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SDG 16: UN Secretary-General Guterres calls for a global ceasefire

“The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war” said Guterres. “That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put the armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.”

22.04.2020.

The ceasefire would allow humanitarians to reach populations that are most vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19, which first emerged in Wuhan, China, last December, and has now been reported in more than 180 countries.

As the UN chief pointed out, COVID-19 does not care about nationality or ethnicity, or other differences between people, and “attacks all, relentlessly”, including during wartime. 

It is the most vulnerable - women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalized, displaced, and refugees - who pay the highest price during the conflict and who are most at risk of suffering “devastating losses” from the disease. 

Furthermore, health systems in war-ravaged countries have often reached the point of total collapse, while the few health workers who remain are also seen as targets.  

The UN chief called on warring parties to pull back from hostilities, put aside mistrust and animosity, and “silence the guns; stop the artillery; end the airstrikes”. 

This is crucial, he said, “to help create corridors for life-saving aid. To open precious windows for diplomacy.  To bring hope to places among the most vulnerable to COVID-19.”   

While inspired by new rapprochement and dialogue between combatants to enable joint approaches to push back the disease, the Secretary-General said more still needs to be done. 

“End the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world”, he appealed.  “It starts by stopping the fighting everywhere. Now. That is what our human family needs, now more than ever.”

“The UN must fully assume its responsibilities first doing what we have to do    our peacekeeping operations, our humanitarian agencies, our support to the different bodies of the international community, the Security Council, the General Assembly but, at the same time, it’s a moment in which the UN must be able to address the peoples of the world and appeal for a massive mobilization and for a massive pressure on governments to make sure that we are able to respond to this crisis, not to mitigate it but to suppress it, to suppress the disease and to address the dramatic economic and social impacts of the disease”, he said.

“And we can only do it if we do it together, if we do in a coordinated way if we do it with intense solidarity and cooperation, and that is the raison d’etre of the United Nations itself”.

In his repeated call for a global ceasefire, Secretary-General Guterres also said:

“At this critical moment, I reiterate my appeal to armed actors around the world to put down their arms. Together, we must work to build more peaceful, resilient, and prosperous societies.”

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