ANTÓNIO GUTERRES, Secretary-General of the United Nations, said the level of impunity in the world is “politically indefensible and morally intolerable”.  Today, a growing number of Governments and others feel entitled to a “get out of jail free” card.  They can trample international law, violate the Charter of the United Nations, turn a blind eye to international human rights conventions or the decisions of international courts, invade another country, lay waste to whole societies or utterly disregard the welfare of their own people.  And nothing will happen.  “We see this age of impunity everywhere — in the Middle East, in the heart of Europe, in the Horn of Africa,” he added.  The war in Ukraine is spreading with no signs of letting up and civilians are paying the price.  It is time for a just peace.

Meanwhile, Gaza is a non-stop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it.  Lebanon is on the brink.  Simply put, the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.  Nothing can justify the abhorrent acts of terror committed by Hamas on 7 October 2023, or the taking of hostages.  And nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.  “The speed and scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza are unlike anything in my years as Secretary-General,” he said.  More than 200 of “our own staff” have been killed, many with their families.  The international community must mobilize for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the beginning of an irreversible process towards a two-State solution.

In Sudan, a brutal power struggle has unleashed horrific violence, including widespread rape and sexual assaults, he continued.  A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding as famine spreads.  In the Sahel, the rapid expansion of the terrorist threat requires a joint approach rooted in solidarity, but regional and international cooperation have broken down.  From Myanmar to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Haiti to Yemen and beyond — the world witnesses appalling levels of violence and human suffering “in the face of a chronic failure to find solutions”, he stressed.  “Meanwhile our peacekeeping missions are too often operating in areas where there is no peace to keep,” he added.  For all its perils, the cold war had rules.  Now, “we are in a purgatory of polarity,” he emphasized, adding that more and more countries are doing “whatever they want with no accountability”.

Of the world’s poorest 75 countries, one third are worse off today than they were five years ago, he went on to say.  The top 1 per cent of people on Earth own 43 per cent of all global financial assets.  At the national level, some Governments are supercharging inequalities by doling out massive tax giveaways to the ultra-rich, while short-changing investments in health, education and social protection.  No one is being short-changed more than the world’s women and girls.  “Every day, it seems we are confronted by yet more sickening cases of femicide, gender-based violence and mass rape,” he said.  In Afghanistan, laws are being used to lock in the systematic oppression of women and girls.  And in this very Hall this week, less than 10 per cent of speakers at the general debate are women.

He called for reforms including of the Security Council, which must give Africa a permanent seat, and noted that tackling deep-rooted inequalities also requires accelerating reform of the international financial architecture.  The Bretton Woods institutions no longer provide a global safety net.  Debt interest payments in the world’s poorest countries now cost more, on average, than investments in education, health and infrastructure combined.  Around the world, more than 80 per cent of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets are off track.  Getting back on track requires a surge of financing for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Meanwhile, climate hazards are blowing a hole through the budgets of many African countries, costing up to 5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) — every year, he said.  By 2025, every country must produce an ambitious new national climate action plan.  These must align with the 1.5°C limit.  He urged G20 countries to shift money from fossil fuel subsidies and investments to a just energy transition.  Turning to the rise of new technology, he said that artificial intelligence (AI) will change virtually everything — work, education, communication, culture and politics. Without a global approach to its management, AI could lead to artificial divisions across the board — a Great Fracture with two Internets, two markets, two economies — with every country forced to pick a side, and enormous consequences for all, he warned..