Guterres says work with refugees an inspiration in UN Role
Guterres says work with refugees an inspiration in UN Role
LONDON - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that his work in his former role as head of UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, was a source of inspiration in his new position.
In his first speech in London since taking office in January, Guterres also spoke of the challenges facing the United Nations and said reform would be at the top of his agenda to ensure the organization was equipped to meet them.
A former Portuguese prime minister, he served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015; he took over as UN secretary-general in January this year.
“Nothing has had more impact on me than the work I’ve done for ten years with UNHCR,“ he told an audience at Central Hall, Westminster, the site of the first meeting of the UN General Assembly in 1946. “To see refugees who have lost everything, who’ve seen members of their family being killed, who’ve crossed the Mediterranean, is very humbling.”
“Their courage, their resilience and their strength is something I cannot forget and the reason I wanted to stand as a candidate as secretary-general of the United Nations,” he added.
Guterres was in London to attend a conference on Somalia, co-chaired by Somalia, Britain and the United Nations. The conference on Friday, the third since 2012, is being attended by heads of state and government from East Africa and senior officials from international organizations.
“To see refugees who have lost everything, who’ve seen members of their family being killed, who’ve crossed the Mediterranean, is very humbling"
In his speech in Westminster, he noted that the nature of conflict had changed to become increasingly complex and inter-linked.
“They are shaped by terrorism and that cannot be overlooked by anyone, anywhere in the world now,” he said. “Different actors in different conflicts systematically violate international humanitarian law, thinking that there will be no consequences of their crimes.”
“Economic fragility is making countries less resilient to climate change and other external shocks,” he said, “so even if the global economic situation has improved, large movements of populations, water scarcity and food instability are becoming linked and are sources of fragility.”
The UN needs to develop prevention, mediation and conflict resolution strategies and work better with the private sector and civil society, the New York based UN chief said.
“We need to reform the UN development system to fill gaps and to work towards the Sustainable Development Goals” he added, referring to the UN’s call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. “We need to bring together our humanitarian and development aims.”
Guterres added that peace would not be achieved in Syria or elsewhere until warring parties realise they cannot win. International problem solving can only be achieved through “dialogue and mutual understanding,” he said.
Guterres also recognised the role that the UK has played in its support for the UN: “The UK is one of the strongest believers that there is no solution to international problems without multilateralism. I want to say thank you to the British Government and to the British people.”
In 2015, Britain enshrined in law a commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on aid and development annually. It was the first G7 country to do so.
Europe’s most significant contribution to the world has been the values of the Enlightenment such as tolerance, although these are “being put into question today,” he warned.
“We’re seeing the development of xenophobia and nationalism in our societies and we must fight them,” he said. “But we need to look into their root causes. There is today in the world a lot of anger on the part of many people who see wealth and progress and they feel left behind.”
“We’re seeing the development of xenophobia and nationalism in our societies and we must fight them”
The response to the mass movement of people – UNHCR’s latest estimates suggest that 65 million people in the world are displaced, and there are 21 million refugees – has been an “irrational” fear that “foreigners are coming and they’re going to change us.”
“The only way to solve this problem is to invest in social inclusion,” Guterres said. “Each group must feel like they are bound to the values of the community and that their place in that society is respected. British society is a fantastic expression of that.”
He was also unequivocal in his opposition to calls to change existing keystone UN treaties and covenants.
“When it comes to the UN charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1951 Refugee Convention, I believe if they were written today, they would probably be worse than they currently are,” he said. “I would be very careful in trying to change a number of texts that were drafted at a very special moment of time that lead people to think seriously about what is needed to bring about the conditions of peace. So I would not touch them.”