In a speech to the 193-member UN General Assembly on Monday, he laid out his priorities for 2023, Al Jazeera reported.
The nearly year-long conflict has intensified in recent weeks as Ukrainian and Russian forces fight fiercely for control of cities in eastern Ukraine.
He pointed to the war in Ukraine, a “runaway climate catastrophe, increasing nuclear threats,” a widening gap between the world’s well-to-do and poor, and “epic geopolitical divisions” that are undermining “global solidarity and trust.”
Guterres said that the change needed today must start with peace, starting with Ukraine – where, unfortunately, he said, the prospects for peace are “continually shrinking” and “the potential for proliferation and bloodshed is increasing.”
He said this year’s 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should serve as a reminder that the foundation of the inalienable rights of all people is “liberty, justice and peace,” reported ABC News.
The world must work harder for peace, Guterres said, not only in Ukraine but in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict “where the two-state solution is advancing day by day,” in Afghanistan, where women’s and girls’ rights. “trampled and deadly terrorist attacks continue” and in Africa’s Sahel region, where security is deteriorating at an “alarming rate”.
He also called for stepped-up peace efforts in military-ruled Myanmar, which is facing renewed violence and repression, in Haiti, where gangs are holding the country hostage, “and elsewhere in the world for the two billion people who live in countries wracked by conflict and humanitarian crises.”
The Secretary-General said it was time for all countries to recommit to the UN Charter, which calls for the peaceful resolution of disputes and a renewed focus on conflict prevention and reconciliation.
HT
Source: ANI
Source: The Nordic Page