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The pandemic of violence against women is not new. Even before COVID-19 hit us, globally, 243 million women and girls were abused by their intimate partners in the past year. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the violence, even as support services faltered and accessing help became harder. This year the United Nations, together with our partners, are demanding four critical actions, summarized by our 2020 campaign theme: FUND, RESPOND, PREVENT, COLLECT.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, learning was disrupted in major institutions of higher learning around the globe. This led to research and academic centres being forced to seek alternative learning solutions for about 80% of the world’s students. Many learning institutions of learning were closed, leaving learners and teachers with the alternative of going virtual. Most institutions of learning have since introduced online classes for ongoing modules.
If the Zambia debacle doesn’t force a change in African borrowing practices, the AU can dump Agenda 2063 and all its dreams of development and economic integration out the window. The people of Zambia are going to suffer deeply because of the Lungu government’s decisions. If African leaders do nothing to prevent similar tragedies, they are the enemy of the African people and they have to go.
The Dialogue draws inspiration from the climate change movement and brings more voices to the table. The Declaration is overly general but universally agreed (what else was universally agreed in 2020?). It packages the 17 SDGs and more into 12 priorities and draws on existing tools like the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030 even as COVID-19 rages. It offers civil society a document around which to coalesce, to demand action from governments individually and collectively, just as eyes turn to the recommendations requested of Secretary-General Guterres by next fall.
UN75 is an opportunity to re-engage the global community, from the world leaders giving addresses at the General Assembly, to the billions of citizens watching those speeches from home. We cannot expect anyone else to solve our problems. Everyone has a role to play, a way to contribute, and a valued voice to add to the conversation. That’s the beauty of the UN75 initiative. I believe strongly in that message, having spent the better part of the last decade empowering Israeli and Palestinian youth to tackle regional and global challenges via Model United Nations (MUN).
According to Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “The 75th anniversary of the United Nations should provide an opportunity to do more than look back and celebrate past achievements. Governments must take stock of the current challenges facing the UN. The hard months and years ahead will require determined and principled leadership. Multilateralism is not an option: it is the only path that can deliver a green, sustainable and equitable recovery.”
We all know that Malaysia has been active in the UN since 1957 and we have played a key role especially in peacekeeping, on human rights, having served in the Human Rights Council, global advocacy on the removal of the apartheid regime in South Africa and on the rights of Palestinian and Rohingya people. Malaysia has also been active at the global, regional (especially ASEAN) and domestic levels in promoting the role of the UN in development and global peace.
At this, the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, the world is seeing yet another collective tragedy unfolding, its effects analogous to that of a war, though of a different form. And many predict that it presages additional global calamities. Like previous historic inflection points, a robust dialogue on the future of humanity is needed. The People’s Declaration and Program for Global Action adopted at the UN75 People’s Forum in May is one contribution to this necessary global discourse.
We have insisted decades ago, precisely in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, that gender equality and women’s human rights are not meant to be conceived as only as a national issue. Rather, a full understanding of what it means to mainstream gender equality at the core of every actions requires us to center our attention on global macro and structural measures. This is perhaps where Member States have a glaring debt in the face of their international commitments in relation to women’s human rights
At a time when the world’s fate hinges on effective global and regional cooperation, young people are showing remarkable support for global and regional systems rooted in solidarity, cooperation, justice, and human rights. From making viral the Chilean anti-rape anthem calling against gender violence and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement against racism to, most recently, leading a social movement (#EndSARS) against police brutality in Nigeria, youth mobilization is at an all-time high.
