"Reformed Multilateralism" at the United Nations.

• Author: Mukerji, Asoke

Title: "Reformed Multilateralism" at the United Nations

Author: Asoke Mukerji

Text:

Editor's note: The author was the Indian Ambassador to the UN 2013-2015.

Calls for "reformed multilateralism" [1] at the UN's 75th anniversary session in September 2020 stressed the need for equal participation by member-states in UN decision-making. Five years earlier, when adopting Agenda 2030, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) acknowledged the inter-linkage between peace, security, and development. [2] With its universal scope, Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development has become the central focus of the United Nations (UN) for the foreseeable future.

Agenda 2030 requires a paradigm shift in the approach of UN member-states to global issues and underscores the imperative for an inclusive human-centric approach through the participation of multiple stakeholders in UN activities. This would enable the UN to pool resources through partnerships to meet the major challenges in all its three "pillars" - political, human rights, and socio-economic development.

The Political Pillar

The maintenance of international peace and security, the "primary responsibility" of the UN Security Council (UNSC) under the UN Charter, is threatened by increasingly assertive unilateralism and polarization by major powers, represented by the Council's five permanent members (P5). Confrontation between the P5 has fractured the functioning of the UNSC.

World leaders gave a unanimous mandate fifteen years ago for "early reform" of the UNSC "to make it more broadly representative, efficient and transparent and thus to further enhance its effectiveness and the legitimacy and implementation of its decisions". [3] This rationale for UNSC reform is even more valid in 2021, as the P5 use their veto privilege to prevent the UNSC from resolving major crises confronting the world. The inadequacy of the UNSC's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already claimed over 2 million lives worldwide including over 400,000 Americans, illustrates the problem starkly.

The United States has a declared interest in reforming the UNSC to co-opt the new realities of the 21st century in the pursuit of its national interests. Addressing the joint session of India's Parliament on 8 November 2010, President Barack Obama of the United States listed specific areas where India and the United States would collaborate in global affairs and said, "I look forward to a reformed United Nations Security Council that includes India as a permanent member". [4]

However, the United States has remained inactive in the Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) launched by the UNGA since 2007. During 2014-15, the Chair of the IGN succeeded in getting 120 member-states in the UNGA (including France and the UK, but not the United States, Russia, and China) to contribute to a working document for text-based negotiations on UNSC reform. [5]

The document, which includes the five areas [6] identified by the UNGA for UNSC reform, was tabled by the African President of the General Assembly (PGA) and adopted by consensus on 14 September 2015. [7] Subsequent attempts at text-based negotiations in the IGN have been systematically opposed by China, backed by a group of 12 countries called "Uniting for Consensus" [8]. Since 2016, successive PGAs have been persuaded to fragment the integrity of the IGN. [9]

To reform the UNSC, the United States must join hands with...