Kenna Betancourt
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Wednesday that the world was entering an “era of turmoil” with the Security Council deeply divided and unable to address key issues such as the Israel-Hamas war.
The war in Gaza enters its fifth month on Wednesday, with Israel's invasion of the southern city of Rafah threatening to “rapidly escalate what is already a humanitarian nightmare and have an incalculable impact on the region.” “This will happen,” Guterres warned.
In an operation to destroy Hamas following the unprecedented attack on October 7, the Israeli military relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip and conducted a ground invasion, forcing more than a million people to flee south.
In his speech to the General Assembly, Guterres laid out his priorities for 2024, saying: “The time has come for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages.”
In his speech, he called for changes to the Security Council and the international financial system, among other reforms, and said a Future Summit in September would address dysfunctions that are “deeper and more dangerous” than ever before. It was advertised as an important place to do so.
“The United Nations Security Council, the main platform for asking questions of world peace, is bogged down by geopolitical rifts,” said Portugal's former Prime Minister Guterres.
“This is not the first time the council has been divided, but it is the worst. Today's dysfunction is even more serious and dangerous.”
He said that unlike the Cold War era, when “established mechanisms helped manage superpower relations,” such mechanisms are lacking “in today's multipolar world.”
“Our world is entering an era of chaos…a dangerous, unpredictable and completely free era of impunity,” he warned.
– “Crazy battles to choose” –
His comments come amid devastating conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, the Middle East and elsewhere, with millions of people displaced by fighting and in need of assistance.
“As conflicts intensify, the world's humanitarian needs are at an all-time high, but funding is not keeping pace,” Guterres said.
Against this bleak backdrop, Mr. Guterres urged world leaders to “shape multilateralism for years to come,” to be held in New York in September on the sidelines of the annual general meeting. He encouraged them to seize the opportunity of the Future Summit.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, he renewed his call for the development of an “emergency platform to improve the international response to complex global shocks.”
The rapid development of artificial intelligence tools is “already creating risks” and “we need a universal approach to addressing them because they affect all of humanity,” he said.
He called on the world to “act quickly, be creative, and work together to ensure appropriate guardrails and ethical standards, promote transparency, and build the capacity of developing countries.”
Guterres, who has made tackling climate change a priority since taking office in 2017, reiterated that the crisis “remains the defining challenge of our time” and called on humanity to “build peace with the planet.”
“Humanity has been fighting a war against nature, a war that we can only lose. This is a crazy battle to choose,” he said.
