United Nations - process towards adoption of the ‘Pact For the Future’

In 2 013 , the General Assembly (the 193 member states) set up a 30-member Open Working Group to develop a proposal on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2015 , the General Assembly began the negotiation process which, in September 2015, adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a plan of action for people, planet, prosperity and peace, outlined through 17 Sustainable Development Goals, listed and detailed in this document: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda From the Preamble: “This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom.” “All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan.” “The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda.” “The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next fifteen years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet:” 2015, then, was a landmark year for multilateralism and international policy shaping. 2020 , in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, member states issued the UN75 Declaration that included twelve overarching commitments: https://www.un.org/pga/74/wp-content/uploads/sites/99/2020/07/UN75-FINAL-DRAFT-DECLARATION.pdf It is clear from reading through this declaration that member states are looking to the U.N. to take a leading role in responding to future global challenges, such as a future pandemic. To that end, the last page included a request that “the Secretary-General to report back before the end of the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly with recommendations to advance our common agenda and to respond to current and future challenges.” [Page 4] Some would see this as an invitation to develop a form of world governance. 2021 - The Secretary-General responded to this call with a document titled ‘Our Common Agenda’: https://www.un.org/en/content/common-agendareport/assets/pdf/Common_Agenda_Report_English.pdf This lengthy and detailed document begins with a summary that is effectively promoting globalisation, and seemingly laying a foundation for world governance. In that summary the General-Secretary said: “Last year, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, Member States agreed that our challenges are interconnected, across borders and all other divides. These challenges can only be addressed by an equally interconnected response, through reinvigorated multilateralism and the United Nations at the centre of our efforts” [page 4, 10th paragraph] On page 5 of ‘Our Common Agenda’ there is the first mention of an Emergency Platform: “.... and I also propose an Emergency Platform, to be convenedin response to complex global crises” [Section “Fifth”, last sentence] On page 6, the Secretary-General proposes: “… a Summit of the Future to forge a new global consensus on what our future should look like, and what we can do today to secure it.” Page 7 is headed “Key Proposals Across the 12 Commitments”, (the 12 commitments listed in the previous referenced document). On page 8 we have the 12 th commitment, titled “Be prepared” which begins: “Emergency Platform to be convened in response to complex global crises” (The ‘Emergency Platform’ and ‘complex global crises’ are detailed in the 2023 document referenced below.) The body of this document begins at page 13, announcing it as “A wake-up call” as, because of the pandemic, “the Sustainable Development Goals had been thrown even further off track.” [Paragraph 3] Much later on page 49 is the section: IV. Nations large and small: a new global deal to deliver global public goods and address major risks …. page 65: B. Addressing major risks …. page 66, section 101, where the Secretary General says: “Secondly, I propose to work with Member States to establish an Emergency Platform to respond to complex global crises. The platform would not be a new permanent or standing body or institution. It would be triggered automatically in crises of sufficient scale and magnitude, regardless of the type or nature of the crisis involved.” In summary, in this document the Secretary-General has been laying the foundation for multilateral cooperation and the United Nations Emergency Platform in which the U.N. will play a central role. 2022 In February 2022, the following was published: https://sdg.iisd.org/news/five-urgent-needs-for-globalgovernance-un-secretary-general-sets-priorities-for-2022/ Note the title: Five Urgent Needs for Global Governance: UN Secretary-General Sets Priorities for 2022. It begins with “Story Highlights”, of which the first is: “UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres outlined three crises in need of better global governance to make progress and “rescue” the 2030 Agenda and the SDG’s: the climate emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the “morally bankrupt” financial system.” It’s interesting that priority is given to the climate emergency (many will argue is with us now), a pandemic (there is already one on the horizon: https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/news/first-case-bird-flu-2024-confirmedengland ), and a financial system. 2023 Many of the details of the U.N. Emergency Platform were laid out in a March policy paper titled “Strengthening the International Response to Complex Global Shocks — An Emergency Platform.” https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/our-common-agenda-policy-briefemergency-platform-en.pdf This policy paper makes clear that it “would allow the convening role of the United Nations to be maximized in the face of crises with global reach and should be ‘agnostic as to the type of crisis,’ as we do not know what type of global shock we may face in the future, although the probability of their occurrence is growing.” [page 3] Examples of “global shock” that would trigger the emergency platform are listed on page 5: a) Large-scale climatic or environmental events that cause major socioeconomic disruptions and/or environmental degradation; b) Future pandemics with cascading secondary impacts; Again, climate and pandemics are high on the list as in the Five Urgent Needs for Global Governance c) High-impact events involving a biological agent (deliberate or accidental); d) Events leading to disruptions to global flows of goods, people or finance; e) Large-scale destructive and/or disruptive activity in cyberspace or disruptions to global digital connectivity; f) A major event in outer space that causes severe disruptions to one or several critical systems on Earth; g) Unforeseen risks (“black swan” events). In the paper, the U.N. Secretary-General writes: “I propose that the General Assembly provide the Secretary-General and the United Nations system with a standing authority to convene and operationalize automatically an Emergency Platform in the event of a future complex global shock of sufficient scale, severity and reach.” [page 12] Once triggered, the Emergency Platform would give the U.N. the ability to “actively promote and drive an international response that places the principles of equity and solidarity at the centre of its work.” [page 14 Solidarity and equity] The U.N. would bring together the “stakeholders” of the world, including academics, governments, private sector actors, and “international financial institutions” to ensure there is a unified, global response to the crisis. [Page 14 Strengthened coordination]. Further, “The Secretary-General would decide when to convene an Emergency Platform in response to a complex global shock.” [page 15, col 2] . This would not be without prior consultation with at least the President of the General Assembly. However, it seems to be very much driven by the U.N. The Emergency Platform would also give the United Nations the power to: “Ensure that all participating actors make commitments that can contribute meaningfully to the response, and that they are held to account for delivery on those commitments.” [Page 17 (f)] . In other words, the United Nations would be given unprecedented authority over the public and private sectors of huge swaths of the world, all in the name of battling a yet unknown crisis. Although the duration of the emergency platform would initially be set for a “finite period,” at “the end of that period, the Secretary-General could extend the work of an Emergency Platform if required” according to the United Nations’ own policy proposal. [Page 19 The Frame of an Emergency Platform] This would appear to give the Secretary-General the authority to keep the emergency platform in place indefinitely, without re-authorization from member nations. It is interesting to note that back on page 3 an expectation has been set as "During informal General Assembly consultations, Member States viewed the proposal for an Emergency Platform positively and recognized its value in strengthening the international response to complex global crisis situations." Although "They requested greater clarity on such a platform" It’s looking like the Emergency Platform proposal would be relatively easy to invoke with climate and pandemics high on the list. This would centralise an immense amount of power and influence, giving the United Nations greater control over the lives of member nations, i.e. most of the World’s nations. 2024 , September, will be the U.N. Summit when an action-oriented Pact for the Future is expected to be endorsed by the Heads of State, ensuring global solidarity for current and future generations. This could all be interpreted as an intent of the U.N. to migrate to world governance at the first opportunity. A fuller picture can be found using the site’s navigation buttons at: https://www.un.org/en/common-agenda One area particularly noteworthy is: Button ‘Policy Briefs’, animated icon ‘International Finance Architecture’, page 3, column 2: “The present policy brief sets out action-oriented recommendations for reforming the international financial and tax architecture in six areas:” “a) Global economic governance;” … and “f) Gobal tax architecture for equitable and inclusive sustainable development.” Some would argue that the regular use of the word ‘global’, particularly with ‘governance’, is simply an agreed global approach in specific areas for the common good. Others might suggest that this a foundation from which full global governance by the U.N. will evolve.