The High-Level segment of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) comes at an interesting time in the UN’s existence.
This is the first almost normal UNGA after 2019. The Covid-19 is still there, but the world has gotten used to it. However, the UN and its Member States haven’t covered themselves in glory in tackling the pandemic. Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked in the UNGA 2020: “Where is the UN in this joint fight against the pandemic?” The West was hoarding vaccines, while India made sure that vaccines reached the most vulnerable countries first, especially the Small Island Developing States. In 2020, the UNGA could only muster a “Christmas tree” resolution, which was useless to tackle anything, leave alone the Covid-19.
This UNGA comes at a time when some developed countries want the UN to move away from being a Member States-driven UN to an NGOs-driven UN (and also enhance corporate and institutional footprints) i.e. a UN with less accountability to its Member States. This will make the UN more relevant and nimbler, they say. They have forgotten lessons of Rio+20 in 2012. In Rio+20, the developed world wanted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be done like the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which is to hand over a non-negotiated document by the UN Secretary General to Member States to implement. They argued that 190-plus UN Member States can never agree on a progressive document. But countries like India, Brazil and other developing countries, insisted that it should be a UN Member States-driven process. We got our way. The results are there to see. Every Member State now owns the 2030 Agenda for SDGs. But those chipping away at the Member States-led process include traditional players of the West, whose hold on the UN is loosening due to increasing pressure from Global South, and the UN Secretariat itself keen to assume powers of an independent entity.
This UNGA comes at a time when the UN is in the danger of becoming mainly a humanitarian organisation due to its decreasing will and ability to tackle security and geopolitical issues of the day. We had the example of Afghanistan in August 2021 where, out of the four benchmarks in Security Council resolution 2593, there was intense focus on only one – humanitarian assistance. Now that Taliban has regressed in the other three, namely terrorism, women’s rights and inclusive government, the P-5 have sobered up, but lack the political will to implement. The Ukraine conflict has paralyzed the Security Council and several months of the UNGA’s work. But with huge humanitarian requirements in Africa, Middle East and elsewhere, caused mainly due to geopolitical issues not being tackled, donor fatigue is setting in (while SDGs and climate change are not getting the agreed financing).
This UNGA comes at a time when we are witnessing the rise of contemporary forms of religiophobia. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is pushing its Islamic agenda on the UN selectively, depending on the country pushing the agenda or the country targeted.
Europe is too preoccupied to notice this with the rise of their own domestic right-wing and the US with their own right-wing and racial issues. China has made its peace with the OIC. With a surge in radical attacks against Hindus, Buddhist and Sikhs and their places of worship, including recently in Leicester in UK, Canada and elsewhere, religiophobia against non-Abrahamic religions is being ignored by Member States for political reasons. Radical religious groups are being instigated against non-Abrahamic religions, especially by those inimical to India.
This UNGA should also look at strengthening the counter-terrorism architecture. While the UN has a strong focus on counter-terrorism, it came as an unpleasant surprise that UN Secretary General’s report “Our Common Agenda” focussing on the next 25 years had the words “terror” only in two places! However, the UN 75th Anniversary Declaration 2020 adopted by all Member States clearly set out that “terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism are serious threats to international peace and security”. Combating terrorism should come back to the centre of international peace and security.
This UNGA comes at a time when developed countries are backtracking on climate action in the face of severe inflation, economic downturn and energy crunch, falling well short of Paris Agreement pledges. While India is giving the world Lifestyle for Environment (LIFE) and the International Solar Alliance, Europe has now decided that even natural gas is green energy! Welcome to the world of shadow boxing! The G-20 is now having a more representative group than the UN Security Council, and therefore, enjoys greater legitimacy. The centre of gravity has shifted to the G-20 at the cost of the UN. Still, Security Council reform is not being allowed to go anywhere by a small group of ‘nay-sayer’ countries.
So what should the UN do going forward? The path is clear. The will to walk on it is missing.
(The writer is former Permanent Representative / Ambassador to the United Nations in New York and was President of the Security Council in August 2021.)