By Busra Nur Bilgic Cakmak
ANKARA (AA) – The UN chief Friday warned the world is witnessing a “retreat from the values of enlightenment and a rise in hate speech, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and other forms of discrimination”.
Addressing the German parliament – the Bundestag – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragilities, inequalities and injustices in societies.
Guterres said the global challenges require global solutions, but the world “faces a deficit of international cooperation.”
“It is clear that the way to win the future is through an openness to the world. Yet, in too many places, we see a closing of minds and retreat from the values of enlightenment,” he said. “A dangerous drift to the false refuge of irrationality. And the rise in hate speech, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and other forms of discrimination. History teaches that politics driven by anger, distortion is always, always a recipe for disaster,” he added.
Guterres also hailed the COVID-19 vaccine founders, German-Turkish couple Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, and said vaccines should be treated as a public good.
“Our challenge now is to ensure that vaccines are treated as a global public good. They must be accessible and affordable to everyone, everywhere. A people’s vaccine,” he said.
