The World Federalist Movement wrote a letter asking the UN Security Council to declare that the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a threat to international peace and security and to immediately adopt measures to address its causes and effects. Alarmingly, this pandemic is showing that rivalry between some permanent members of the UN Security Council and fast-changing geopolitical dynamics are paralysing and showing in stark terms the limitations of current international cooperation frameworks. We must not wait for another devastating pandemic or the outbreak of nuclear war to start demanding and working for the establishment of a truly democratic international system that works for and in the interests of all of humanity and not the few and the powerful.
Tawanda Hondora, PhD
Executive Director
World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP)
Hereunder the Letter sent by WFM to various international Associations to promote a common appeal to the United Nations Security Council
Your Excellencies,
We, the undersigned organizations, call on you as members of the UN Security Council to declare the COVID-19 pandemic a threat to global security, take appropriate measures to prevent its spread, and adopt measures that will strengthen the resiliency frameworks of developing countries.
This pandemic, which has increased systemic global fragility, requires global leadership. It falls on the Security Council to lead the fight to contain, prevent, and mitigate the effects of this pandemic through prompt and constructive cooperation and by ensuring an effective global response.
It is unconscionable that calls by the UN Secretary-General for a global ceasefire have fallen on deaf ears. Fighting continues in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Myanmar, among other states.
In developing countries, hundreds of millions of individuals have limited access to public healthcare or adequate housing. And owing to purchasing power disparities, these nations are being priced out of global supply chains for essential medicines and equipment.
There are signs of an emerging and devastating global recession, the impact of which will wreak havoc on the world, especially in developing countries where many lack access to adequate, or even any, social safety nets.
We call on you as members of the UN Security Council to immediately adopt a binding resolution that, at minimum:
- affirms that the COVID-19 pandemic is a threat to international peace and security;
- requires all parties to all ongoing armed conflicts to abide by unilateral ceasefires;
- directs UN Member States to take lawful measures to mitigate the economic, social, political, humanitarian, human rights, and peacebuilding impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in accordance with international human rights norms and standards;
- has the effect of increasing the capacity of the World Health Organization and other relevant institutions and systems to identify global threats to public health, including through a strengthened advisory mechanism to oversee actions taken by UN Member States; and
- declares that, once discovered, a COVID-19 vaccine must be made available to everyone.
The Security Council must exercise immediate, strong leadership in responding to the “gravest test” facing humanity since the creation of our current UN system after World War II.
Sincerely,
Altiero Spinelli Institute
Asian Youth Center-Chennai
Australian Council for Human Rights Education (ACHRE)
Center for United Nations Constitutional Research
Citizens for Global Solutions
Democracia Global
Project Ploughshares
Religions for Peace
South Asian Federalists
Union of European Federalists
Universal Peace Federation (UK)
World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy
Workable World Trust
World Citizens Association of Australia
Young European Federalists (JEF Europe)
