WFM Letter to UNSC on COVID-19

Your Exellencies

We, the undersigned organizations, call on you as members of the UN Security Council to declare the COVID-19 pandemic a threat to global security, take appropriate measures to prevent its spread, and adopt measures that will strengthen the resiliency frameworks of developing countries.

This pandemic, which has increased systemic global fragility, requires global leadership. It falls on the Security Council to lead the fight to contain, prevent, and mitigate the effects of this pandemic through prompt and constructive cooperation and by ensuring an effective global response.

It is unconscionable that calls by the UN Secretary-General for a global ceasefire have fallen on deaf ears. Fighting continues in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Myanmar, among other states.

In developing countries, hundreds of millions of individuals have limited access to public healthcare or adequate housing. And owing to purchasing power disparities, these nations are being priced out of global supply chains for essential medicines and equipment.

There are signs of an emerging and devastating global recession, the impact of which will wreak havoc on the world, especially in developing countries where many lack access to adequate, or even any, social safety nets.

We call on you as members of the UN Security Council to immediately adopt a binding resolution that, at minimum:

1.         affirms that the COVID-19 pandemic is a threat to international peace and security;

2.         requires all parties to all ongoing armed conflicts to abide by unilateral ceasefires;

3.         directs UN Member States to take lawful measures to mitigate the economic, social, political, humanitarian, human rights, and peacebuilding impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in accordance with international human rights norms and standards;

4.         increases the capacity of the World Health Organization and other relevant institutions and systems to identify global threats to public health, including through a strengthened advisory mechanism to oversee actions taken by UN Member States; and

5.         declares that, once discovered, a COVID-19 vaccine must be made available to everyone.

The Security Council must exercise immediate, strong leadership in responding to the “gravest test” facing humanity since the creation of our current UN system since World War II.

Sincerely,

[your organization’s name]