precondition, and that the longest and most difficult part of the path towards a humanitarian truce was still before us. However, every day since 24 February the fighting has continued. In the days that followed, despite Russia's unilateral announcement of a daily five-hour truce — well below what resolution 2401 (2018) requires — the intensity of the fighting has increased. Since resolution 2401 (2018) was adopted, there has not been a single day when eastern Ghouta, an enclave that has been starved and besieged for months, has not been bombed by the regime and its supporters. The fight against terrorism — and this cannot be repeated enough — cannot be used as a pretext for such a bloodbath of civilians or for such contempt for international humanitarian law. Eastern Ghouta is now a textbook case of war crimes, and even of crimes against humanity. It cannot be ignored: the Syrian regime, with the support of Russia and Iran, is engaged in a war of total submission against its people. Violations of the ceasefire by the Damascus regime, with the support of Russia and Iran, have been massive and ongoing, and I would like to thank the Secretary-General for clearly exposing those violations. Let me briefly review some of these violations. Between 24 and 27 February, 72 attacks by the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies, from more than 14 locations, were reported. Between 24 and 28 February, Russian military aircraft carried out no fewer than 20 bombing missions in Damascus and eastern Ghouta. Between 27 February and 2 March, field observers documented at least 25 air strikes by the regime and Russia during the five-hour humanitarian breaks declared by Moscow. Since 18 February, more than 29 hospital have been hit, and few health facilities are still in operation. On 8 March, a health care facility in Mesraba was completely destroyed by bombardments. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as of 11 March, 607 people, including 99 children and 79 women, had been killed since the adoption of resolution 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 11/23 2401 (2018). I would repeat: 607 people have been killed. In addition to the dead, there are many injured persons, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, rapes and many other intolerable violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Finally, further credible allegations of the use of chemical weapons have been made since the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018). As the highest French authorities have pointed out, France will brook no compromise when it comes to the use of those abject weapons. The humanitarian needs are immense, yet the regime deliberately continues to block the entry of aid, despite the presence of Russian soldiers at the crossing points, as what happened to the convoy on 5 March shows. Indeed, the population continues to be deprived of relief and of any possibility of medical evacuation, even if more than 1,000 people need it. Still, we cannot give up. On behalf of France, I would like to make a new and urgent appeal to those who can make a difference on the ground, starting with Russia. France is not posing; it is taking action. My country has been and remains one of the countries most committed to the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). Right after the resolution's adoption, France stepped up its contacts and efforts at the highest level so as to contribute to the resolution's swift implementation, so that the Astana guarantors would assume their responsibilities and so that the commitments made collectively would be respected. President Macron has met with Presidents Putin, Erdoğan and Rouhani, as well as with the Secretary-General on several occasions. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Moscow and then Tehran. To Russia, we proposed concrete measures for implementing resolution 2401 (2018). Although our efforts aimed at reaching out have been ignored, we stand by our proposals. Let us not deceive ourselves: without an immediate implementation of resolution 2401 (2018), the worst is yet to come. After the regime has conquered the rural zones of eastern Ghouta, the worst would be a conquest — street by street, house by house — in a torrent of fire, for the urban zones of the region, which are by definition the most densely populated areas. It is of the highest urgency, therefore, for us to come together to ensure that the resolution is fully implemented before the street battles promised by the regime's military planners begin. I would like to highlight three essential elements in that regard. The first is implementing a monitoring system to ensure maximum pressure on the parties. The main reason resolution 2401 (2018) has not been not implemented is that the Syrian regime has been engaged in its murderous folly and the regime's supporters have been unable or unwilling to stop it and prevent a worsening of the humanitarian situation. But the failure to implement resolution 2401 (2018) is also the result of our not being able to put in place a sufficiently targeted follow-up mechanism to the resolution in the Council. This must be our priority, and I am convinced that it is our only chance to compel the Syrian regime to comply with its international obligations. France therefore calls for appropriate decisions to be taken in the coming days. It is essential and urgent that humanitarian convoys reach eastern Ghouta in adequate security conditions and carry out their delivery of aid, and that medical evacuations be allowed. For that to happen, the truce must be sustainable and flexible in order to take into account delays in the delivery, discharge and distribution of aid. Medical authorizations must not only be delivered in an expedited manner; they must also come with all the security guarantees needed by patients, their families and the humanitarian actors who assist them. Indeed, the protection due them under international humanitarian law must be unconditionally guaranteed. The second element I would like to highlight is the departure of terrorist fighters from Ghouta as proposed by armed groups. In their letter to the Security Council, the three armed groups in eastern Ghouta, upon the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), indicated their commitment to upholding the resolution, made concrete proposals for a comprehensive cessation of hostilities and committed themselves to taking combatant members of their groups out of Ghouta. The United Nations offered its assistance in those exchanges and carried out important work along those lines, to which the Secretary General just referred. I call on Russia today to conclude and implement the relevant agreements without delay. This is one of the keys to implementing the resolution. The third element is political negotiation. A lasting cessation of hostilities in Syria requires a political process consistent with the terms of resolution 2254 (2015), our shared road map for ending the conflict. Staffan de Mistura has our full support in bringing this mission to a successful conclusion and swiftly convening negotiations in Geneva, which is the only legitimate forum for a credible solution. In order to S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 12/23 18-06756 achieve results, United Nations mediation requires that necessary pressure be exerted on the parties. We therefore call once again on Russia, as well as Iran, to fulfil their responsibilities, as we are fulfilling our own. Collectively we have the capacity, if we so wish, to stop the endless descent into the abyss that characterizes the Syrian tragedy, and finally create a real political dynamic. On behalf of France, I therefore call once again for all members of the Council to finally rally their words and action in the service of this shared objective, which matches to our interests and responsibilities. It is never too late to save lives, and it is our responsibility — if we accept it — to end the tragedy of Syria, on which our generation, and the credibility of the Security Council, will be judged. Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We would like to thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and his detailed information on what we asked for. We particularly appreciated his words when he said that there should be only one agenda for all of us — ending this crisis. Russia supported the Security Council's adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), guided by the priority of improving the humanitarian situation in various parts of Syria. We not only believe that its effective implementation is extremely important, we have also proposed concrete ways of achieving that, something that was discussed in today's briefing. And that is unlike various capitals whose representatives have settled comfortably for doing nothing while vilifying the Syrian regime, as they call it, and making endless accusations about Russia. In out last meeting on the subject (see S/PV.8188), I promised to count the number of times that Ambassador Haley mentioned Russia in the next meeting. The answer is 22. France came second, with 16 mentions, and the United Kingdom was third, with 12. This matters not just for the record but for the context in which it occurs. What is going on is a political policy, and it does not have to do merely — indeed, not much at all — with concern for Syrians' humanitarian needs. It is important that everyone understands that resolution 2401 (2018) is not about an immediate ceasefire, which is a utopian notion, but a preliminary agreement between the parties as a condition for achieving sustainable de-escalation in all the contested areas of Syria, not just eastern Ghouta. That is the only realistic way. The resolution contains an unequivocal demand in that regard, and we are trying to make that happen. The Council has heard about that today and will hear more. The authorities in Damascus have expressed their satisfaction with the resolution and their willingness to implement its provisions. However, they have also rightly demanded an immediate cessation of attacks on the capital and of all infringements on Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The counter-terrorist operation that the Syrian armed forces are conducting does not contradict resolution 2401 (2018). The Government of Syria has every right to work to end threats to its citizens' security. The Damascus suburbs cannot continue to be a breeding ground for terrorists. It is the terrorists' persistent attempts to disrupt the ceasefire that serve to maintain the tensions in Syria, and of course the most problematic area is in eastern Ghouta. The July 2017 Cairo agreements on the eastern Ghouta de-escalation zone gave the militants a chance to be included in the political settlement. They did not take advantage of it and have still not dissociated themselves from the terrorists. Even now the groups' activities are coordinated from the joint headquarters run by Jabhat Al-Nusra. We have reliable information that they are in active radio contact, discussing plans for shelling the humanitarian corridors, among other things. Why are they only now talking about being willing to drive Al-Nusra's members out of eastern Ghouta? And why are we the only ones asking that question? We have answered it a number of times ourselves when we have spoken about suspicions that Al-Nusra is being preserved for particular political purposes, in this case to maintain a dangerous hotbed of armed resistance in the immediate vicinity of Syria's capital. Even now they continue to lull us with fairy stories about how few terrorists there are in eastern Ghouta. And who is going to monitor the armed groups' implementation of the resolution? Who will be responsible for that? Just please do not keep saying the so-called regime, and Russia, and Iran. Such ideological attitudes are simply not serious in the context of the professional discussions that we conduct in the Security Council. What responsibility will the members of the Council take for the implementation of the resolution? How will they implement it? How will they influence the militias they support? 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 13/23 Following the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), with Russia's participation, daily five-hour humanitarian pauses were established and the Muhayam-Al-Wafedin checkpoint was opened for use by both civilians and militants with families. They were guaranteed security, transportation and protection along the entire route. The Syrian authorities then opened another checkpoint, Jisreen-Mleha, in the southern area of eastern Ghouta. Medical posts have been set up, distribution points organized for hot meals, buses are standing by. However, the insurgents continued to subject the central areas of Damascus and its outskirts to massive shelling. Dozens of mines have been laid for days, resulting in deaths and injuries as well as major damage. Since the day the resolution was adopted more than 100 people have died, and many more been injured, as a result of the shelling in the capital. The Tishrin and Al-Biruni hospitals and a medical centre in Al-Rihan have been hit more than once. These are real hospitals, not the militants' field offices that are frequently disguised as hospitals. They are making active use of snipers. We know this for a fact. It is a tragedy when any civilians die during an armed conflict. But my delegation has always been interested in the origin of the statistical information being used in the United Nations. In a highly politicized situation this subject is extremely important. Frequent assessments are pronounced about civilian losses in eastern Ghouta. We hope that future reports will be required to indicate where their data is from, how reliable it is and who exactly is meant by "reliable sources on the ground". Every day that has passed, the extremists have forbidden civilians to leave the areas they have blocked and have severely suppressed attempts to resist arbitrary action, including through exemplary executions. We have reliable information about that too. Strikes on corridors and exit checkpoints are constant, including during the humanitarian pauses. On 9 March a convoy of refugees was shelled, once again disrupting an evacuation. Tunnels are being used for attacks on the Syrian army, and the exits from underground installations are located in neighbourhoods where there are public institutions, mainly mosques, hospitals and markets. They have inflated food prices and at the same time have been taking away the people's food, water, medicines and mobile phones. They are setting up firing positions in residential buildings and using people as human shields. They are laying mines in neighbourhoods that are adjacent to the line of contact. They are conducting searches and confiscating permit papers distributed by Government forces. The residents are trying to resist this repression, organizing spontaneous rallies and clashing with the militias. On 1 March, in north-eastern Douma, Al-Nusra terrorists shot four people who participated in such a demonstration. Today there was a major protest in Kafr Batna. The first major exodus of civilians took place on the night of 11 March, when 52 people, 26 of them children, left the village of Misraba with the assistance of the Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and the Syrian army. There are also militants who want to leave eastern Ghouta, but their field commanders threaten potential defectors with reprisals. For the first time, on 9 March, after long and tense negotiations, with the participation of officers from the Russian Centre for Reconciliation, 13 militants were evacuated from the enclave through the humanitarian corridor at their own request. Talks have been held with Jaysh Al-Islam on reaching an agreement on the withdrawal of a second group of fighters. A meeting was also held with the leaders of Faylaq Al-Rahman, at which it was demanded that they dissociate themselves from Jabhat Al-Nusra immediately. However, according to information received, the militants of the group decided to continue their armed resistance, forcibly recruiting ordinary citizens into their ranks. To turn to the subject of the humanitarian convoy entering Douma on 5 March, the convoy received comprehensive support from the Syrian Government and the Russian military. A humanitarian corridor was established, security ensured for its passage and the situation was monitored. However, there was a great deal of evidence of disorganized activity on the part of the humanitarian actors. According to our information, United Nations staff needlessly delayed the convoy operations, creating real security risks. While the convoy was being put together, they attempted to load it with undeclared medical supplies — and the fact that not all of them were declared was mentioned today — and wasted around two hours in a meeting with the leaders of the so-called local councils. They spread unreliable information about aerial strikes in the trucks' unloading area, and today some delegations seized on that joyfully, although what actually occurred was one instance of mortar fire from the armed groups' positions. They did not respond to local residents' S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 14/23 18-06756 request to help them leave the enclave. Nonetheless, 13 people, five of them children, were evacuated. Afterwards, it was curious to read a report that one of Ahrar Al-Sham's field commanders had, in a tone of irony, expressed his appreciation for the humanitarian pause on 5 March, which enabled the militias to regroup, recover their strength and a number of lost positions and prepare ambushes for the Syrian military. A 9 March action was successfully carried out with the Russian military providing a truck convoy with safe conduct. However, the scope of resolution 2401 (2018) is not limited to eastern Ghouta. We should note that in the past two weeks, the terrorists of Al-Nusra and associated militia groups have repeatedly shelled villages in Hamah province. As a result of new strikes there are been deaths and injuries in blockaded Fo'ah and Kafraya in Idlib. Armed clashes between illegal groups in that province have led to threats of a number of medical facilities being closed. Al-Nusra has become more active in the southern de-escalation zone, which could be related to the fact that they continue to be supplied with weapons from outside. The situation in Afrin remains very difficult. The Syrian authorities have given permission for humanitarian aid to be delivered to the residents of Rukban camp, in the area illegally held by the Americans around the Al-Tanf military base. We would like to know what the United Nations is doing about that. Needless to say, we assume that the distribution of humanitarian assistance will be undertaken by a trustworthy entity such as the International Committee of the Red Cross or the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. We are also awaiting the speedy dispatch of a United Nations humanitarian needs assessment mission to Raqqa, which was bombed out by the coalition. There should be no pointless delays with this, so I would like to ask the United Nations when that mission will take place. We understand very well the unspoken motives for the current disinformation campaign, whose aim is to create a public perception that the Syrian authorities use toxic substances. In fact, both we and the Syrians have well-founded fears that provocations are being planned with the aim of accusing the Syrian authorities of carrying out chemical attacks. According to information received, Al-Nusra used a chlorine-based substance in eastern Ghouta on 5 March, affecting more than 30 local residents. This is all being done in order to prepare the ground for unilateral acts of force against sovereign Syria. We heard hints of that in the statements made by some delegations today. Essentially, steps are being considered that could deliver yet another heavy blow to regional stability. Meanwhile, on territory formerly controlled by illegal armed groups, there have been more new discoveries of stores of chemicals, but the relevant bodies of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have been very slow to react to the appeals of the Syrian authorities. Russia will continue its efforts to implement resolution 2401 (2018), but we demand that some of our colleagues do their part and exert genuine pressure on the groups that they support or sponsor, instead of constantly calling on Russia and creating the false impression that the resolution applies only to us. In conclusion, I would like to say that this afternoon four Security Council will be holding an unofficial Arria Formula meeting with the declared intention of making opposition voices heard on the humanitarian issue in Syria. This is going to be widely covered in the media. First and foremost, we want to point out the fact that is unacceptable to use United Nations resources for politicized purposes, and that is certainly not what Arria Formula meetings were conceived for. This event conceals the desire of its organizers to exert informational pressure on the Syrian Government and those who are helping it fight terrorism. In our view, to get the full picture, it would not be a bad idea to listen to the residents of Raqqa and Rukban camp, not to mention eastern Ghouta, where there are quite a few people who would be glad of the opportunity to appeal for their deliverance from the presence of extremists. Mr. Ma Zhaoxu (China) (spoke in Chinese): I should like at the outset to thank Secretary-General António Guterres for his briefing. China appreciates the positive efforts made by the United Nations and the Secretary- General to alleviate the humanitarian situation in the Syrian regions affected. China sympathizes with the suffering of the Syrian people and has consistently been working hard to help them. Last month we channelled assistance through the International Committee of the Red Cross, sending water, food, medical services and shelter to internally displaced persons in Syria. We are extremely concerned at the fact that the people of Syria are suffering from the conflict. No act 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 15/23 of violence against innocent civilians can be tolerated. This situation must end. On 24 February, the members of the Security Council, leaving aside their differences, unanimously adopted resolution 2401 (2018). This upheld the unity of the Council and provided a rare opportunity for a ceasefire, halting the violence and easing the suffering of the Syrian people. After the resolution was adopted, we saw that United Nations humanitarian relief convoys had overcome difficulties of all kinds and entered eastern Ghouta, delivering much-needed assistance to the people there. With Russia announcing the implementation of the temporary ceasefire, a humanitarian corridor was opened for the Syrian people. We saw that some civilians, including children, had already entered the safe area through the humanitarian corridor and received relief and assistance. It has also come to our attention that the parties to the conflict continue to attack each other and that owing to the shelling the humanitarian corridor has not been able to serve its full purpose. We urge all parties concerned to make joint efforts, exert their influence and ensure that resolution 2401 (2018) is effectively and earnestly implemented. All members of the Security Council should maintain their unity and jointly stay on track to find a political solution to the Syrian issue, support the early resumption of the Geneva peace talks and urge all parties in Syria to achieve a solution acceptable to all as soon as possible, through a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process, in order to ease the suffering of the Syrian people. China will continue to make unremitting efforts to that end. Mr. Umarov (Kazakhstan): I join others in thanking Secretary-General António Guterres for his briefing. We welcome the efforts of the United Nations, its system and the International Committee of the Red Cross to render immediate life-saving services, conduct hundreds of medical evacuations and send convoys to the besieged and hard-to-reach areas, especially eastern Ghouta, despite the potential danger to the lives of their personnel. We therefore urge the members of the Security Council to assist the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in operationalizing those emergency programmes and to ensure the protection of medical and humanitarian workers. Likewise, we also urge the parties to support United Nations structures in fulfilling their mandates. We echo the United Nations calls to all parties to facilitate unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to all people in need throughout the country and to take the necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and medical facilities, as required by international law and human rights standards. Kazakhstan considers that it is equally important to further promote the Syrian settlement and believes that the Astana process has great potential for guiding intra-Syrian talks towards long-term peace. In that context, we propose that all sides, including stakeholders, provide all-round assistance, making use of the positive developments to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground. Astana continues to support resolution 2254 (2015), as it always has, and repeatedly calls on the International Syria Support Group and other countries to help the conflicting parties to implement the measures stipulated in the Geneva communiqué (S/2012/522, annex) and the Vienna statements. We express concern over the existing difficulties in Syria, which seriously impede the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018), and we call on the international community to influence the conflicting parties to cooperate with the United Nations. The only way to truly resolve the crisis is through negotiations, predicated on mutual trust and understanding, together with confidence-building measures. In practical terms, we are convinced that expelling terrorist groups from eastern Ghouta may calm the situation in that sector. Let us be frank: removing the Al-Nusra Front and other affiliated terrorist groups from the area, as stated in a letter from three parties, must be pursued in order to end hostilities. The implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) is a collective responsibility, with each Council member playing a significant role. Finally, Kazakhstan supports solutions in Syria on the basis of resolution 2254 (2015) and the Geneva communiqué, as well as the agreements on the de-escalation zones reached during the Astana process. Mr. Meza-Cuadra (Peru) (spoke in Spanish): We would like to thank you, Mr. President, for having convened this meeting and to welcome the presence of Secretary-General António Guterres, who reminded us of the responsibilities of the international community, S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 16/23 18-06756 in particular the Council, given the serious and terrible developments in Syria. Peru follows with great concern the humanitarian situation in that country. We must express our sorrow and solidarity to the victims of the conflict, most of whom are children. We deeply regret that, two weeks after the ceasefire was unanimously adopted by the Council through resolution 2401 (2018), there has not been sufficient progress in its implementation. As the Secretary-General noted, a sustained cessation of hostilities has not materialized. The conflict continues to claim civilian victims. The much-needed humanitarian assistance has been provided in a very limited way. International law and international humanitarian law continue to be violated with impunity. The bleak outlook requires us to redouble our efforts. The Security Council must remain united in its responsibility to protect the Syrian population by promoting all actions conducive to ensuring the full and immediate implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). The responsibility to act is clearly greater for the countries with the greatest capacity for influence in the field, in particular the guarantors of the de-escalation zones agreed in Astana. The situation is particularly serious in eastern Ghouta, where, among other emergencies, more than 1,000 people need to be evacuated for medical reasons. It is also serious in Idlib, Afrin, Rukban and Raqqa, among other places. We need to remember that the ceasefire must cover the entire Syrian territory and allow humanitarian assistance in a sustained, safe and unhindered way. The Syrian Government must comply with the ceasefire immediately and fulfil its responsibility to protect the population and its obligation to cooperate with the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). The fight against terrorism cannot be used as an excuse to violate human rights and international humanitarian law. Peru supports the proposal of Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura to promote dialogue with the opposition groups that have expressed their willingness to comply with the ceasefire and to expel members of terrorist organizations linked to the Al-Nusra Front from eastern Ghouta. Peru remains committed to achieving a political solution to the conflict that ends the ongoing humanitarian disaster, ensures accountability for the atrocious crimes committed in that country, including the use of chemical weapons, supports regional stability and achieves sustainable peace in Syria. We would like to conclude by expressing our support for the Secretary-General in his call for the immediate implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) and for his tireless efforts and those of his team on the ground. We also wish to highlight the professionalism, the courage and the sense of duty of the United Nations humanitarian personnel and of the humanitarian agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, among others deployed in Syria. Mr. Ndong Mba (Equatorial Guinea) (spoke in Spanish): At the outset, I would like to express my gratitude to Secretary-General António Guterres for his informative briefing. I also thank him for his leadership and all his support, in particular his tremendous efforts, as well as those of his Special Envoy, Mr. Staffan de Mistura, and of the entire United Nations team, to achieve the full implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) and a definitive resolution of the Syrian conflict. Today's meeting should be another milestone in the international response to the humanitarian crisis prevailing in Syria. However, unfortunately, that is not the case. As the Secretary-General underscored in his briefing, in recent weeks, the parties involved at all levels have intensified their fighting in eastern Ghouta despite the humanitarian ceasefire agreed through the unanimous adoption of resolution 2401 (2018) exactly 16 days ago. Nevertheless, we welcome with satisfaction reports that the United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy was finally able to reach eastern Ghouta last Friday to complete the delivery of food that could not be unloaded on 5 March for security reasons. However, the delivery of all necessary humanitarian supplies, including the medical and health-care supplies that were seized in the first attempt by convoys to the besieged areas, continues to be urgent and must be carried out without delay. We also welcome the news that the Secretary- General has just provided to us with regard to some improvements in the situation on the ground in eastern Ghouta. We hope that today's meeting will lead to greater improvement or a definitive resolution of the situation in that part of Syria. 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 17/23 We read the letter dated 9 March that the co-penholders — France, the United Kingdom and the United States — addressed to the Secretary-General and the Council. We have also read very carefully the many letters that the Syrian Government has addressed to the members of the Security Council through its Permanent Representative. Basically, we note in those letters the repeated mutual accusations that have been a characteristic of this long conflict since its beginning. We are talking about a 30-day ceasefire, and time is gradually running out. We have had enough of mutual recrimination. The only collective task that we should focus on is finding a coherent peace mechanism to stop this endless and heinous war. The Republic of Equatorial Guinea remains deeply concerned about the developments in the situation in Syria. We reiterate the urgent need for Council members who have influence over the national parties to the conflict to redouble their diplomatic initiatives with a view to reaching a common understanding on how to find a political solution to the tragic crisis in Syria, the effects of which are a threat to the region and the international community, in particular because of the humanitarian implications posed by the millions of Syrians who are currently being displaced within the country or seeking asylum and because of the security risks caused by the expansion of Da'esh, the Al-Nusra Front and other terrorist entities. We also express our deep indignation at the continuing fighting in the province of Idlib, which, for seven consecutive days, has been subject to attacks and rocket fire from Islamic factions in areas of the cities of Kafraya and Fo'ah. Those events, like many others, demonstrate the need for a common front that will expel from Syria the Islamic State, Al-Qaida, the Al-Nusra Front and all other associated entities that threaten peace and security in the region. In conclusion, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea calls on the guarantors of the Astana process — Russia, Iran and Turkey — to ensure that the rounds of negotiations to be held on 15 and 16 March — to which the Special Envoy of the United Nations for Syria, Mr. Staffan de Mistura, was invited — serve not only to plan future actions and strategies, but also to give genuine impetus to finding a solution to the Syrian crisis once and for all. During my statement after the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), I said that we had partially spared ourselves from embarrassment (see S/PV.8188). However, since 16 days have passed since the adoption of the resolution without it being implemented. I think we remain completely shamed. Ms. Wronecka (Poland): Let me thank the SecretaryGeneral for his comprehensive, but again very worrying and alarming, update. Like many around this table, we share a sense of urgency, especially following the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018). We also see how difficult it is to implement resolution 2401 (2018) on the ground. Small steps, such as sending an aid convoy to eastern Ghouta last Monday, are still mere drops in the ocean of people's needs. Even with a unanimously adopted resolution, we are still lacking any substantial change on the ground and the fighting is far from being over. We therefore call for the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). We understand that the solution is not entirely in our hands, but still we should try to do our utmost to find possible ways to ensure that the life-saving aid convoys might reach those in need and medical evacuations might begin. Unfortunately, the situation in eastern Ghouta, but also in Idlib and Aleppo provinces, does not allow the suffering of ordinary Syrians to be alleviated. Let me once again stress our full support for the Secretary-General, as well as his Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura, in finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis. A political solution to the conflict remains the only viable way to end the suffering of Syrian people. Let me also underline that the role of the Security Council remains crucial, but it is up to the Syrian people to decide their own future. We agree that fighting against terrorist groups designated as such by the Security Council is crucial, but, at the same time, such designations cannot justify the attacks on innocent civilians and civilian infrastructure, including health facilities. Those attacks must stop and parties to the conflict must strictly comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law. In that context, let me once again strongly underline that any response to violence should be proportionate. We need full compliance with the ceasefire agreed in resolution 2401 (2018). The Russian proposal for a daily five-hour pause is simply not enough to allow humanitarian workers to deliver aid and to evacuate those who cannot be treated on the ground. The international community, and especially the Council, S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 18/23 18-06756 bear a huge responsibility to protect civilians. Allow me to share a couple of concrete ideas, which I hope will be useful, on how to improve the situation on the ground. As the Security Council, we should demand United Nations access in order to monitor designated de-escalation zones to ensure the well-being of civilians. All States Members of the United Nations should fully cooperate with the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism set up last year and facilitate its work. Parties engaged in the conflict must cease enabling the crimes on the ground and withhold all their support to armed groups that target civilians. Parties conducting air strikes against terrorist groups must ensure that all necessary precautionary measures are taken into consideration in order to avoid civilian casualties and that all military operations are fully consistent with international law. All potential violations, including possible war crimes, must be investigated, and the perpetrators must be held accountable. In conclusion, let me underline that, from our perspective, we in New York sometimes lack feedback on our actions. With regard to actions taken at Headquarters, it is for the Syrian people themselves to tell us what would be the most effective way to support them. Mr. Tanoh-Boutchoue (Côte d'Ivoire) (spoke in French): My delegation thanks the Secretary-General for his briefing on the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018), on the humanitarian situation in Syria. Two weeks after its unanimous adoption by members of the Security Council, resolution 2401 (2018), which had inspired a great deal of hope, has not been implemented as planned, much to our regret. The requirement of an immediate cessation of hostilities for a period of at least 30 days, provided for by resolution 2401 (2018), to enable the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid and services and medical evacuation of the critically sick and wounded, in accordance with applicable international humanitarian law, has not yet gone into effect. The humanitarian and security situation remains worrisome because it is impossible for humanitarian convoys that endure indiscriminate attacks and bombings perpetrated by various hostile groups to reach besieged areas. In addition, attacks are carried out against medical and humanitarian personnel and health-care infrastructure. According to the World Health Organization, such attacks are on the rise. The deterioration of the humanitarian situation within Syria's borders due to increased fighting makes for dangerous living conditions for thousands of internally displaced persons and obliterates the hope of restoring security and dignity to millions of refugees in neighbouring countries living in extremely difficult conditions. Given the dire situation, Côte d'Ivoire hopes that the second international conference on supporting the future of Syria and the region, to be held in Brussels on 24 and 25 April at the initiative of the European Union, will result in pledges of increased humanitarian aid and development support. In accordance with the provisions of resolution 2401 (2018), Côte d'Ivoire again calls for the immediate cessation of hostilities in order to enable the safe, sustained and unimpeded access of humanitarian convoys delivering basic necessities to hundreds of people in dire need in eastern Ghouta and other areas of the country. My delegation welcomes reports that, for a few days, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was able once again to enter the city of Douma in eastern Ghouta to deliver the aid necessary, including food and non-food items. My delegation encourages all Syrian stakeholders to create conditions that would allow the United Nations to make scheduled deliveries in eastern Ghouta, throughout the entire country and on Syrian borders. Côte d'Ivoire reiterates its belief that the humanitarian situation will not improve without significant progress on the political landscape because the two issues are inextricably linked. Therefore, it invites hostile groups and all stakeholders to engage in political dialogue in order to achieve a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria. In that regard, it welcomes the holding of a meeting in Geneva between the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Syria, Mr. De Mistura, and the three Astana guarantors — Iran, the Russian Federation and Turkey — with a view to relaunching the Syrian political process. The delegation of Côte d'Ivoire hopes that the next meeting to be held in Astana, at the initiative of the three guarantors of the Astana process, will enable us to reach a lasting ceasefire in Syria and to calmly resume the intra-Syrian peace talks pursuant to resolution 2254 (2015). 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 19/23 Mr. Llorentty Solíz (Plurinational State of Bolivia) (spoke in Spanish): My delegation would like to thank the Secretary-General for his briefing on the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). Once again we take this opportunity to pay tribute to humanitarian workers who risk their lives daily as they carry out their duties. We join other colleagues in congratulating the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Syria, Mr. Staffan de Mistura, on his efforts to find a political solution to the serious situation in Syria, which, as the Secretary-General recalled, is in its eighth year. Bolivia deplores the challenges to the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) that the Secretary-General outlined in his briefing today. We condemn all deliberate attacks on civilians and demand respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law. We call on the parties involved to focus primarily on protecting hospitals, medical facilities, schools and civilian residences, and the personnel of the various agencies and humanitarian assistance organizations whose employees put their own lives at risk as they carry out their work on the ground. We call on the parties to cooperate and enhance coordination efforts with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, provide unhindered humanitarian access and allow urgent medical evacuations to be carried out, in particular in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. We call upon the parties to work together to achieve the full implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) throughout Syria as soon as possible and in accordance with agreements reached in the Astana process and on the de-escalation zones. We underscore the importance of unity within the Security Council when implementing resolution 2401 (2018). Such unity must be present if our goal is to fully implement it. We also call on the members of the Council and all parties involved to depoliticize the humanitarian situation in the Syrian Arab Republic and ensure that its actions are in line with international law. We highlight a few forums for dialogue that could assist with reaching consensus on a definitive cessation of hostilities, such as the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi, whose outcome is geared towards strengthening the political process in Geneva. We hope that that forum will allow for the full implementation of resolution 2401 (2018) as soon as possible. In conclusion, we reiterate that there is no military solution to the crisis. The only solution is through an inclusive political dialogue ordered and led by and for the Syrian people. We extend our best hopes for the outcome of the next meeting to be held in Astana. Mr. Alemu (Ethiopia): We thank the Secretary- General for his comprehensive, up-to-date and very useful briefing on the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). Two weeks after the adoption of that resolution, the humanitarian situation in Syria continues to cause serious concern. The United Nations and its humanitarian partners have failed to ensure safe, sufficient, unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access for populations in need of life-saving assistance due ongoing fighting, in particular in eastern Ghouta. Nonetheless, we are mindful of the fact that resolution 2401 (2018) applies to all parts of Syria. We note that the Secretary-General did not overlook that aspect of the resolution in his briefing. We had all emphasized the importance of the effective implementation of the resolution in order to make positive changes on the ground and alleviate the humanitarian tragedy in Syria. Given the increasingly complex situation on the ground, we knew that it would not be an easy task. After the Council adopted resolution 2401 (2018), we recognized that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners could deliver aid to eastern Ghouta and other affected areas. No doubt, there remain serious challenges to ensuring the full implementation of the resolution. Although it demands the cessation of hostilities without delay for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria, with the immediate engagement of all parties to ensure safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and medical evacuations, there have been ongoing military activities resulting in civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian facilities. Here, one should also not overlook the damage being caused by the shelling of Damascus. Therefore, it is clear that much more remains to be done and all parties should be committed to the full implementation of the resolution. As the United Nations and its humanitarian partners are ready to deliver more aid to all Syrians throughout the country, it is absolutely critical that all the parties provide them safe, unfettered and sustained humanitarian access. In that regard, all those who have influence over the parties S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 20/23 18-06756 should exert the necessary pressure to contribute to saving lives. It is also imperative to use all existing arrangements to facilitate the implementation of the resolution, particularly the cessation of hostilities. In that connection, we look forward to the Astana meeting, scheduled to take place on 15 and 16 March, which we hope will contribute to the full implementation of the resolution. Finally, as the Secretary-General stated, we are entering into the eighth year since the start of the Syrian crisis. While we look forward to seeing the Syrian people, as a sovereign State, find a comprehensive political solution based on resolution 2254 (2015), the Council also has a responsibility and an indispensable role in resolving the Syrian crisis. Therefore, we hope that the spirit of cooperation and consensus that the Council demonstrated during the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018) will be sustained not only to respond to the humanitarian tragedy, but also to ensure progress in the political track with a view to finding a lasting solution to the crisis. Most importantly, the cooperation of relevant countries that have influence is key. Without those countries, there will be no solution in sight. The President: I will now make a statement in my capacity as representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. I would like to thank Secretary-General Guterres for his briefing. Through him, I would also like to thank all United Nations and other humanitarian personnel on the ground. They work under extreme circumstances. Sixteen days ago (see S/PV.8188), the Security Council showed a rare example of unity regarding Syria when it adopted resolution 2401 (2018) . I recall the glimmer of hope that day in the Chamber. All of us agreed that all parties to the Syrian conflict must cease hostilities in order to enable the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the evacuation of the critically sick and wounded. Yet one day after the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), the Syrian regime, supported by Russia and Iran, launched a most violent ground offensive to conquer the enclave of eastern Ghouta. That offensive came on top of a relentless air campaign that had started one month ago. Resolution 2401 (2018) calls for a cessation of hostilities, without delay. Unfortunately, it is the military offensive that continues without delay. Elsewhere in Syria, including in Idlib and Afrin, violence continues to threaten the civilian population as well. The Council must do everything in its power to advance the full implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). In that regard, I would like to stress the importance of humanitarian aid, the monitoring of the cessation of hostilities and accountability. With regard to my first point, the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid, last week we were deeply shocked to hear reports that medical supplies, including surgical supplies, insulin and even trauma kits, had been removed from convoys by the Syrian regime. Medical supplies save lives and provide relief to the inhumane suffering that too many Syrians are going through. Medical supplies cannot be used as weapons by terrorists. There is no justification for denying medicine and medical supplies to the wounded and sick. The first humanitarian convoy that received authorization from the Syrian regime to deliver aid to eastern Ghouta was not able to fully unload because of resumed fighting. The convoy that arrived last Friday was finally able to deliver aid, including medical supplies, for 27,500 people. However, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is still waiting for authorization to complete the delivery to Douma for all 70,000 people, as initially approved by the Syrian authorities. We call on all parties to immediately allow sustained and unimpeded access to deliver supplies to people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. That applies to eastern Ghouta and to all in need throughout the country. On my second point, the cessation of hostilities and the need for monitoring, resolution 2401 (2018) calls for an immediate nationwide cessation of hostilities. A strong monitoring mechanism is needed urgently in order to ensure implementation. We agree with the French proposal in that regard. Since the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), air strikes have continued, even increased, especially on eastern Ghouta. We hear the Russian Federation say that those strikes are targeted at terrorists. However, we underline once more that the exemption to the ceasefire for attacks directed at United Nations-listed terrorist groups does not provide an excuse to ignore the basic principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. According to the latest report of the Commission of Inquiry, the siege of eastern Ghouta continues to be characterized by the use of prohibited weapons and attacks against civilian and protected objects, which we condemn in the strongest terms. 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 21/23 We also condemn the shelling of Damascus from eastern Ghouta. We call upon all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law at all times. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura should facilitate negotiations between armed opposition groups, the Syrian regime and Russia in order to advance the implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). One concrete and helpful step is to evacuate United Nations-listed terrorist groups from eastern Ghouta. A first evacuation of 13 imprisoned terrorist fighters reportedly took place last Friday. It is crucial that any evacuation of armed fighters take place in a safe and orderly fashion. We call on the United Nations to prepare for putting in place the necessary monitoring mechanisms in that regard. We call on Russia to accept the offer of the Special Envoy to facilitate further evacuation of United Nations-listed terrorist groups from eastern Ghouta. Civilians should never be forced to leave against their will. Forced displacement may constitute a war crime. On my third point, the credibility and accountability of the Council, despite the unanimous adoption of resolution 2401 (2018) we have seen no cessation of hostilities. We have seen no significant improvement in the humanitarian situation on the ground in Syria. This also has a negative impact on the credibility of the Council. It is vital for the functioning of the rules-based international order that decisions of the Council be respected and implemented. As a Council, we have a collective responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. However, we should not forget that the responsibility and, indeed, the obligation to execute its decisions lies with individual Member States. The human suffering in Syria, especially in eastern Ghouta, must end now. We need a full cessation of hostilities in all of Syria, including eastern Ghouta, Idlib and Afrin. And we call on the Russian Federation in particular to use its influence and to do its utmost to achieve that, thereby also upholding the Council's credibility. In conclusion, the siege of eastern Ghouta is entering its fifth year. The war in Syria will enter its eighth year later this week, on 15 March, as others have noted. One wonders how the Syrian regime thinks to ever achieve the legitimacy to govern the people it now pounds into submission or death. As the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated during the thirty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council, "what we are seeing in eastern Ghouta are likely war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity". The perpetrators of these crimes must know they are being identified, that dossiers are being built up with a view to their prosecution, and that they will be held accountable for what they have done. We thank the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic for its important work to date. We recall the resolution of the Human Rights Council of 5 March, which calls on the Commission to investigate the situation in eastern Ghouta. We call on all Council members to support the referral of the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria to the International Criminal Court. We also urge all States to increase their support for the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for the Syrian Arab Republic. For now, however, our common efforts should be directed at securing immediate relief for those millions in Syria in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. For that, we need the cessation of hostilities to be implemented immediately and in a sustained manner. We need a continuous pause in the fighting of 30 days, as demanded by resolution 2401 (2018). If its implementation continues to fail, that will require a response from the Council that goes beyond where we stand now. We thank the Secretary-General for his perseverance and endless efforts to uphold the norms and values of the Charter of the United Nations, international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as well as to promote compliance with resolution 2401 (2018). We call on all Council members to follow his example. I now resume my functions as President of the Council. I wish to again remind all speakers to limit their statements to no more than five minutes in order to enable the Council to carry out its work expeditiously. I now give the floor to the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic. Mr. Ja'afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): I will not begin by commenting on the procedural point that you have raised, Mr. President, but rather I will focus on the essential issues that S/PV.8201 The situation in the Middle East 12/03/2018 22/23 18-06756 are supposed to be of interest to the members of the Security Council. I welcome the Secretary-General and note the statement at the outset of his briefing that the Secretariat does not have all the necessary information to carefully access the situation on the ground because the United Nations does not have a presence in all areas. The Secretariat humbly and politely said those words, noting that it does not have full, relevant information pertaining to the Syrian situation, although the United Nations has a branch of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Damascus and there are dozens of United Nations agencies operating in Syria, in addition to 13 international non-governmental organizations also operating there. However, some of our colleagues in the Security Council, who have shut down their embassies in Damascus and are now completely disconnected from credible information, instead rely on information from what is known as open sources. They have provided a vast amount of information that would never serve the interests of the Syrian people or of those present in such an important and significant discussion. That information is misleading and could poison the atmosphere and fuel sedition regarding the role of the Security Council, which is mandated to maintain international peace and security. The Syrian Government stands ready to engage seriously with positive international initiatives that serve the interests of the Syrian people, especially in ending the bloodshed throughout Syria, as stated in resolution 2401 (2018). My country has expressed its satisfaction with resolution 2401 (2018), particularly the positive provisions contained therein. In that regard, my country confirms that it has taken all the following procedures to relieve the suffering of our people in eastern Ghouta. First, immediately after the adoption of resolution 2401 (2018), hostilities were ceased on a daily basis from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m, Damascus local time, and remain so to this very moment, with the aim of delivering humanitarian aid and ensuring the unimpeded and safe exit of civilians from the areas controlled by terrorist groups. Secondly, two safe humanitarian corridors have been opened for civilians wishing to exit the area. Thirdly, two joint United Nations-International Committee of the Red Cross convoys, in collaboration with the Syrian Red Crescent, were sent to eastern Ghouta on 5 and 9 March. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all those procedures have been countered by the terror of armed organizations present in Ghouta. Incited by their masters — some of them, unfortunately, members of the Security Council — these organizations have targeted civilians in Damascus since the beginning of the year, firing more than 2,499 missiles and mortars that have claimed the lives of 70 civilian martyrs and injured 556 people. Those organizations have prevented our people in eastern Ghouta from leaving in order to continue to use them as human shields and material for humanitarian and media blackmail. They have even targeted those who managed to escape towards the two corridors by firing bullets and missiles. The latest incident in Syria occurred on 8 March, when the so-called Faylaq Al-Rahman — one of the terrorist arms of the petty State of Qatar in Syria — targeted a civilian convoy heading towards one of the corridors, leading to high casualties among civilians. By the way, that terrorist organization, Faylaq Al-Rahman, has been hailed by some of those present because of its readiness to implement resolution 2401 (2018). They presented it as a part of the moderate Syrian opposition, and distributed a letter signed by that and other terrorist organizations, addressed to the Secretary-General. That is the modus operandi of the Security Council with terrorist groups. The procedures taken by the Syrian Government are not limited to eastern Ghouta. Over the past few days, the Government has undertaken a number of other procedures. First, we have requested that the United Nations and a number of humanitarian organizations immediately send a mission to investigate the humanitarian situation in Raqqa, which was destroyed by the International Coalition led by the United States of America. Secondly, we have requested approval to send humanitarian convoys to the Rukban camp, provided that the aid is delivered and distributed by the Syrian Red Crescent and the Red Cross exclusively, and not by the United States occupation authorities or the terrorist groups in Rukban camp and Tanaf area. Thirdly, two days ago the Syrian Red Crescent obtained Government approval to send convoys to Ghouta, Raqqa, Afrin and Rukban. To date, it has not sent the convoys to Rukban and Afrin because the United Nations failed to ensure the necessary safeguards from the United States and Turkish occupation forces. That is the reason. 12/03/2018 The situation in the Middle East S/PV.8201 18-06756 23/23 With every advance by the Syrian Army against terrorist groups in any given area, the States sponsoring terrorism launch heated disinformation campaigns to distract the world from the terrorism, aggression and occupation against Syria. The inference is that those countries have never been keen to protec the lives of civilians, but prefer to protect their investments in terrorism after they have spent billions of dollars on it, as was said by the previous Prime Minister of Qatar, in order to recycle terrorism elsewhere in Syria. The behaviour that I have mentioned is not limited to State-sponsored terrorism, unfortunately. It has even been demonstrated by some senior officials of the Secretariat. We had hoped that the Secretariat, especially in the light of the second preambular paragraph of resolution 2401 (2018), would provide an unequivocal legal description of the crimes committed by the so-called International Coalition led by the United States against our Syrian people in Raqqa and other places, and the procedures to ensure the end of that aggression. We had also hoped that the Secretariat would provide us with an unequivocal legal description of the acts of invasion by Turkish forces of a precious part of our national territory, especially against our civilian people in Afrin, and the procedures to ensure the end of the Turkish aggression. We had also hoped for an unequivocal legal description of the presence of the United States forces on Syrian territory without the approval of the Syrian Government and the procedures to ensure the end of that occupation. The government of my country affirms its right to defend its citizens and combat terrorism in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions, especially the second preambular paragraph of resolution 2401 (2018); fight all those who practice, fund and support terrorism; work towards restoring security stability and peace; and rebuild all that has been destroyed by terrorists and their masters. Finally, I have listened to my colleague the representative of the United States, who levels charges again and again against my country before all who are present and says that her country will take military actions against my country outside the legitimacy of the Council if chemical substances are used, just as its administration in Washington, D.C., did when it bombarded Al-Shayrat air base in my country last year. These irresponsible and provocative statements, which run counter to the Charter of the United Nations, are direct incitement to terrorist groups to use chemical weapons and fabricate anew all the evidence needed to accuse the Syrian Army, as they have done in previous times. I remind the representative of the United States that the former Joint Investigative Mechanism refused to take samples from Al-Shayrat air base because if it had done so it would have been categorically proved that the Syrian Government is not responsible for the incident in Khan Shaykhun. In fact, what the United States perpetrated against that Syrian air base was a full-fledged aggression. I call on the representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom and France to put an end to their violations of Security Council resolutions related to fighting terrorism, and on their Governments to stop supporting the terrorist groups in my country and cease providing them with a political umbrella to pursue their crimes against the Syrian people. It is high time that the United States Administration learn from its mistakes and stop repeating them. Is it not enough what they have done in Viet Nam, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, invoking very cheap lies that have already been condemned and denounced by international public opinion? In this regard, I recall the words of Naguib Mahfouz, the Nobel laureate: "They are liars, they know they are liars, and they know that we know that they are liars. However, they still lie, and very loudly so." In conclusion, the Russian Centre for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in the Syrian Arab Republic issued a statement a few minutes ago that street battles have begun in Ghouta, following the demands for the separation of the aforementioned Faylaq Al-Rahman and Jabhat Al-Nusra. This current street fighting impedes the evacuation of civilians who are forced to find safe haven underground in Ghouta. The President: There are no more names inscribed on the list of speakers. I now invite Council members to informal consultations to continue our discussion on the subject. The meeting rose at 1.20 p.m.
The historical tensions between Chile and Bolivia are a regular topic on the international politics agenda of both countries and all South America. On October 1st of 2018, the International Court of Justice ruled in favor of Chile in the maritime lawsuit proclaiming that this country had no obligation to negotiate a sovereign exit to the sea for Bolivia. This litigation derived from the loss of access to the coasts and territories after the War of the Pacific (1879–1883). However, this was not the only water related conflict between the two countries. Following the ending of the Bolivian lawsuit Chile presented a case against Bolivia which will be the central topic of this article. This is a case for the spring's waters located in the Andean highlands at the height of the Chilean city of Antofagasta, known by the name of Silala. These waters arise from a series of springs born in Bolivia that transit by force of gravity, towards Chile. The case, which has been a recurrent subject for more than a century in the border relationship between Chile and Bolivia, was a source of interest amid the Bolivian lawsuit previously presented. Before the litigation was ended, Chile decided to present a lawsuit against Bolivia for the Silala waters conflicts to clarify the obligations of each state upstream (Bolivia) and downstream (Chile). To date the matter is still in court pending a ruling but it seems appropriate to make it known. This research is sustained from the social sciences because it analyzes an untold case in the studies of international relations in all South America. Despite all the advances in technology currently available, it has not been settled a typification of the nature of these waters that arise in the middle of the Andes. Another point to be made it is that beyond the outcome of the lawsuit, the definition by the International Court of Justice will set a precedent on the matter at a regional level regarding shared water resources. It is important to remember that this is not a lawsuit on borders but on shared resources. Consequently, the result could eventually act as an incentive or deterrent of future litigation in other South American territories. In that context, freshwater lawsuits in South America take a course of analysis and relevant focus. States are not capable of reaching an agreement. The problem lies less in a field related to water governance and more in a context of a foreign policy dispute. Technically the feud has been raised by Chile before the Court under this latter approach. However, the International Court of Justice could well fail based on the former. Among the objectives of this work is to confirm that the conflict over the use of the Silala waters expresses the absence of effective mechanisms for the resolution of controversies in the South American region. The argument presented by Karen Mingst sustain that the pressures on water are causing increasing conflicts in the States, which increasingly acquire international dimensions (pp. 484–485). A second objective is to recognize how the increasing judicialization of conflicts between Latin American countries in recent decades exposes a greater problem among States. The failure of integration processes or at least the partial uselessness of multilateralism in the foreign policy of the States requires a deep institutional consideration. Focusing on the object of study, it is necessary to emphasize that Chile has carried out a foreign policy approach based on respect for international treaties, non–interference in matters of other States and respect for International Law. In this framework Chile has reiterated that the waters of the Silala constitute a river, therefore, an international water resource shared with Bolivia in a basin, which is essential for the supply of some towns but especially for large–scale mining. Meanwhile Bolivia has gone through a quite different path in the international policy measures. On one hand, and since the rise of Evo Morales to power in 2006, it was insisted based on an independent study by the Bolivian engineer Antonio Bazoberry called 'The Myth of Silala' that these waters were a set of spring eyes in which case Bolivia would correspond the 100% of its usufruct even with retroactive effect. From this source the Bolivian Foreign Ministry declare that the Silala constituted a strategic natural resource which means that Chile has used these waters incorrectly. Based on this conclusion Bolivia would have the right to suspend the flow to Chile because the waters are not a river and the Chilean nation would be misusing them. Additionally, in the commemoration of the Day of the Sea on March 23rd of 2016, Bolivia authorities claimed that they would considering suing Chile in a second trial before the International Court of Justice. These acts were considered a threat by Chile, who in June of the same year presented the case at the Court the lawsuit to judge the nature and use of resource. The article exposes the scope and context that surrounds a conflict that has little scientific literature written in recent years. In this regard, and from the hypothesis that arises, the research shows that the use of freshwater, particularly of the Silala's waters, an aquifer that joins Chile and Bolivia, transcends water governance. This conflict is mainly related to the handling of the critical historical relationship between Chile and Bolivia, a relation that does not have these waters as the main pillar but rather the ancient maritime claim. This case is a judicialization of foreign policy as a means of conflict resolution. A mechanism that does not contribute to alliances between countries, instead is an evasive alternative due to the absence of relations that in the case of Chile and Bolivia have been interrupted since 1978. It will be addresses the origin of the conflict, the characteristics of these shared resources, the role of International Organizations, the presence of bilateral tensions and conflicts during the government of Evo Morales and the implications that these waters represent for both countries in this political–strategic territory. In this framework, the research is based on studies of the flow of slopes, aspects of the speeches that surround the dispute based on the press media appearances of both countries, official statements of the governments and complementary bibliography. ; Las tensiones históricas entre Chile y Bolivia son un tema constante en la agenda de la política internacional de ambos países y por cierto de América del Sur. El 1 de octubre de 2018, la Corte Internacional de Justicia falló a favor de Chile en el caso de la demanda marítima y declaró que este país no tenía obligación alguna de negociar una salida soberana al mar para Bolivia, derivado de la pérdida de acceso a las costas y territorios tras la Guerra del Pacífico (1879–1883). Sin embargo, este no era el único pleito por aguas entre los dos países. Detrás de la demanda boliviana, se produjo un pleito sucesivo, pero esta vez, una demanda de Chile contra Bolivia el año 2016. Se trata de las aguas de unos manantiales en el altiplano andino a la altura de la ciudad de Antofagasta de Chile, conocidas con el nombre del Silala, aguas que surgen en Bolivia y que transitan hacia Chile. La investigación demuestra que el uso de las aguas dulces, y en particular las del Silala, acuífero que une a Chile y Bolivia en la zona del Departamento de Potosí y la Región de Antofagasta en Chile, trasciende la gobernanza del agua y se relaciona con el manejo de la crítica relación histórica entre Chile y Bolivia. El texto explora el origen del conflicto, las características de estos recursos compartidos, el rol de los organismos internacionales, la presencia de las tensiones y conflictos bilaterales durante el gobierno de Evo Morales, y las implicancias que estas aguas representan para ambos países en el área político–estratégica.
Diese Arbeit setzt es sich zum Ziel, die besonders von Gerd Althoff verbreitete Theorie von der Bedeutung demonstrativen und ritualisierten Verhaltens im Mittelalter auf ihre Anwendbarkeit für das England Edwards des Bekenners zu überprüfen. Zwar gibt es auf diesem Gebiet bereits reichliche Literatur, doch mit England vor der normannischen Eroberung befasst sich nur ein einzelner Artikel von Julia Barrow. Dieser zeigt, dass demonstratives Verhalten prinzipiell auch schon vor der Eroberung Englands durch Wilhelm den Eroberer und der damit verbundenen Einführung politischer Gepflogenheiten vom Kontinent nach England üblich war. Barrows Schlussfolgerung soll hier nun noch präzisiert und erweitert werden. Der erste Teil dieser Arbeit untersucht daher zunächst das demonstrative Verhalten der politisch Handelnden in England auf Basis der von Althoff und anderen erarbeiteten Erkenntnisse über demonstratives Verhalten im Karolingerreich und seinen Nachfolgern. Dies ermöglicht es uns, den relativen Mangel an zeitgenössischen englischen Quellen in gewissem Maße auszugleichen. So zeigen sich beispielsweise beim Konfliktverlauf einerseits zahlreiche Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen beiden Regionen, andererseits zeigen sich aber auch signifikante Unterschiede. Der zweite Teil der Arbeit befasst sich wiederum mit der Thronfolgefrage während der Herrschaft Edwards des Bekenners. Da dieses Forschungsgebiet das wohl am intensivsten bearbeitete der englischen Mediävistik ist, soll hier versucht werden, durch den kontinentalen Forschungsansatz des demonstrativen Verhaltens neue Erkenntnisse zur Interpretation dieser äußerst umstrittenen Frage beizutragen. Dabei werden wir von der Prämisse ausgehen, dass sowohl ein englischer König in der Wahl seines Nachfolgers, wie auch der englische Adel bei der schlussendlichen Königswahl nach dem Tod des Herrschers, keineswegs völlig frei war. Stattdessen gab es bestimmte Kriterien, die ein Kandidat erfüllen musste, wenn er nach den Erfordernissen der englischen Tradition für die Thronfolge in Frage kommen sollte. Um herauszufinden welche Kriterien das waren, werden zunächst die verschiedenen Thronwechsel in der Zeit von der Herrschaft Alfreds des Großen bis zur Königswahl Edgar Athelings nach dem Tod Harald Godwinsons auf dem Schlachtfeld von Hastings untersucht. Die beiden wichtigsten Kriterien waren die Zugehörigkeit zum Haus Cerdics und der Sohn eines vorangegangenen englischen Königs zu sein. Zwar spielte auch die militärische Befähigung des Kandidaten eine Rolle, allerdings war sie von geringerer Bedeutung als die ersten beiden Kriterien. Dies war der Grund warum zuweilen, wenn die Söhne eines verstorbenen Königs noch minderjährig waren - und nur dann - an ihrer Statt dessen Bruder den Thron bestieg, der ja ebenfalls die beiden oben genannten Kriterien erfüllte. Schließlich soll die Herrschaftszeit Edwards des Bekenners auf Anzeichen dafür untersucht werden, wen er als Nachfolger favorisierte. Dabei erscheint es wenig glaubwürdig, wenn die normannischen Quellen behaupten, Edward habe Wilhelm den Eroberer von Beginn seiner Herrschaft als Nachfolger favorisiert. In den ersten Jahren ruhten seine Hoffnungen zweifellos auf einem eigenen Sohn, den er durch seine Ehe mit Godwins Tochter Edith zu haben hoffte. Als dieser Wunsch durch Ediths Kinderlosigkeit und die fehlgeschlagene Scheidung im Jahr 1052 unerfüllbar geworden war, wurden Missionen nach Kontinentaleuropa entsandt, um nach dem Verbleib der Söhne Edmund Eisenseites zu forschen. Nur einer der beiden hatte überlebt, aber dieser kehrte im Jahr 1057 nach England zurück. Wenn nun Edward einen Sohn eines früheren Königs Englands aus dem Haus Cerdics, und zwar den einzigen, der noch lebte, zurück in sein Reich holen ließ, so kann er nur eines damit beabsichtigt haben: er wollte ihn zu seinem Nachfolger machen. Edward der Verbannte starb fast unmittelbar nach seiner Rückkehr nach England, doch sein Sohn überlebte. Und uns ist ein Eintrag im Liber Vitae des New Minster in Winchester aus dem Jahr 1057 überliefert, der Edward den Bekenner, Edith und Edgar Atheling, den Sohn Edwards des Verbannten, als zusammengehörige Gruppe zeigt. Dieser ist ein eindeutiges Beispiel für demonstratives Verhalten, für eine Demonstration Edwards, wer sein Nachfolger sein sollte. Er ist deshalb von so großer Bedeutung, weil es sich bei diesem Eintrag nicht um Propaganda eines Thronfolgekandidaten für sich selbst handelt, sondern um Propaganda des Erblassers zu Gunsten eines, nämlich seines favorisierten, Kandidaten. Dies würde auch erklären, warum Edward der Bekenner kurz vor seinem Tod Harald Godwinson zum Regenten ernennen sollte. Harald hatte die Position des Regenten de facto schon während des letzten Jahrzehnts von Edwards Herrschaft mit großem Erfolg und unfehlbarer Zuverlässigkeit ausgefüllt. Es ist daher nicht vermessen anzunehmen, dass Edward ihm genau dieselbe Position auch unter der Herrschaft des Kindkönigs Edgar zudachte. ; This dissertation sets out to explore whether the theory of the importance of demonstrative and ritualised behaviour in the Middle Ages, championed by Gerd Althoff, is applicable to England during the reign of Edward the Confessor, from around 1042 to 1066. It also aims to see what conclusions this allows us regarding the question of succession to the throne during that same time. There is as yet only one article in this field concerning England before the Norman Conquest, written by Julia Barrow. Her article only takes some thirty pages to deal with the two and a half centuries from Alfred the Great to the Norman Conquest, so there is still much left to do. The first part of this dissertation takes a look at the demonstrative behaviour of England's political actors, with the conclusions of Althoff and others on demonstrative behaviour in the Carolingian empire and the realms that succeeded it as a starting point to make up for the relative dearth of contemporary English sources. The high esteem in which negotiations were held is among the most obvious similarities between the two regions. During a conflict, almost incessant negotiations between the two parties were expected. But the same conflicts also reveal significant differences between England and continental Europe. Contrary to the continental custom, English nobles, when in a conflict with the king, actually left England if they were banished. There they would gather mercenary forces with which to attack and devastate the English countryside. These attacks were intended to show the king that a full reinstatement of the banished nobleman and a negotiated end to their conflict was more in the king's interest than to fight it out until the end. The second part of this work aims at reinterpreting the question of succession during the reign of Edward the Confessor. As this particular question is among the most thoroughly explored by English medievalists, we will try to gain some new insights through the continental theory of demonstrative behaviour. In doing so we will assume that neither the king of the English, when choosing his designated heir, nor the English nobles, when electing the new king, were completely free to select whomever they wanted. Any candidate who was to be considered throne-worthy by the English public had to meet certain criteria. In order to find out what those criteria were, we will take a look at the various successions to the throne from the reign of Alfred the Great to the election of Edgar Atheling after Harold Godwinson's death on the battlefield at Senlac. Most importantly, a candidate for the English throne had to be a member of the house of Cerdic and he had to be the son of a former king of the English. This is made obvious on the few occasions when a minor was elected king. A candidate's military ability, while less important than the first two criteria, was of some moment too. That is why, occasionally, the minor son of a deceased king would be passed over in favour of that king's brother. Last, we will probe Edward the Confessor's reign for clues as to whom he preferred as his successor. The Norman sources claim that Edward wanted William the Conqueror to be his heir from the beginning of his reign, but this is highly incredible. Undoubtedly, in the first years of his reign, Edward's hopes rested in a son that he expected to be born from his marriage to Edith, Godwin's daughter. When Edward's attempt at divorcing Edith failed in 1052, his wish had become impossible to fulfil because it had become obvious that Edith would not bear him children. That is why, shortly afterwards, missions were sent to continental Europe to find out the whereabouts of the sons of Edmund Ironside. Only one had survived, but he returned to England in 1057. As Edward had the son of a former king from the house of Cerdic, the only one left anywhere in the world, brought back to his realm, he must have intended him to be his successor. Edward the Exile died almost immediately upon his return, but his son, Edgar Atheling, survived. And the year of Edward's death has left us an entry in the Liber Vitae of New Minster, Winchester that depicts Edward the Confessor, Edith and Edgar Atheling as a group. Such an entry is a demonstrative act, a demonstration by Edward whom he wanted to be his successor. Most importantly, it is not propaganda of a candidate to the throne for himself but of the testator in favour of his preferred candidate. Edgar as Edward's heir to the throne would also explain why the king would appoint Harold Godwinson regent shortly before his death. Edgar would not be able to rule and defend his realm unaided. Harold, on the other hand, had filled the position of regent de facto for the last decade of Edward's reign and he had done so with great success and unfailing loyalty to the king. So it is no stretch of the imagination to think that Edward intended the very same role for him under the rule of the child king Edgar.
[spa] Cuando se presentan años de sequía, los campesinos de temporal son los primeros en resentir pérdidas en sus cosechas obligándoles a buscar nuevas alternativas de sustento para adquirir en el mercado los granos que no pudieron producir para su consumo. La baja pluviosidad de los años 2009-2012 −y la declaratoria de desastre natural en 2011− llevan a formular las siguientes preguntas: ¿cómo los campesinos de temporal percibieron y resolvieron la insuficiente producción del maíz necesario a la alimentación de su familia y de sus animales? ¿Se han modificado los patrones migratorios a raíz de este fenómeno climatológico adverso? Formular esta posible estrategia de adaptación responde a la larga historia migratoria prevaleciente en la región desde varias décadas y al incentivo a migrar que representan las redes migratorias preexistentes. El texto inicia con una revisión de los diferentes tipos de sequía y sus efectos; también examina y discute la complejidad del concepto de migración ambiental: sus dimensiones, aspectos legales y proyecciones numéricas ante la mayor frecuencia de los eventos naturales extremos y el crecimiento demográfico. Los estudios de caso realizados en diversos contextos de sequía permiten identificar, en la decisión de migrar, un mayor peso de las variables políticas, socioeconómicas, culturales y demográficas que de las variables ambientales. Por este motivo, las diferentes dimensiones de contexto del área de estudio son ampliamente descritas en el trabajo. La presente tesis da cuenta del estudio realizado en 11 localidades de la cuenca del río Silao (estado de Guanajuato, México) situadas entre 2400 y 1830 msnm; dichas localidades están interconectadas por el río en un territorio natural y socialmente articulado aunque diverso en cuanto a sus características naturales y sociales. Al abarcar una reducida extensión territorial, el estudio privilegia la observación detallada de una realidad que es acercada desde la interdisciplinariedad. Con ello, las ciencias naturales y sociales, sus datos e instrumentos de investigación propios, permitieron identificar y analizar la relación entre los cambios ambientales –la baja pluviosidad y sus efectos− y las respuestas sociales aportadas por la población. Mediante la aplicación de entrevistas semi estructuradas y visitas a campo, se ha documentado que las transformaciones ambientales que obligan los campesinos de temporal a buscar otras formas de sustento, no resultan de la variabilidad climática natural sino que responden ante todo a modificaciones antrópicas del medio natural. En otras palabras, la reducida capacidad productiva de las tierras sembradas de maíz y de las huertas frutales resulta más del empobrecimiento progresivo del suelo (por el uso de fertilizantes químicos) y de la alteración de la dinámica hidrológica (a consecuencia de la deforestación y de la extracción de arena del río), que de la baja pluviosidad percibida y asumida por los campesinos como una constante inevitable de la agricultura de temporal. El reducido rendimiento agrícola y la consecuente necesidad de diversificar las fuentes de ingresos dan lugar a una creciente sobreexplotación de los recursos naturales (mayor extracción de leña, carbón y humus en la cuenca alta) y motivan la incorporación laboral de las mujeres y de los jóvenes de la cuenca media y baja a las empresas del sector industrial −agro y automotriz− instaladas en áreas cercanas. En cuanto a la eventual respuesta migratoria, las conclusiones del trabajo plantean que la migración interna es considerada como poco atractiva porque los bajos salarios pagados no permiten realizar proyectos personales fuertes como la construcción de vivienda y la compra de camioneta; estas adquisiciones, que llaman la atención en las localidades de la cuenca media y baja, han sido posibilitadas por la intensa migración internacional de estas partes de la cuenca. El estudio concluye que la migración internacional sigue alentada más por los factores estructurales y la fuerte tradición migratoria regional que por los factores ambientales. En conclusión, el fenómeno climático considerado en el estudio de caso no parece haber influido en la reorganización espacial y sectorial de las actividades de sustento de los habitantes de la cuenca ni en una modificación de su dinámica migratoria la cual sigue siendo más económica que ambiental. ; [eng] n times of recurring drought, the peasants practicing rainfed agriculture are the first to suffer the consequences, and are forced to look for alternative means of acquiring the grains they have not been able to produce for their own consumption. The scarce rains of 2009-2012 – and the 2011 declaration of natural disaster – invite the following questions: · How did rainfed agriculture peasants perceive and resolve the insufficient production of maize needed to sustain their families and farming animals? · Have migratory patterns been modified by these adverse meteorological circumstances? This hypothesis has been put forward due to the long-standing history of migration prevalent in the region, which could favour future migration, facilitated by the existing migrant networks. This work begins with a review of various types of droughts and their implications. It also examines and discusses the complexity of environmental migration: its dimensions, legal aspects and numerical predictions in light of the increasing frequency of extreme natural phenomena and population growth. The case studies that have been undertaken in various drought contexts have identified, in relation to the decision to migrate, the importance of political, socio-economical, cultural and demographical variables, rather than environmental causes. Therefore, these non-environmental factors, which affect the area of study, are described in detail in this paper. This thesis accounts for a study carried out in 11 small rural areas of the Silao Basin (State of Guanajuato, Mexico), located between 1830 and 2400m above sea level. These sites, despite the diversity in their natural and social characteristics, are connected through the river, forming an articulated territory. Given that this study focuses on a small geographical area, this has allowed for detailed observations and has facilitated an interdisciplinary approach. Therefore, the natural and social sciences, with their respective data and research instruments, have helped identify and analyze the relationship between environmental changes – the low rainfall and its consequences – and the social responses brought forward by the population. Semi-structured interviews and fieldwork have revealed that the environmental changes that force rainfed agriculture peasants to seek other means of survival do not result from climatic changes, but rather are the consequences of anthropic changes to the natural environment. In other words, the relatively low production of corn fields and fruit orchards are a consequence of the progressive impoverishment of the soil caused by a continuous use of chemical fertilizers. Likewise, the alteration of the hydraulic dynamic caused by deforestation and the extraction of sand from the river bed are having a greater impact on the crop than the decreasing rainfall that the peasants consider inevitable. As for the eventual migratory response, this paper comes to the conclusion that internal migration is considered less attractive because the low salaries do not allow for the completion of personal projects, such as building a home or acquiring a van, something that international migration is able to provide, as seen in the middle and lower basins. In addition, this study concludes that this international migration is driven to a greater extent by structural factors and the strong tradition of migration, rather than by environmental factors. In sum, the climatic phenomenon considered by this study does not seem to have affected the spatial and sectorial reorganization of the subsistence activities of the rainfed farming communities, nor did it modify the migratory dynamic that remains more economic than environmental
