The 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA73) has ended in New York with a key message of urgent reforms at the forum as well as calls to foster global stability through multilateralism, cooperation, and respect for human rights.
The marathon of speeches from Heads of State and Government at the General Assembly’s annual general debate – the high point of the annual meetings – all came down to one thing – the centrality of a strengthened United Nations as the only global forum that can address the multiple challenges facing the world, from conflict resolution to climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
Held under the theme of ‘Making the United Nations relevant to all people: global leadership and shared responsibilities for peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies,’ the meeting had leaders from the world’s largest nations and economies to the world’s smallest swear fealty to the UN and its Charter, and the need to reform the Organisation in the face of a daunting future.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés set the tone with their opening speeches on first day of the six-day high-level segment devoted to addresses from the UN’s 193 Member States, many of them led by Heads of State and Government.
“As guardians of the common good, we also have a duty to promote and support a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system,” Guterres said, a theme Espinosa emphasized.
“Multilateralism is the only possible answer to the global problems we face. Weakening or putting it in question only generates instability and bewilderment, distrust and polarisation,” Espinosa said.
In all, 77 Heads of State, five Vice-Presidents, 44 Heads of Government, four Deputy Prime Ministers, 54 Ministers, one Vice-Minister, and eight Chairs of Delegation mounted the podium during the six days.
National leaders, while often devoting much attention to their particular interests and specific details, did not fail to mention the world body’s significance.
Perhaps the best distillation of the founding spirit of the UN came from Malawi’s President Arthur Peter Mutharika. “Every nation is important and we all have something to offer,” he said. “There are no minorities here. There are no small nations here. There are only nations in the United Nations.”
Nearly all countries called for massive action to mitigate the potentially catastrophic impact of climate change and rising oceans, and stressed the need for international cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seek to eliminate a whole host of social ills, from extreme poverty and hunger to access for all to health care and education, all by 2030.
For many countries, especially from Africa, a special priority is reform of the 15-member Security Council, the only UN body whose resolutions have legal enforcement status.
They want new permanent members outside of the current five, the Second World War allies of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, all of which have veto power, and are known as the ‘P-5’.
They point out that the world has vastly changed since the UN was set up in 1945 with 51 Member States and an 11-member Council, with six rotating non-permanent members serving two-year terms.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said the only global institutional framework available to address the burgeoning global challenges was the United Nations System and urged the strengthening of the Organisation and making it more effective by speeding up the pace of progress towards its reform, including that of its principal organ, the Security Council.
“The reconstitution of the Council to make it more equitable and more representative of our global community is both a political and moral imperative,” Buhari told the Assembly in his speech.
“We believe that a reformed Security Council with expanded membership in both the permanent and non-permanent categories, is in accord with prevailing international consensus and it is in our collective interest to do so,” he stated, warning that “It is high time we stopped skirting round the issue and establish achievable benchmarks and time frames for these reforms.”
The Council was last enlarged in 1965 with the addition of four non-permanent members. UN Member States now number 193 yet the Council remains stuck at 15, which they called a negation of fair representation and true democracy.
For the sake of democracy, they also called for more powers to be devolved to the General Assembly, which encompasses all 193 Member States.
One of the major complaints about the Council membership is the permanent members’ veto powers, long seen as a hurdle to urgent collective action when any of the five prioritizes its own national interests over global needs.
Aware of this problem, French President Emmanuel Macron, who is also a representative of one of the P-5, called for Council enlargement in both permanent and non-permanent categories and suspension of the right of veto in the event of mass atrocities “so that its composition reflects contemporary balances and it is strengthened as a place of consultation and not obstruction.”
None of the other P-5 members made such an offer, however.
British Prime Minister Theresa May rather said the Security Council “must find the political will to act in our collective interest.”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia made no mention of Council reform, but instead lamented that diplomacy has been “increasingly replaced by dictate and unilateral extraterritorial restrictions put in effect without the consent of the UN Security Council.”
The Council-authorized international military presence In Kosovo is being transformed into a US military base, he added.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also made no mention of reform, but warned that if the nuclear accord limiting Iran’s atomic activities in return for a lifting of sanctions, from which the US has withdrawn, fails to be implemented, the Council’s authority and role will be challenged, and peace and stability in both the region and the wider world jeopardised.
US President Donald Trump sounded a more unilateral theme, rejecting the “ideology of globalism,” and made no mention of Council reform. However, he reiterated US commitment to making the UN more effective and accountable.
“I have said many times that the United Nations has unlimited potential,” Trump declared.
Bolstering support for the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was also a key focus, as was the need to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment.
“This United Nations must show leadership in recognizing the talents and contributions of women to human civilization and progress,” Mia Amor Mottley, the first woman Prime Minister of Barbados told the Assembly on Friday before rushing back to her country, which was being drenched by Tropical Strom Erik.
She said that UN must explain that women have value and give much, “whether they labour over smoking wood fires; whether they are trapped in poverty because of a lack of opportunity, equality and respect; whether they lead countries; whether they stay at home to care for families; or whether they come to the UN.”
Summing up the six-day session, Assembly President Espinosa on Monday underscored the importance given to multilateralism as the only way to address the problems facing humankind.
“If we added together all of the discussions and speeches that took place, we would have a ‘global snapshot’ of the state of the world today – of the successes and the most pressing challenges facing our nations, and of the role that falls to this Organisation and to multilateralism,” she said.
According to her, “The representatives of more than 7.6 billion inhabitants of the planet agreed almost unanimously on the irreplaceable role of this Organisation.”
“To hear so many times the calls to strengthen multilateralism fills us with satisfaction, and at the same time presents an enormous challenge to ensure that each day this Organisation becomes ever more relevant to our peoples.”
