Extremism is poisoning social harmony around the world: UN

GENEVA: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said that extremism is poisoning social harmony around the world, and extremism must be rooted out by promoting human rights.

In his message on Twitter, António Guterres said that other forms of extremism, including populism, nationalism, white supremacy, and racism, were seriously affecting social harmony and global unity. 

Populism, nativism, white supremacy and other forms of racism and extremism are poisoning social cohesion.

To strengthen democratic resilience, it is essential to reaffirm the universality of all human rights – for everyone, everywhere.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 22, 2021

In the message, the UN Secretary-General said that social cohesion was having a toxic effect. To strengthen democratic resilience, the universality of all human rights needs to be reaffirmed for everyone and everywhere, he wrote.

What is populism?

The UN Secretary-General is the first to mention populism in various forms of extremism and racism, which refers to an aspect of the thinking of contemporary politicians that many other countries, including Pakistan, are facing. 

This thinking targets the oppressed classes rather than the upper or middle classes of any society who think that rich people or groups do not pay any attention to solving their problems, however, this thinking ignores the problems of the middle classes.