International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Dr Naledi Pandor, says the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly illustrated the value of multilateralism.
Addressing the UN Day 75th Commemoration event held virtually on Friday, Pandor said when they gathered last year to celebrate the formation of the UN, none of them imagined that the world would be engulfed by a common enemy – the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has awfully reminded us of the indispensable value of multilateralism. We have seen that, as with other contemporary challenges, no country acting alone can successfully deal with the pandemic,” said Pandor.
The pandemic has claimed over a million lives around the globe, deepened poverty, widened the inequality gap, increased insecurity and revealed cracks in the system of global governance.
Pandor said while commendable multilateral cooperation between States has been witnessed, the pandemic has also raised the question of how the world should be organised in its aftermath.
“It should also be a world free of poverty, inequality and underdevelopment, a world of inclusive economic growth and shared prosperity, and it should be a world where young people are able to grow and thrive, and where women have equal rights and opportunities.”
The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations and its founding Charter. This anniversary comes at a time of great disruption for the world, compounded by an unprecedented global health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with severe economic and social impacts.
To mark UN Day, an annual concert is usually held in the General Assembly Hall.
This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the concert was pre-recorded and screened in the GA Hall on 22 October.
UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter.
With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being.
To commemorate the 75 years of the United Nations, Member States held a high-level event on 21 September 2020, where they reaffirmed and recognised that challenges are interconnected, and can only be addressed through reinvigorated multilateralism. – SAnews.gov.za
