UN chief urges efforts to interact to improve world governance
US Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged on Monday the international community to interact to improve world governance.
“National sovereignty - a pillar of the US - goes hand-in-hand with enhanced international cooperation predicated on common values and shared obligations in pursuit of progress for all,” the UN chief said at the UN General Assembly ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the US.
“No one wants a global government - but we must work together to boost world governance,” the secretary-general said.
Noting that “today we've a surplus of multilateral challenges and a deficit of multilateral solutions,” the secretary-general said that “within an interconnected world, we desire a networked multilateralism, in which the US family, international finance institutions, regional organizations, trading blocs and others work together more closely and effectively. We also need as the (General Assembly) President said, an inclusive multilateralism, drawing on civil society, cities, businesses, local authorities and more and more on young people.”
On the founding of the US, Guterres said that “the ideals of the US - peace, justice, equality and dignity - are beacons to a better world.”
“The business we celebrate today emerged only after immense suffering,” he said. “It took two world wars, millions of deaths and the horrors of the Holocaust for world leaders to commit to international cooperation and the rule of law.”
Talking about the achievements of the US, the UN chief said that commitment “produced results.”
“A UNDER-DEVELOPED War - which so many had feared - has been avoided. Never in modern history have we gone so many years with out a military confrontation between your major powers,” he said. “That is a major achievement which member states could be proud - and which we should all make an effort to preserve.”
“Down the decades, there were other historic accomplishments, including peace treaties and peacekeeping, decolonization, human rights standards - and mechanisms to uphold them, the triumph over apartheid, life-saving humanitarian aid for millions of victims of conflict and disaster, the eradication of diseases, the steady reduced amount of hunger, the progressive development of international law, and landmark agreements to protect the environment and our world,” the UN chief elaborated.
“Lately, unanimous agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change offer an inspiring vision for the 21st century,” he noted.
However, Guterres underscored that “there is still so much to be achieved.”
“Of the 850 delegates to the SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA Conference, just eight were women. Twenty-five years since the Beijing Platform to use it, gender inequality remains the best single challenge to human rights around the world,” he said.
As for the challenges ahead, the secretary-general said “we are able to only address them together.”
