The global financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional and unfair, and has failed in its mission to provide a safety net for developing countries, declared the General secretary at a Summit for a New Global Financial Deal.
António Guterres addressed delegates at the start of the meeting in Paris, which aims to find financial solutions to fight poverty, reduce emissions that warm the planet and protect nature.
The Secretary General said that international financial institutions are currently too small and limited to fulfill their mandate.
“It is clear that the international financial architecture has failed in its mission to provide a global safety net for developing countries. The reason is simple: as Mia Mottley has just pointed out, this architecture was built after the Second World War. With some adaptations, it reflects the balance of political and economic power of the time,” Guterres emphasized.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has emerged as a leading figure against climate change, said the Summit marks a “tipping moment.”
“I ask that we not leave Paris without understanding that the political ambition that is needed must ensure a transformation and not a reform. And that those of us who are heads of Government and State recognize that the world cannot continue under the shadow of an imperial order that does not see the countries, does not understand the countries, does not listen to the countries and, what is worse, he does not see, understand or hear people.”
Girls wade through floodwaters on their way to school in Sunamganj, Bangladesh.
Funds to address climate change do not benefit children, despite being the most affected by the climate crisis according to a new report from UNICEF and other NGOs.
According to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, more than one billion children are at extremely high risk of suffering the effects of the climate crisis.
The study used three criteria to assess funding: addressing the risks children experience from the climate crisis, building the resilience of critical social services for children, and empowering them as agents of change.
The bottom line is that current spending almost completely ignores children. Of all the money allocated by multilateral funds to climate-related projects over a 17-year period up to March 2023, only a small part (2.4%) met all three requirements, which was only $1.2 billion.
More than 50 women die in a prison in Honduras
Prison in Honduras
UNICEF mourned the death of more than fifty women in a violent incident at the National Women’s Penitentiary for Social Adaptation in Honduras.
Some of the women lived with their children. These boys and girls are now in a situation of extreme vulnerability. “I am deeply concerned for their well-being and safety,” said UNICEF regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Garry Conille, calling for special and psychosocial care to be provided “urgently.”
The agency recalled that “no boy, girl or adolescent should be separated from their mother, father or caregiver, unless their best interests are at risk” and promised to support Honduras to review the situation of minors living in institutions.
UNICEF regretted that this incident not be an isolated case in Latin America and the Caribbean“where violence is usually part of the daily life of many children and women.”
He called on all countries in the region to guarantee the safety and well-being of children living with their mothers in detention.
Guterres condemns the latest violent incidents in the occupied West Bank
The Jenin refugee camp borders the Jenin municipality and is the northernmost in the West Bank.
The Secretary General condemned the latest violent incidents against civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This includes the shooting in which two armed Palestinians four Israelis were killed and wounded others in the occupied West Bank and subsequent acts of vandalism and burning of land and property, including a school, by Israeli settlers in Palestinian towns around Nablus and Ramallah.
The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the events in Jenin on 19 June, when an operation by the Israeli security forces and the ensuing exchange of fire resulted in seven Palestinians killedincluding two children, both students at schools in the UNRWA.
“It is crucial to de-escalate tensions and avoid further escalation,” Guterres said in a statement. The Secretary General recalled that Israel, “as the occupying power, must ensure that the civilian population is protected.”
“Ultimately, only the return to a meaningful political process and the end of the occupation will end this devastating cycle of violence and senseless loss of life,” he added.
