New York, September 10 – The United Nations is calling on all countries to make an urgent choice between breakdown and breakthrough as the world would soon emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed over 4.5 million people in less than two years. It said urgent action should be taken also to counter climate change that is causing flooding, deadly wildfires and threatening human existence.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued “Our Common Agenda” before the 76th UN General Assembly session is to open on September 14. Leaders of the 193 countries that are UN members will address the world situation virtually for the second year in a row while Covid-19 and Delta variant are constraining travels and in-person meetings.
“One message rang through loud and clear: the choices we make, or fail to make, today could result in further breakdown, or a breakthrough to a greener, better, safer future,” Guterres said in the summary of the 80-page report.
“The choice is ours to make; but we will not have this chance again. That is why Our Common Agenda is, above all, an agenda of action designed to accelerate the implementation of existing agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Guterres said the big challenges facing the world can only be addressed “by an equally interconnected response, through reinvigorated multilateralism and the United Nations at the center of our efforts.”
He called for a global Summit for the Future in 2023 to be attended by heads of state and government to discuss the common agenda. He proposed also biennal summits to be attended by national leaders, G20 leaders, the UN Economic and Social Commission and international financial institutions to “align the global financial system with global policies, from sustainable development and climate action to addressing inequality.”
Read the report of the Secretary-General on Our Common Agenda.
The report called for a global vaccination plan that will include millions of people who are “still denied this basic lifesaving measure.” The World Health Organization said 5.5 billion vaccine doses have so far been administered, but 80 percent of them were administered in high- and upper-middle income countries.
WHO said it has received only 15 percent of the 1 billion doses that rich countries promised to donate to the health organization’s COVAX vaccine program.
Our Common Agenda called for urgent and bold steps to address the triple crises of climate disruption, biodiversity loss and pollution destroying the planet.
It called for renewing the social contract between governments and their people and within societies, “so as to rebuild trust and embrace a comprehensive vision of human rights.” It called for equal participation of women and girls, without whom no meaningful social contract is possible.”
It called for updating governance arrangements to deliver better public goods and usher in a new era of universal social protection, health coverage, education, skills, decent work and housing, as well as universal access to the Internet by 2030 as a basic human right.
It called for ending the “infodemic” or misinformation campaigns, and for defending “a common, empirically backed consensus around facts, science and knowledge.” It said the “war on science” must end and all policy and budget decisions should be backed by science and expertise”
“I am calling for a global code of conduct that promotes integrity in public information,” Guterres said.
The report called for correcting measures used in past decades to gauge gross domestic product (GDP) by including human and business activities that resulted in the destruction of the environment.
United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists – United Nations correspondent journalists
United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles – United Nations journalism articles