Report of the Online Meeting on 17 June - UN Reform : Baquer Namazi

Revised report of 17th June meeting on UN reform

Key Speaker: Sir Richard Jolly

Participants included:
Mary, Richard, Kul, Tom, Rima, David Bassisouni, Agop, Shahida, Peter Greaves, Sree, Katharina, Fatma, Malak, Gabriele

Richard, Kul, Baquer faced technical hitches and could not participate actively. Richard shared two articles he had crafted on UN reform after the meeting. Baquer and David shared summary of their intervention at the meeting

Many participants had access to important sites on the theme of our discussion. Some also had participated in studies for reforming the UN. Mary pointed out that the outcome of several strenuous efforts were shelved and often forgotten. A wide range of studies had been undertaken on UN reform. As far back as October 1947 in an open letter to the UN General Assembly in October 1947 Einstein wrote: "The moral authority of the UN would be considerably enhanced if the delegates were directly elected by the people. Were they responsible to an electorate, they would have much more freedom to follow their conscience". It was agreed that we would try and retrieve the studies and also share sites on major efforts undertaken or underway.

Some of the participants expressed deep disappointment in the trends that had curbed UN's capacity to perform the functions outlined in the visionary UN Charter, particularly its opening statement: WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS, and suggested relying more on other options and partners, particularly major social people based movements. At the same time hope was expressed that by highlighting success stories of people power prompting change for the good, the UN system, including the Brett Woods Institutions would be induced to join the movements for transformations needed to better cope with the challenges of the 21st century.

The undemocratic structure of the UN brought about by the overriding powers vested in the Security Councils, wielding veto power, is one of the key factors standing in the way of fulfilling the first two pledges of the Charter to end "the scourge of war" and to regain "faith in fundamental human rights.

Drawing on the writings of Kul, Baquer reiterated the need for democratization of the UN, particularly the Security Council, which had become an exclusive club. Its membership had left out two continents, Africa and Latin America

The wide range of other major challenges holding the world back from achieving the promise of inclusive, just and peaceful and prosperity societies, included extremism, financial crises, transnational crime, poverty, environmental degradation, corruption, double standards, unilateral foreign interventions and occupation



There were many examples of civil societies being pace setters and paving the way for the UN entities moving in the right direction and climbing on the train for prosperity of all segments of the world's population. David stressed the need for strengthening the position of the UNSG to be the lead world figure giving voice to voiceless. "Should the UN secretary-General not embrace all the CSO/CBOs and Peace-Based Movements world-wide as the natural partners and allies to achieve the organization's most cherished goal of achieving and maintaining global peace? He asked.

He also pointed out that the global system did not lack in compacts, conventions, rules and codes of conduct. The major challenge was the lack of enforcement mechanisms. And this was an area where much work was needed.

It was important to widen space for collaboration of all major stakeholder partners to facilitate balanced peace, progress and prosperity, particularly improving government-NGO collaboration and highlighting role of private sector and science and technology. Some of the XUNICEF colleagues had important experience to share particularly in advancing inclusive development and partnership with CSOs in a political environment hostile to NGO engagement. Tom pointed out that there was much need to think and more important to ACT outside the box, as was the case of UNICEF and its "maverick" role motivating other agencies to dare attempt creativity and innovation. It was agreed that these experiences, particularly in promoting the concept of Children as Zones of Peace, provided valuable knowledge for the younger generation, who would assume leadership of the campaigns for CHANGE. Malak called for more intensive efforts to create public awareness on the success stories where the visionary concept of children as zones of peace had worked and brought much needed relief to child victims of armed conflict. Shahida also reiterated the need for UNICEF's experience on children in armed conflict to be brought to the world's attention, and to define a strategy to work with other Partners (Including UN, bilateral, NGO/CSO, selected governments) in a coordinated, and concerted manner. Otherwise individual efforts will not get the results required at least in a short to medium time frame. She looked forward to further discussion on doable suggestions

Fatma highlighted the need to acknowledge the vital role of women, particularly in promoting peace and bringing about reconciliation. She shared sites containing useful information on ideas for INCLUSIVE initiatives to build lasting peace.

It was stressed that while the COVID-19 disaster had inflicted deep pain and suffering on all people across the globe, both rich and poor, it had also created a unique opportunity for change and crafting a more just and equitable new post corona social order through community based participatory approaches, with the victims of injustice being given a seat at the decision making table.

Kul and Richard later shared valuable information on attempts at UN reform. Kul cautioned against hasty action and believed changes should be incremental to avoid sliding backwards. He noted that the material shared by Richard could be the starting point and form a solid basis for moving forward.

Agop was pained to note that the UN system had lost much of its credibility. He stressed the need for all UN bodies to reject "tainted" money and funds that came with conditionalities that undermined the moral credibility and independence of the UN system. Sree also emphasized that for the average person in India, the UN is not even on the radar screen. Mary suspected that this was true for many countries.

Moncef, while supporting the FoCAC movement observed that the name FoCAC was a no-go. Mary agreed and suggested we think of a name change with a good acronym



Suggestions for follow-up and sustaining the discourse:



1. Information available on major efforts undertaken on UN reform to be shared

2. Documenting and sharing information on experiences in creation of space for NGO-Government collaboration, particularly in the area of Children as Zones of Peace.

3. Use Richard's notes on UN reform as basis for further discussion

4. The participants form a working group to sustain the dialogue and encourage other colleagues to join

4. Baquer to serve as secretariat for follow up activities. He requested his former Egyptian colleagues, Fatmah and Malak to collaborate.

5. Moncef offered to host the next meeting and ensure that technical hitches would not hamper the discussions.