Informal dialogue with a candidate for the position of Secretary-General: Mr. António Guterres, Portugal.
During an informal dialogue with Members States as a candidate for a second term, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “today’s complex challenges can only inspire a humble approach,” adding that the world needs a Secretary-General who works “as a convener, a mediator, a bridgebuilder, and honest broker to help find solutions that benefit everyone involved and to overcome the challenges.”
Addressing the General Assembly today (07 May) in New York, Guterres said, “the Secretary-General must feel every day the acute responsibilities of the offices guided by the Charter and making human dignity and peace with nature, including for future generations the call of our common work and endeavor.”
He also said the world “must at all costs avoid the new type of cold war. And we must overcome the false dichotomy between national sovereignty and human rights, forging a holistic view of all human rights, their invisibility and their universality.”
Guterres continued, “the best antidote to all of these is rekindling a shared commitment to fundamental values, and this requires the Secretary-General to maximize the unique convening power of the UN to redouble efforts for the surge of diplomacy for peace, to foster trust, build confidence, identify areas of convergence, mediating good faith and constantly bring people together.”
The UN chief also said, “the COVID-19 pandemic, I am sure, will silence the doubts as to whether we need to prevent rather than cure, but prevention in all its aspects, just to say conflicts, climate change, the pandemic, poverty and even in inequality especially when it comes to gender, remain essential challenges today.”
He added, “the COVID-19 pandemic has call to strengthen the need for a new social contract that affects everyone everywhere, and it is exactly the type of global challenges that United Nations was created for.
Guterres continued, “the United Nations launched a coordinated response in health, humanitarian, social and economic affairs and the delivery of vaccines raises the scientific hope, and for these reasons, our determinations to make the vaccine and other treatments accessible to everyone across the world must not weaken, and this is our absolute priority.”
He also said, “as Jean Mollet said, what is important at a time like this is not to be either optimistic or pessimistic but to be determined and I certainly think that we are at a juncture in history where we can reverse the situation by bring together the peoples and the country and mobilize the entire world grown as a common cause.”
Guterres noted that “to achieve this defining moment, we have to strengthen multilateralism. So it can function as its founders envisioned it while meeting new and more complex challenges. So that we can guarantee that international cooperation is carried out in an effective way and that it is the norm of an increasingly interconnected world, especially in those areas considered world public goods or of common global interest.”
He continued, “it is important that we work together to pinpoint those areas that may need governance improvements and to promote them. And we must remain faithful to our reform efforts and continuous improvement in a UN capable, agile and responsive to current and future challenges.”
António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, took office on 1st January 2017. Portugal has officially nominated him as a candidate for a second five-year term.
Learn more about the Secretary-General selection process: [ Ссылка ]
