Thursday 3 November 2016

Task before the new UN Secretary-General


SOCIALIST former Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Guterres, was elected Secretary-General designate of the United Nations recently. He will assume duty in January with the expiration of Ban Ki-moon’s two-term tenure on December 31. Guterres’ new assignment does not provoke anybody’s envy with the world sitting perilously on the cliff. But it is heart-warming that his election was smooth, against the backdrop of mutual distrust and bitter disagreements among the super powers in the UN Security Council that often plague such a transition process.
Among the nagging issues are the armed conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya,  Salafist extremism exemplified in the activities of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian question, refugees, hunger, diseases, climate change, sustainable development challenges, growing number of rogue states and countries’ unbridled defiance of UN resolutions. It is just as well that Guterres sees a “huge challenge” ahead of him. He has made aiding victims of war, poverty and injustice his focus.
In spite of these daunting challenges, there is high optimism that his antecedents, first as an insider, having been the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015, and as someone widely viewed as a conciliator and a bridge builder, bode well for his job. Ban acknowledged this when he lauded his choice. He said, “…Guterres is best known where it counted most: on the frontline of armed conflict and humanitarian suffering and for the compassion and solidarity, which remained at the heart of his effective advocacy around the globe.”
However, there are no easy solutions. The Syrian conflict, which began in March 2011, has remained intractable because of the Russian effect. Apart from its arms and ammunition generously given to President Bashar al-Assad, its fighter jets have been busy on the battle fronts, bombing rebel groups fighting to remove him from office.
With President Vladimir Putin seeing the war as a proxy brawl between Russia and the United States, which  leads other Gulf states for the “al-Assad must go” campaign, peace  will remain elusive. So many European countries like Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, and Greece as well as those in the Middle East are bursting with refugees from Syria and other conflict zones, creating growing concerns for their hosts. Read more

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