United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned Wednesday that the world has entered an "age of chaos" that is causing widespread suffering and thwarting progress - and must be reversed. In strongly worded remarks to the UN General Assembly, the UN chief also chastised the UN Security Council, deadlocked by geopolitical divisions, for failing to take meaningful action.
“There is so much anger and hate and noise in our world today,” the Secretary-General told member states as he laid out his priorities for 2024.
“Every day and at every turn, it seems – it’s war,” he said, and deplored that terrible conflicts were killing and maiming civilians in record numbers.
Guterres said people just want peace and security and to live their lives with dignity.
“For millions of people caught up in conflict around the world, life is a deadly, daily, hungry hell,” he said.
“Record numbers are fleeing their homes in search of safety. They are crying out for peace.
We must hear them, and act.”
Guterres pointed to conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, but also protracted situations in Myanmar, Yemen, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, across Africa’s Sahel, and Libya.
“The situation in Gaza is a festering wound on our collective conscience that threatens the entire region,” he said, while noting that nothing justified the attacks launched by Palestinian armed groups against Israel on October 7 last year.
"Nor is there any justification for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Yet, Israeli military operations have resulted in destruction and death in Gaza at a scale and speed without parallel since I became Secretary-General," Guterres said.
"I am especially alarmed by reports that the Israeli military intends to focus next on Rafah – where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been squeezed in a desperate search for safety. Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences."
Guterres reiterated his calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages held in Gaza.
He also repeated his call for a just and sustainable peace in Ukraine in line with the UN Charter and international law, and also spoke about the Sahel where armed violence is spiking, and civilians are paying a terrible price.
The Secretary-General underscored that the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission in Haiti must be deployed without delay and urged member states to provide the necessary financial support.
“If countries fulfilled their obligations under the [UN] charter, every person’s right to a life of peace and dignity would be guaranteed,” he noted. But he said the charter is regularly being trampled with impunity.
As the Secretary-General outlined his priorities for 2024, he chastised the UN’s most powerful organ - the 15-nation Security Council - for contributing to the chaos, while governments were ignoring and undermining “the very tenets of multilateralism – with zero accountability”.
“The United Nations Security Council – the primary platform for questions of global peace – is deadlocked by geopolitical fissures,” he said. “This is not the first time the council has been divided, but it is the worst.”
The Secretary-General said the dysfunction is deeper and more dangerous today than even during the Cold War years.
“We are seeing the results, a dangerous and unpredictable free-for-all with total impunity,” Guterres said.
Divisions among the council’s five veto-wielding permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – have blocked meaningful action on a number of situations, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as enforcing sanctions against actors like Israel, North Korea, Russia or the military junta in Myanmar.
He said the Council must undergo serious reform to reflect today’s realities, including adding a permanent seat for Africa.
Guterres also noted that global humanitarian needs were at an all-time high as conflicts proliferate, but funding war not keeping pace.
“Humanitarian workers are saving lives and easing suffering around the world. I pay tribute to their heroic efforts and to those aid workers who have paid the ultimate price, most recently and tragically in Gaza,” he said.
The Secretary-General also called for reform of the international financial system, noting that the world’s poorest countries are drowning in debt.
And he urged people to “make peace with the planet” and stop waging a war with nature.
“It is a crazy fight to pick,” he said of the climate crisis. “We are detonating systems that sustain us.”
At the base of all progress, Guterres said, is peace, and he said it is a collective responsibility to act for it in all its dimensions.
“Peace can achieve wonders that wars never will,” he said. “Wars destroy. Peace builds.”
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Secretary-General's remarks to the General Assembly on Priorities for 2024,
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, delivered on February 7, 2024
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2024-02-07/secretary-generals-remarks-the-general-assembly-priorities-for-2024-scroll-down-for-bilingual-delivered-all-english-version