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UN chief calls for shared responsibility amid mounting global challenges

Xinhua, February 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday said that the world is facing profound, urgent and growing global challenges in rendering humanitarian assistance.

"The urgency of these challenges and the scale of the suffering mean we must accept our shared responsibilities and act decisively, with compassion and resolve," he said.

The statement came as the secretary-general was briefing the UN General Assembly on his new report "One Humanity: Shared Responsibility."

The report was launched in preparation for the World Humanitarian Summit, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 23-24. It sets out the secretary-general's ambitions for the global community to address humanitarian crises in a more holistic and efficient manner.

The international community is facing big challenges in offering humanitarian aid to people from such countries as Syria, South Sudan and Yemen, and the global appeals often were underfunded.

The challenges facing the global community include brutal and seemingly intractable conflicts, violent extremism, climate change and the widening gap between rich and poor, said Ban. "Today's complex challenges cross borders and surpass the capacity of any single country or institution to cope."

"We need to restore trust in our global world order and in the capacities of our national and regional institutions to confront these challenges effectively," said Ban.

In the report, the secretary-general called for an agenda for humanity, with five core responsibilities for action.

The first responsibility is to prevent and end conflicts, through political solutions. "Levels of need are at record levels, but the political solutions to relieve them are elusive," said Ban.

The other responsibilities set out in the report call on the international community to uphold humanitarian norms; leave no one behind; move toward preventive rather than responsive aid; and invest in humanity.

"The World Humanitarian Summit is the moment for us to come together to renew our commitment to humanity and the unity and cooperation required to prevent and end crisis and reduce people suffering," Ban said. Enditem