Traditional statement by the UN Security Council Presidency ahead of first meeting issued by Prime Minister Edi Rama:

Albania takes over the leadership of the United Nations Security Council for the first time in its history. 

Ahead of the first UN Security Council meeting under the Albanian Presidency, Prime Minister Edi Rama issued the traditional statement at the United Nations headquarters in New York:

Good morning!

This is just the beginning of Albania’s Presidency of the UN Security Council and we are already bringing to the Council for discussion an issue of high importance, accountability.

In few minutes’ time, I will have the honour and the pleasure to chair on behalf of the Albanian Presidency an open debate on strengthening accountability and justice for serious violations of the international law. Upholding international law and the UN Charter, protection and promotion of the human rights and support for the UN System and multilateralism are the core of Albania’s foreign policy and they are as well the main priorities of our mandate in the Security Council.

We live in times when conflicts and their devastating consequences for the civilians and the civilian infrastructure have become pervasive and deadlier. The devastating toll on the civilians, including the alarming levels of food insecurity potentially leading to an unprecedented hunger in our lifetime, make the need for a more effective accountability, a very key issue for the United Nations and its member states. 

Further, as we all have seen, Russia’s war in Ukraine, which poses multiple challenges and threats worldwide, has only reinforced this necessity. Accountability for crimes and gross violations, including individual accountability under the criminal law, is key to reinstating public trust in justice and security institutions, including the Security Council, and to rebuild the rule of law and sustainable peace.

As we all know, the issue of accountability remains central in the international community’s collective measures to suppress acts of aggression. The objectives of today’s debate are threefold.

First to enhance the role of the international community to hold states and those who act on their behalf accountable for serious violations of the international law;

Second, to strengthen the accountability mechanisms, not only at the state level, but also at the regional and international level;

And third, to bring the necessary attention to victims, establishing the truth about international crimes and gross violations of the international human rights and serious violations of humanitarian law is essential to restoring the rights and dignity of the victims and their relatives. It is also critical to advance peace and reconciliation.

For too long, we have watched the perpetrators of serious violations of the international law go free without any consequence. We should let no one believe that they may commit crimes and get away with it. It has happened far too often, everywhere. It should not be tolerated, it should not be accepted. We must do everything in our power to recommit to our core norms and values and redouble efforts to enforce compliance with respect for the law.

It is therefore important that we work together, abide by the international law and the UN principles and goals as enshrined in the UN Charter. Effective accountability will contribute to peace, reconciliation and increased security to build democracy locally, regionally and globally and to protect and promote human rights everywhere. We must do whatever it takes to make the world small and smaller for the perpetrators by using tools and the accountability mechanisms through justice. Impunity should be history.

Thank you!