United Nations – In his strongest warning to date hate movements Around the world, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the world body’s Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that the world needed to “intensify the fight against the resurgence of neo-Nazism, white supremacy and terrorism for reasons racial and ethnic “.
“The danger of these hate-driven movements is growing by the day,” said the UN chief, noting that while he believed that they already represented the most important internal challenge for several countries, they were also crossing borders and transforming into “More than internal terrorist threats. They are becoming a transnational threat.”
Guterres addressed the well-documented increase in the impact of racism around the world, saying: “Individuals and groups are in a frenzy of hate – fundraising, recruiting and communicating online both at home and abroad, traveling internationally. to train together and establish contacts. Their hateful ideologies. “
“Too often,” said the secretary-general, “these hate groups are hailed by people who hold positions of responsibility in ways that were not long ago considered unimaginable.”
For many listeners, including Richard Gowan, UN director for the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, one of the goals of that latest comment was clear.
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“Guterres worked very hard to build a working relationship with Trump while he was in office, which I imagine was often very difficult, and this seems like a reasonably subtle but firm pushback from the former president,” he told CBS News.
“The deepest wells of injustice”
The UN chief’s speech highlighted the “most pervasive human rights violation of all: gender inequality,” which he said was being “fueled by two of the deepest wells of injustice in our world: the centuries-long legacy of colonialism, and the persistence, through the millennia, of patriarchy. “
Guterres has welcomed President Joe Biden’s commitment to reengage with the UN and the election of Mr. Biden for UN ambassador. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who is expected to be at UN headquarters on Thursday pending confirmation in the Senate, has championed human rights and diversity around the world.
“Guterres has raised these issues before, but he has more political space to highlight these issues now that Biden is in office,” Gowan said.
Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the Council that over the past year, another factor has contributed to inequality, or at least to reveal it within societies: “The pandemic he tore off the mask of the deadly realities of discrimination; deep inequalities; and chronic underfunding of essential rights and services, all largely ignored by many policy makers. “
With his statements to the Human Rights Council, the UN chief sought not only to highlight what he considers to be the increase in human rights abuses, but to unite leaders to work against him: “When we allow the denigration of any of us, we set the precedent for the demonization of all of us. “