Credit: UN Photo/P Sudhakaran  / Nelson Mandela, Deputy President of the African National Congress of South Africa, addresses the Special Committee Against Apartheid in the General Assembly Hall Jan. 1, 1990. 

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  – NEW  YORK –  International Nelson Mandela Day was celebrated on July 18- the birthday of the  great South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.  Mandela, or “Madiba” as he was affectionately known died December 5, 2013 but his legacy lives on.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres paid homage to Mandela in a speech Saturday in which he said  “inequality, an issue which defines our time, risks destroying the world’s economies and societies.”  Guterres was delivering the 2020 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, held online for the first time, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The lecture series, held annually by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, on the birthday of the first democratically-elected President of South Africa, aims to encourage dialogue by inviting prominent personalities to discuss major international challenges.  Guterres pointed out that inequality take many forms. Whilst income disparity is stark, with the 26 richest people in the world holding as much wealth as half the global population, it is also the case that life-chances depend on factors such as gender, family and ethnic background, race and whether or not a person has a disability.  

“I was fortunate enough to meet Nelson Mandela several times. I will never forget his wisdom, determination and compassion, which shone forth in everything he said and did.  Nelson Mandela rose above his jailers to liberate millions of South Africans and become a global inspiration and a modern icon.  He devoted his life to fighting the inequality that has reached crisis proportions around the world in recent decades – and that poses a growing threat to our future.”

-UN Secretary-General António Guterres

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe  / United Nations  Secretary-General António Guterres delivers the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture at UN world headquarters in New York July 18, 2020. 

The UN chief added: “Inequality defines our time. Discrimination, abuse and lack of access to justice define inequality for many, particularly indigenous people, migrants, refugees and minorities of all kinds. Such inequalities are a direct assault on human rights.  More than 70 per cent of the world’s people are living with rising income and wealth inequality. The 26 richest people in the world hold as much wealth as half the global population.  COVID-19 is shining a spotlight on this injustice.  The world is in turmoil. Economies are in freefall.  We have been brought to our knees – by a microscopic virus. “

Guterres  said although COVID-19 is a human tragedy,  it has also created a generational opportunity to build back a more equal and sustainable world. The response to the pandemic, and to the widespread discontent that preceded it, must be based on a New Social Contract and a New Global Deal that create equal opportunities for all and respect the rights and freedoms of all, he said.

“Now is the time for global leaders to decide:  Will we succumb to chaos, division and inequality? Or will we right the wrongs of the past and move forward together, for the good of all? We are at breaking point. But we know which side of history we are on.”