António Guterres:”Portugal was at a dead end” 50 years ago, now it is the world that is
THE humanist who spoke this Friday at the conference marking the 50th anniversary of Expresso – in his capacity as secretary general of the United Nations – has the same sense of social justice and genuine concern for the rights of the most disadvantaged that the young engineering student had who, more than half a century ago, exchanged his dream of being a researcher in Physics for political intervention. It was the humanist matrix of this young Catholic invested by the reservation of the position he holds that made him mention the “suffering of the Ukrainian people” and the “truly devastating” impact of this conflict, which is “central” in our time”, for which “continues to there is no way out” and a real effort by the parties in peace work.
THE humanist who now holds the position of Secretary General of the UN the importance of politics when, as a young student, he felt “a profound shock [ao] witness shocking levels of misery. This experience of social action in three neighborhoods in Alta de Lisboa — Valeira, Calçada and Bacalhau — It created a sense of moral obligation in me, after seeing that a substantial part of the country’s population lived in horrible conditions”, said António Guterres in an interview with the founder of Expresso Francisco Pinto Balsemão on the podcast Leaving the World Better, which marked the last year.
Alerts: Peace, development, climate, human rights and gender
The current world “is at a dead end”. “leaders think they find the solution by digging,qthe more they dig the more they sink”said the assertive and critical Guterres: “If today we tried to make a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we would end up with a worse text” than the one that was approved by the UN General Assembly in 1948.
“We are going backwards (…) poverty grows, hunger grows, inequality grows”, said the humanist Guterres: “After covid, the systems [de muitos países] fighting to ensure education and health”, noting that girls have to fight for the “right to go back to school” in countries where there is no progress or even a regression of women’s rights.
“We see in many international organizations” that it is increasingly difficult to reach a “consensus on gender issues, helping to reinforce the logic of patriarchy” as a way of exercising power over women. The confinements imposed by covid-19 create situations that reinforce “violence in the family”, and women and children are the first victims of this violence.
Guterres recalled the foundation of Expresso in 1973, and the decisive role of this newspaper in the “transformation of our country”. Overall, aToday, the press also plays an essential role in the world”, a world that “finds itself at a dead end […como] Portugal was at a dead end in 1973.”
It should be remembered that the founder of Expresso, Francisco Pinto Balsemãou challenged António Guterres and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to be shareholders of the newspaper in 1973, when Portugal was living under the dictatorship, young people were mobilized for the Colonial War, and there was censorship in the press.
New Generations Rights
THE humanist Guterres said that the rights of the “new generations” are at risk: “We are losing the war against climate change.”
The UN secretary-general also warns of “violations of social rights”, also mentioning social networks and multinational companies that manage these businesses, and that may jeopardize the right to privacy with a possible use of personal data. and information without users knowing.
50 years have passed since Expresso published the first issue. Hunger, poverty, education and gender equality continue to experience “setbacks. We are going backwards again, and in a particularly shocking way.” We continue to have “limitations in access to reproductive health.”