UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday warned the world leaders, gathered for the annual high-level meeting, that the world is edging towards the unimaginable – a powder keg – which risks engulfing the world.
He said that the solutions to the crises require the reform of the international institutions, including the Security Council, and commitment to the UN Charter.
“Wars are raging with impunity. The nuclear threat has grown while inequality between nations and within nations and climate change are threatening the world order,” he said.
He added that the challenges are solvable which requires us to make sure the mechanisms of international problem-solving actually solve problems.
He listed reforming the Security Council as one of the steps that is needed.
“Global inequalities are reflected and reinforced even in our own global institutions. The UNSC was designed by the victors of the Second World War,” he said.
He singled out Africa for reform as a victim of the structure set up when Africa was under colonial rule and had no permanent Security Council seat.
“This must change,” he said.
He said he has no illusions about the obstacles to reforming the multilateral system.
“Those with political and economic power – and those who believe they have power – are always reluctant to change,” he said.
“Without reform, fragmentation is inevitable, and global institutions will become less legitimate, less credible, and less effective,” he warned.
He said that the Gaza conflict is a non-stop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it.
He added that the Cold War had some rules, but today. ‘we are in a purgatory of polarity’ where the world has not reached a state of multi-polarity and ‘more and more countries are filling the spaces of geopolitical divides, doing whatever they want with no accountability.’
“It is time for a just peace based on the UN Charter, on international law and on UN resolutions,” he said.
The other threats to the world he listed were climate change and technology, artificial intelligence in particular, and economic inequality.
He renewed his call for ending the use of fossil fuels and said developed nations should finance the transformation to renewables in the developing world.
“Without a global approach to its management, artificial intelligence could lead to artificial divisions across the board – a great fracture with two internets, two markets, two economies – with every country forced to pick a side, and enormous consequences for all,” he said.
He called for making the UN the centre of finding solutions through dialogue and consensus for cooperation on AI – based on the values of the Charter and international law.
To overcome inequalities, he said the developed countries had a responsibility to finance the sustainable development goals of the developing countries and increase multilateral financing for them.
Among other issues facing the world, he mentioned “rampant gender-based discrimination and abuse”.
“Every day, it seems we are confronted by yet more sickening cases of femicide, gender-based violence and mass rape, both in peacetime and as a weapon of war,” he said.