MUMBAI: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today called for practising Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation's values so as to achieve all-inclusivity, protecting the rights of all sections in the richly diverse country to make it stronger.

Guterres said, the nation's voice can gain credibility on the international stage by upholding inclusivity, respecting the human rights and dignity of everyone, especially the most vulnerable, ensuring the freedom of journalists, activists, academics, and students, denouncing hate speech, and maintaining the judiciary's independence.

Speaking to students at IIT-Bombay, Guterres emphasised that as an elected member of the Human Rights Council, India had a duty to advance global human rights, safeguard and advance the rights of all people, including minorities, and strengthen those rights within its diverse and pluralistic society.

Gandhiji's ideals, he argued, would be helpful in this situation by recognising the great values and contributions of multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic society and by categorically condemning hate speech.

To do more to preserve women's rights and gender equality in our nation and around the world, Guterres asked Indians to be watchful, increase investments in inclusive, pluralistic, diverse communities and cultures, and be attentive.

In addition to being a "moral imperative," he described the issue of women's rights and gender equality as a "multiplier for prosperity and sustainability," since no society can reach its full potential without equal rights for all women, men, girls, and boys.

Guterres emphasised that over 200,000 Indian security personnel have participated in 49 operations of a similar nature over the previous 75 years, making India one of the largest providers of military and police personnel to various UN Missions, including the first all-female peacekeeping deployment.

Considering how the UN is attempting to achieve gender parity but has been unable to appoint a female Secretary General, despite the fact that half of the women in the world organization's top management positions are female, including those in charge of the department of political affairs and missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, he disapproved of violence against women, calling it "a great cancer" that needs to be addressed in every country with an emergency plan, in addition to the fact that female politicians and activists are being targeted in a "awful campaign" on social media.

We live in "a male-dominated world and a male-dominated culture," Guterres said, making gender parity at the top levels all the more important to ensure that decisions are made in a way that "makes gender equality a downstream phenomena."

As part of his three-day tour to India, Guterres touched down to a rousing welcome in Mumbai earlier on Wednesday. He then attended a memorial service for the 26/11 terror attacks victims at the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace.

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