As customary, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) is opening its new regular session in the second half of September. World leaders are converging on New York for their High-level Week’s multitude of events starting today, 22 September. Expect a series of grandiose monologues of Presidents, Kings, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers or other senior dignitaries from most of the UN’s 193 member states, plus observer states, regional organizations and other observer entities. This year should be somewhat different, though, for many reasons, some of which we briefly present here.
This is UNGA’s 80th regular session, marking the 80th anniversary of the United Nations since its establishment in 1945, at the end of World War II. Instead of being in a celebratory mood, though, the world is facing tough challenges in all fields of multilateral cooperation, namely peace and security, sustainable development and human rights, as well as the management of the multilateral system and of the UN itself. In recent years, the world body has been consistently scoring below expectations in all these areas, a responsibility ultimately lying with its masters, the member states, the intergovernmental organs that they run – notably the Security Council, and the Secretariat under the leadership of the Secretary-General.
Gaza and Ukraine top the list of peace and security failures, but there are many more, such as Sudan, Myanmar, Haiti. The slow pace of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), fast-advancing climate change, increasing indebtedness of developing countries and exacerbating inequalities between and within countries, as well as the diversion of funds from human well-being to armaments and destruction, demonstrate the widespread failure in the sustainable development field. The situation of human rights seems to deteriorate worldwide, not only in areas of conflict, where even genocide seems to be happening again in plain view, but even within “established democracies”, where freedom of speech is being trampled upon often as part of “culture wars”, or actual wars, refugee rights ae squeezed to non-existence, and authoritarianism and propaganda are increasing from all sides. As for the management of the multilateral system, there is an effort to reform the UN to make it fit for today’s requirements. The UN80 Initiative, though, has been conceived and is being pursued under pressure from steep cuts in the UN’s budget and a very tense geopolitical and geoeconomic environment that does not favour long-term thinking.
Will the speeches at the various events during High-level Week make any difference in the real world? Can this high-level gathering actually address any of the above failings and reverse the downward spiral? Can this be turned from a largely meaningless show of political narcissism into a high-impact milestone that changes the course of the world?
Under the prevailing circumstances, hope is very limited. There are, however, some actions that could signal an eventual reversal of fortunes for the better, if for example:
- Following the latest US veto on the Security Council, regarding another Gaza resolution, the UNGA resumes its emergency session on the Question of Palestine with the participation of the world leaders present in New York. A resolution under “Uniting for Peace”, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, along with the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, and establishing an international monitoring mission to observe respect from all parties for the ceasefire, the return of the hostages, troop withdrawal, full resumption of humanitarian assistance and the start of reconstruction.
- The General Assembly welcomes the new wave of recognitions of Palestinian statehood by several states and suspends the participation of Israel in the General Assembly, in view of the Israeli government’s Apartheid policies, support for settlers and apparent genocidal acts. It also signals that Israel’s UN membership will be reactivated when Palestine is also accepted as full UN member state and a serious process of implementing the two-state solution gets started.
- The President of Russia and the Prime Minister of Israel are warned that they will be arrested if they set foot on UN grounds, as there are pending arrest warrants against them by the International Criminal Court (ICC); so they do not participate in the High-level Week even if they get visas by the US government. Conversely, the President of the Palestinian Authority is exceptionally authorized to address High-level Week events via teleconference, neutralizing US efforts to silence the Palestinians by not issuing visas to their universally recognized leadership.
- Use the occasion of the/another Climate Summit to promote concrete delivery of the funding and other actions required to implement the Paris Agreement in fairness and speed, setting the ground for a successful UNFCCC COP30 in Brazil.
- Use the occasion of the “First Biennial Summit for a sustainable, inclusive and resilient global economy” to embark on the full implementation of the outcome of the recent Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4).
- All states and especially those declared or undeclared nuclear weapon states undertake disarmament commitments to adequately commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (26 September).
- All states commit to pay in full and on time their dues to the UN budget and not use unilateral payment cuts or delays to weaken and/or blackmail the world body.
May the world leaders gathering at UN headquarters for another annual high-level ritual prove to their respective peoples and the world as a whole that they mean the words they say about the importance of multilateral cooperation, of the UN’s 80th anniversary, of peace and security, sustainable development and human rights. Otherwise, they may as well read the obituary of the post-World War II system of collective security and progress, and brace for the full range and ferocity of the consequences.
The editorial team of Katoikos
