Thu 25 June 2020:
Antonio Guterres says shared values, responsibility, sovereignty, progress must be world’s guide, goals
WASHINGTON (AA) – The head of the UN stressed Thursday the need for multilateralism, bringing together the body’s regional organizations, international financial institutions and others.
“We need an inclusive multilateralism, drawing on the indispensable contributions of civil society, business, cities, regions and, in particular, with greater weight given to the voices of youth,” Antonio Guterres told reporters, a day before commemorating the 75th anniversary of the signing of the UN’s Charter.
The Charter was signed June 26, 1945 in San Francisco, California at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization. It took effect Oct. 24 that year.
The UN chief said governments are no longer the only political and power reality and there is a need for “an effective multilateralism that can function as an instrument of global governance where it is needed.”
“We need to give multilateralism the capacities to confront our challenges, not only to meet immediate needs but to enable future generations to meet theirs,” he added.
He noted shared values, shared responsibility, shared sovereignty, shared progress must be the world’s guide and goals.
“It is difficult to have a meaningful transformation of the mechanisms of global governance without the active participation of the world powers,” he added.
World leaders have pointed to stronger multilateralism to tackle its toughest challenges, from climate change and poverty eradication to abuses of human rights.
Turkey’s then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in 2013: “The world is bigger than five,” a motto he has used to criticize the structure of UN Security Council.
He has repeatedly said the UK, France, China, Russia and the US could not unilaterally decide the world’s problems, humanitarian tragedies, wars and conflicts.
The Security Council must be reformed and the General Assembly, in which all member states are equally represented, must be strengthened, according to Erdogan.
By Servet Gunerigok / Anadolu Agency
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