“Our world is entering an era of chaos,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern on Wednesday, deploring the unprecedented division in the Security Council, which is unable to act in the face of increasing “terrible conflicts”.
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“Governments ignore and undermine the principles of multilateralism without accountability. The Security Council, the most important instrument for global peace, is at an impasse due to geopolitical divisions,” he said, presenting his priorities for 2024 to the General Assembly.
“This is not the first time the council has been divided. But it's the worst. The current dysfunction is deeper and more dangerous.”
Thus, “established mechanisms helped manage relations between superpowers during the Cold War,” he noted. But “in today’s multipolar world, such mechanisms are missing.” Our world is entering an era of chaos.
And “we are seeing the results: a dangerous and unpredictable fight against all, with complete impunity,” denounced the Secretary General, worrying about a new proliferation of nuclear weapons and the development of “new means to kill each other and humanity itself destroy”.
“There is so much anger, hatred and noise in the world today. Every day and at the slightest opportunity it feels like war. Horrific conflicts in which record numbers of civilians are being killed and maimed. Word wars. Trench warfare. Culture wars.
He focused in particular on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warning of a possible Israeli ground attack in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are huddled in the southern Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt.
“Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with unforeseeable regional consequences,” he stressed, reiterating his call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and the release of all hostages.
From Gaza to Ukraine, Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen to Burma, “Alongside the spread of conflict, global humanitarian needs are at record levels, but funding is not keeping up,” he said. He complained again.
In this context, Antonio Guterres encouraged governments around the world to seize the opportunity of the “Future Summit,” which will take place in New York in September on the sidelines of the General Assembly, to “shape multilateralism for the years to come.”
Among the changes “that the world really needs,” he reiterated his call for comprehensive reforms of the Security Council, the international financial system and the establishment of an “emergency instrument to improve international responses to complex global shocks” such as the Covid-19 crisis. 19 Pandemic.