New York (VNA) – Dealing with environmentalimpact and restoring the environment after conflicts would contribute to reconstruction,helping civilians soon stabilise their lives, and to build sustainable peace, AmbassadorDang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations, saidon May 26.
Speaking at an online discussion themed “Protectingthe environment is protecting civilians,” Quy said in April when Vietnam servedas President of the UN Security Council (UNSC), the council has agreed toapprove Resolution No. 2573 on “Protection of Objects Indispensable to the Survival of the Civilian Population”, which has affirmed its strong commitment to protecting civilians andpromoting the observance of the international humanitarian law.
He said agent orange (AO)/dioxin has caused seriousconsequences in Vietnam, adding that up to 3 million Vietnamese are now AOvictims, and hundreds of thousands of hectares of land are contaminated with the chemicaltoxin.
It takes much time and great resources to handle AO consequences,the ambassador stressed.
Quy used the occasion to thank UN member countries andorganisations, and the international community for their support to Vietnam in dioxinremediation and to AO victims.
Christopher Harland, Legal Advisor at the InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross (ICRC), cited the international humanitarian law assaying that protecting the environment is protecting civilians.
Wim Zwijnenburg, an expert from the Dutch peaceorganisation PAX, said the impacts of environmental degradation, hungercaused by conflicts, and the climate crisis have seriously affected civilians.
Dominick de Waal, a World Bank expert, suggested coordinatingactions between development and humanitarian agencies in increasing resilience ofcivilians.
The discussion, co-organised by the Vietnamese permanentmission to the UN and their counterparts from Niger, Costa Rica, Belgium and Switzerland, theUN Environment Programme and PAX, took place within the framework of theProtection of Civilians (PoC) Week 2021.
This was the second time Vietnam had co-organised aside event on such topic./.