The Diplomatic Insight April 2020

COVID-19:
UN Security Council should act Now
Tan Sri Hasmy Agam and Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic
The COVID-19 situation is very
worrying, indeed, alarming
matter, not just as a global health
and biosafety issue, but potentially
as a global security challenge, too.
While the pandemic is being
dealt with by the World Health
Organisation (WHO), along with
other relevant United Nation
Specialised Agencies (UN SA), the
situation is deteriorating rapidly
and could easily get out of control.
This of course, if it is not effectively
contained. In such a (more and
more likely) scenario, it would be
engulfing the entire world, whose
effects and impact would be akin to
that of a Third world war, though
initially of a different kind.
We are amazed as to why the
Security Council has not stepped
in. It should have done so as
to address the Covid-19 and
surrounding scenery in the way it
clearly deserves to be dealt with,
given its devastating impact on the
entire international community on
almost every dimension, including
international peace and security,
which indisputably falls under its
mandate under the UN Charter.
As the Council has often dealt with
issues which are sometimes not
ostensibly related to international
or regional security, and of much
less importance or urgency than this
dreadful pandemic, we are puzzled,
indeed alarmed, as to why it has
chosen not to come to grips with the
pandemic as a matter of the utmost
urgency.
If the members of the Council, for
their own internal reasons, have not
felt compelled to do so, shouldn’t
the other members of the world
body, individually or collectively as
international or regional groupings,
such as the European Union (EU),
the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM) - G-77, African Union (AU),
or ASEAN, take the much-desired
initiative to call on the Security
Council to imperatively address
this global pandemic, even as the
WHO and other concerned UN
agencies, much to their credit, are
dealing with the issue from their
24•THE DIPLOMATIC INSIGHT