The Agorà degli Abitanti della Terra writes to the President of the UN Assembly

The Agorà degli Abitanti della Terra sent the following letter to VolKan Bozkir, President of the UN Assembly that will meet on 3 and 4 December to finally discuss the issue of the Covid-19 pandemic.

For the global health, res publica

Proposals on the occasion of the 37th Special Session of the UN General Assembly dedicated to Covid-19 (3-4 December 2020) at the level of Heads of State and Government

1. Some basic data

• We live in the age of the Anthropocene, globalisation of the human condition and the global community of life on Earth.

• Human beings simultaneously face several serious global structural crises for which they are largely responsible.

• The current pandemic is a global scourge: more than 53 million people infected, more than 1.3 million deaths. Unspeakable human and family suffering. Devastating consequences on work, daily life, the economy, relations between people and peoples, and the future of living together. No one is spared and no people can “save” themselves if others are not also “saved”.

• In spite of the enormous efforts and sacrifices costing the lives and health of health workers around the world, health systems have shown significant gaps and inadequacies due, in the prevailing opinion, not only to the exceptionality of the pandemic but also to strategies pursued over the last 30 years that have favoured above all profitable investments.

• Inequalities in the right to health have worsened as part of a general increase in impoverishment. According to biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report of the World Bank the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to push an a additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty this year, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021.¹