COVID-19: Messages from the Secretary-General

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing untold human suffering and economic devastation around the world.
I recently called for an immediate global ceasefire to focus on our shared struggle to overcome the pandemic.
I appealed for an end to violence everywhere, now.
But violence is not confined to the battlefield. 
For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest.
In their own homes. 
And so I make a new appeal today for peace at home — and in homes — around the world. 

UN chief António Guterres called for “an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world” appealing to warring parties to “end the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world.”

In a remote press briefing, Guterres said the world face a “common enemy” in COVID-19 adding that the virus “does not care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith.”

Facing a global health crisis “unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations,” Secretary-General António Guterres today (19 Mar) called for a “coordinated, decisive, and innovative policy action from the world’s leading economies.”

Guterres, speaking to reporters remotely from UN Headquarters, said, “a global recession – perhaps of record dimensions – is a near certainty,” and stressed that “current responses at the country level will not address the global scale and complexity of the crisis.”

“We Must Declare War on this Virus”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his comments on the global response to the spread of the COVID-19, calling on governments to cooperate in order to “ensure targeted support for the people and communities most affected by the disease.”