Multilateralism at a Crossroads: The UN Faces Unprecedented Threats
Multilateralism, and more particularly the role of the United Nations, is under threat. The crisis is not limited to the security and political dimensions. Well beyond the paralysis of the Security Council, it also concerns all other areas of values, rules, objectives and international cooperation, from health to human rights, from trade to the environment, from Internet governance to social policies.
New York's diplomacy is deeply affected and very often makes the headlines, heavily focused on the paralysis of the Security Council and the political debates in the General Assembly. "International Geneva" is also affected, but it is less visible in the news, often forgotten or underestimated. Inevitably, a process of adjustment and adaptation of multilateralism to new political, military, economic, social and environmental forces will be set in motion – it is already underway, insofar as we are already in a kind of new Cold War. The risk of resorting to improvised solutions, fragmented reactions and short-sighted decisions is high: future agreements and new mechanisms should be based on in-depth analysis and debate and cannot ignore the role of civil society, which is paramount for legitimacy and sustainability.
The International Geneva Ecosystem: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?
The agenda of multilateral issues addressed by International Geneva is very broad, complex and essential for any "UN 2.0" that humanity can envisage if it survives. It should not be seen as a "collateral" element of the political agenda, but rather as a central element of the multilateral system. The International Geneva ecosystem includes 40 international organisations (including five specialised UN agencies and several UN entities), 180 permanent missions and 400 NGOs. Almost all the "non-military threats" and the "roots of the current multifaceted crises" are dealt with in Geneva. This ecosystem is highly "technical", complicated and diverse, and covers more than the 17 Millennium Development Goals. It is important, in particular, because of three main characteristics: (i) its normative and regulatory work in many economic, social, environmental and human rights fields; (ii) its impact at the national level bytransforming research and rules into concrete technical assistance at the global level; (iii) it is a puzzle: it is the main multilateral crossroads of the cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary issues that characterize globalization and today's increasingly complex crises. (Please refer to the reference note on the role of International Geneva, which provides the background to this dialogue.)
Key features of this intergenerational dialogue:
The main objective is to highlight the specificities of the multilateral work carried out by International Geneva in the context of the preparations for the United Nations Summit for the Future and beyond. This dialogue is truly intergenerational, involving young and old experts and non-experts in multilateral affairs, and it offers a civil society perspective through non-governmental entities based in Geneva, New York and other capitals around the world.
The main target audiences are diplomats, policymakers, academics, journalists, students, civil society and the general public, particularly in New York and Geneva. The dialogue is not an academic exercise: it aims to complement and not compete with other summit-related initiatives.
The debate at the Dialogue will be inspired by an anonymous online survey of target audiences encompassing the networks of all Greycells partners. This survey will be launched at the beginning of February 2024.
Expected results:
- The main outcome is expected to be a Communiqué summarizing the issues discussed at the Dialogue and the results of its online survey. This Communiqué aims to send concrete proposals to the UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi to be held on 9 and 10 May 2024, to negotiators in New York and to other global or regional civil society consultations on the Summit (such as the People's Pact for the Future being prepared by the Coalition for the UN We Need, of which Greycells is a member).
- Launch of a coherent and connected global network of individuals, schools, universities, communities committed to multilateralism and the practice of intergenerational dialogue as a means of solving local and global problems.