Mumbai: United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said India’s voice on the global stage can only gain in authority and credibility from a strong commitment to inclusivity and respect for human rights at home.
Addressing students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Guterres said, “As an elected member of the Human Rights Council, India has a responsibility to shape global human rights, and to protect and promote the rights of all individuals, including members of minority communities.”
This could be done by “securing and upholding the rights and dignity of all people, especially the most vulnerable, by taking concrete action for inclusion, recognizing the enormous value and contributions of multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies, and by condemning hate speech unequivocally,” he said.
Guterres also stressed the need for protecting the rights and freedoms of journalists, human rights activists, students and academics, and ensuring the continued independence of India’s judiciary.
His comments come as several international agencies monitoring human rights, press freedom and other fundamental rights have downgraded India’s ranking since the BJP under Narendra Modi came to power.
According to the news agency AFP, though Guterres praised India’s achievements in 75 years of Independence, he said “diversity is a richness… is not a guarantee”.
“It must be nurtured, strengthened and renewed every day,” he added.
Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru’s values need to be guarded by “condemning hate speech unequivocally”, he added.
‘Fighting terrorism a global priority’
Earlier, speaking after paying floral tributes to martyrs of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, Guterres on Wednesday said fighting terrorism must be a global priority. He also said that no cause can justify terrorism of any kind.
“Fighting terrorism should be the global priority of every country,” said Guterres.
People need to recognise the diversity and richness of cultures to stay together, Guterres said.
“Terrorism is absolute evil and has no place in today’s world. No cause and no incident can justify terrorism,” Guterres said.
“One of my first acts after becoming secretary-general was to establish an office for counter-terrorism to cooperate, guide and prepare countries in the fight against terrorism,” he said.
“This office is fighting against the roots of violent extremism. Be it religion or ethnicity or beliefs, no reason can justify violent extremism,” he said.
Describing the 26/11 terror attacks as one of the most barbaric acts of terrorism in history, Guterres said the 166 victims of the attacks are “heroes of our world”.
“I want to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends and to the people of India and also those from other parts of the world who lost their lives,” he said.
Accompanied by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Guterres placed a floral wreath at the 26/11 attacks memorial in the hotel.
The Taj Mahal Palace hotel was one of the targets of the horrific terror attacks in 2008.
It is the UN chief’s first visit to India since his second term in office commenced in January. He had earlier visited the country in October 2018 during his first term.
Guterres landed in Mumbai on Wednesday shortly after midnight via a commercial flight. He was greeted by senior Maharashtra government officials on arrival.
Guterres delivered a public address at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai on UN-India partnership, before flying to Gujarat, where he will join Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event relating to the Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) in Gujarat’s Kevadiya on October 20.
His visit to the country comes more than a week before the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee holds its two-day deliberations in India.
Other comments
Interacting with students at the IIT, he also spoke about violence against women, comparing it to a “big cancer” and called for an “emergency plan” to tackle it in every country.
He also pointed out that women activists and politicians are targeted in a big way on social media.
The UN is working to achieve gender parity within its own organisation, he said.
“I must confess that there is one problem that I did not manage to solve. Many people thought – and I fully respect that – the secretary general of the United Nations must be a woman,” he said.
Speaking on climate change, he said there was a need for a historical pact between developed and developing countries to counter it and keep the temperature under control.
G20 countries are responsible for 80% of global emissions and they must take the lead in cutting greenhouse gases, he added.
“We need a historical pact in which developed countries strongly support, with financial and technical resources, the emerging economies to allow for combined efforts of the two with extra requirements from the developed countries to allow us to defeat climate change and keep the temperature under control,” he said.
Climate crisis could be the greatest barrier to collective development aspirations, and India is no exception. It is already a grave threat to India’s economy, agriculture and food sector, and to the health, lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people, Guterres pointed out.
Stressing the need for renewables, he said critical renewable technologies, such as battery storage, should be treated as global public goods.
The international financial system is “morally bankrupt” as it favours the rich countries, and he expected India’s involvement in reforming it.
The developing countries received “very little from the financial instruments of recovery” as they tried to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of them are facing debt distress, he observed.
(With PTI inputs)
Note: This article was originally published at 7:22 pm on October 19, 2022 and republished at 10 pm on the same day.