The UN General Assembly on Thursday
approved a resolution calling for "international cooperation" and
"multilateralism" in the fight against Covid-19, in the first text to
come out of the international body since the outbreak began.
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| Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres speaks at the UN headquarters in New York. |
The resolution, which was approved by
consensus, also stresses "the need for full respect for human rights"
and that "there is no place for any form of discrimination, racism and
xenophobia in the response to the pandemic".
Russia was unsuccessful in opposing the
resolution with its own text that was supported by four other countries.
The UN resolution
stresses the central role of the body in the global health and economic crisis.
It was submitted by Switzerland, Indonesia, Singapore, Norway, Liechtenstein
and Ghana, and adopted by 188 of the 193 states that make up the body,
diplomats said.
The Russian text – which also discussed
cooperation but included an implicit demand for a general lifting of
international sanctions, seen as a brake on efforts to fight the virus –
was supported by the Central African Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Unlike the UN Security Council, the resolutions
adopted by the General Assembly are not binding but have a strong political
value depending on their support.
The resolution came as the number of
confirmed coronavirus cases around the world soared past
one million on Thursday and deaths topped 50,000 as Europe reeled
from the pandemic and the United States reported the highest daily death toll
so far of any country.
Despite more than half the planet
imposing some form of lockdown, the virus claimed thousands more lives,
with the US, Spain and Britain seeing the highest number of daily fatalities
yet.
According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres,
the coronavirus is "the most challenging crisis we have faced since the
Second World War".
Just last week, as the pandemic spread around
the world, killing thousands and infecting many more, Guterres warned that
unless the world came together to fight the virus, millions of people could
die.
On March 23, he called for an "immediate
global ceasefire" to protect vulnerable civilians in conflict zones from
the ravages of the pandemic.
Few countries have heeded his appeal.
"Unfortunately, hostilities have gone
unabated," said Laetitia Courtois, the UN representative of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
On the Security Council, which has been silent
since the start of the pandemic, the five permanent members (the US, the United
Kingdom, Russia, China and France) are divided on reaching a resolution to
support Guterres' appeal.
They have yet to produce a concrete solution,
to the increasing exasperation of the 10 non-permanent members.
The US and China continue to clash over the
origins of the virus that first emerged in central China late last year, which
Washington wants to highlight.
Beijing and Moscow, which both have veto power,
are also reluctant to see the Security Council – which is responsible for
global peace and security – take up an issue that has until now been a
primarily health and economic issue.
"The Council missed an opportunity to be
relevant – in a way that might have been life-saving – during the
early stages of the pandemic," said Stephen Pomper, a policy director for
the international thinktank Crisis Group and former director of multilateral
affairs for President Barack Obama. - Agencies
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