JOHANNESBURG – Saying “we are at the breaking point,” the UN secretary-general on Saturday called for an end to the global inequalities caused by this year’s massive protests against racism and exposed by the pandemic. of coronavirus.
“COVID-19 has been compared to an x-ray, revealing fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies that we have built,” said Antonio Guterres while delivering the Nelson Mandela Annual Conference.
“It is exposing fallacies and falsehoods everywhere: the lie that free markets can provide health care for all, the fiction that unpaid care work is not work, the illusion that we live in a post-racist world, the myth that we are all in the same boat. “
He said that developed countries are heavily invested in their own survival and that “they have not been able to provide the necessary support to help the developing world in these dangerous times.”
The UN chief’s speech marked what would have been the birthday of the former South African president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mandela.
South Africa, the world’s most unequal country a quarter of a century after the end of the racist apartheid system, is fast becoming one of the most affected nations in the pandemic and now accounts for about half of confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa. Its public hospitals are already almost overwhelmed.
The UN chief’s speech pointed to gross wealth inequality: “The world’s 26 richest people own as much wealth as half the world’s population,” said Guterres, and other inequalities related to race, gender, class and place of birth. .
These, he said, are seen in the world’s fragmented response to the pandemic as governments, businesses and even individuals are accused of amassing evidence, medical supplies and other much-needed supplies for them.
The legacy of colonialism still resonates, Guterres added, and it shows in global power relations.
Developing countries, and especially African nations, are underrepresented in levels of power, including in financial institutions like the World Bank and policies like the UN Security Council, whose five most powerful members: the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia and China – Date of the 1940s when the world body was created.
“Inequality starts at the top: in global institutions. Addressing inequality must begin by reforming them, ”said Guterres, offering some solutions.
A new generation of social protection is needed, including universal health coverage and perhaps even a universal basic income, he said, adding that “individuals and corporations must pay their fair share.”
He said spending on education in low- and middle-income countries should more than double by 2030 to $ 3 trillion a year. And in the face of huge changes due to climate change, governments should tax carbon instead of people.
Answering questions after his speech, Guterres called for “massive support” for the developing world, including debt cancellations. He said suspending debt payments until the end of this year, which was agreed by the G-20, the world’s top 20 economic powers, “is clearly not enough.”
And he pointed out, without naming names, that “leadership and power are not always aligned.”
“Let’s be realistic,” Guterres said in his speech. “The global political and economic system is not meeting critical global public goods: public health, climate action, sustainable development, peace.”
The UN chief called for a new model of global governance with inclusive and equal participation.
“We see the beginning of a new movement,” he said, adding that it is time to correct the mistakes of the past.
