S/PV.9169 Security Council

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2022/804, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by Mexico and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2022/715, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia. The Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

The draft resolution received 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2655 (2022). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements.

My country welcomes the unanimous adoption of resolution 2655 (2022), which renews the mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia and charts a path not only to broaden its responsibilities, but also to extend its benefits in the peacemaking process, in cooperation with the Government of Colombia. Mexico will continue supporting the implementation of the Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace, particularly the ethnic chapter. While thanking the members of the Council, as well as others, for their support in the process to adopt the text, which we submitted as co-penholders with the United Kingdom during our term on the Security Council, I want to take this opportunity to say that based on our experience as a co-penholder, the active participation of the elected members in the drafting of Security Council decisions is extremely beneficial and enriches those decisions. We therefore believe it is fitting to continue the practice.

Let me just echo Mr. De la Fuente Ramírez’s thanks to Council members for their cooperation and for the flexibility shown during these negotiations. In particular, I would like to thank our co-penholder, Mexico, including the experts on both sides, for our close working partnership on resolution 2655 (2022), as well as on the Council’s press statement (SC/15063) earlier this month. (spoke in Spanish) I would also like to thank the Permanent Mission of Colombia for its positive engagement on resolution 2655 (2022). (spoke in English) The United Kingdom welcomes the renewed momentum for peace in Colombia and, in that regard, we welcome the Foreign Minister’s request for the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia to monitor progress on rural reform and the ethnic chapter of the Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace. We look forward to considering the Secretary-General’s recommendations on those new tasks and will be ready to respond accordingly. The unanimous adoption of resolution 2655 (2022) today demonstrates the continued commitment of the Security Council to peace in Colombia and to the comprehensive implementation of the peace agreement.

Kenya thanks Mexico and the United Kingdom for their consultative effort in drafting resolution 2655 (2022), which we have just adopted. Kenya voted for the resolution to demonstrate its support for Colombia in its praiseworthy journey to achieving lasting peace after decades of war. Kenya commends President Gustavo Petro Urrego’s Administration for its stated determination to accelerate the implementation of the Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace. We further commend President Petro for his forthright acknowledgement of the disproportionate impact of violence and marginalization on Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, and for his policy orientation to addressing those challenges. We support the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia and regard it as a key support to the people and the Government of Colombia. We recognize the important role that the Peacebuilding Commission and United Nations agencies and programmes play in supporting the Government’s comprehensive implementation of the peace agreement. We thank Council members for supporting the language of the three African members of the Security Council — Gabon, Ghana and Kenya — which recognizes the role of those agencies in the agreement’s implementation. Kenya supports the request by the Government of Colombia for the expanded mandate of the Verification Mission to verify and monitor the implementation of the comprehensive rural reforms and the ethnic chapter. We also thank the Council members who have recognized that just and fair inclusion, particularly of the most vulnerable and most excluded, is a key determinant of successful peacebuilding and State competence. That was a key argument that we advanced during our presidency of the Council in October last year. We hope that it will form a greater part of the Council’s future deliberations and decisions. Our repeated expressions of concern about the status of Afro-Colombians reflected our belief that Colombia has the largeness of spirit to respond positively. We were right, as the results of the last election so clearly demonstrated. As we end our time on the Security Council, we leave confident that Colombia’s peace process and its dividends for all Colombians will set an example for the rest of the world. We reiterate our strong support for the people and the Government of Colombia.

I would first like to thank the Colombian Government and people, the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, the Peacebuilding Commission and members of civil society for dedicating time and effort to work towards the full implementation of the Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace. The United States has been proud to be a partner to Colombia and its people throughout the peace process. We remain steadfast in that partnership, which we have emphasized by becoming the first international accompanier of the ethnic chapter of the peace accord. The ethnic chapter recognizes that no lasting peace can be achieved without justice and equality for all of Colombia, including its Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples. The United States welcomes the adoption of resolution 2655 (2022) and with it the Council’s continuing full commitment to the peace accord through the Verification Mission. Now is the time to continue working towards peace, as Colombia’s Vice President Francia Márquez Mina stated, “decisively without fear, with love and joy”. The United States looks forward to continuing its partnership with Colombia in that endeavour.

Brazil commends the members of the Council for their unanimous adoption of resolution 2655 (2022), renewing the mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia. Brazil thanks the facilitators for their excellent work. As we have underscored on various occasions, the work of the Security Council in Colombia has responded to the aspirations and needs expressed by the Colombian Government. In that regard, we are pleased to note that the sovereign will of the country is fully reflected in the resolution just adopted, as the Verification Mission’s mandate renewal covers the ethnic and rural reform chapters of the Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace, in response to a formal request by Colombia. Brazil once again congratulates the Government and the people of Colombia for their tireless efforts to determine and build a path of peace and prosperity. We hope that the Verification Mission can continue to help to build that path.