Eine Lanze für den Multilateralismus

Von Tony Phillips

Two major UN meetings occurred in the last two weeks of September, 2024. First came the Summit for the Future that has reached an approvable compromise to address global challenges including conflicts and wars, climate change, human risks from Artificial Intelligence involving both United Nations and Global Financial Institutions (IMF/World Bank etc.) reforms. The second of these began the week of 23 September: the 79th UN General Assembly (UNGA) – and with it comes a chance to talk about putting these changes in place.

The Summit for the Future adopted three agreements:

The Pact for the Future,
A Global Digital Compact (including Artificial Intelligence),
A Declaration on Future Generations.

The Summit of the Future is sustainable development on steroids. Steroids are powerful medicines used to treat serious problems and the United Nations as well as Sustainable Development Goals, well maybe they do need a shot in the arm to save them. Jeffrey Sachs has expertly managed the Summit for the Future so that a majority of UN nations might sign up to all three parts. That happened on 23 September 2024, so that now the real work can begin.

On its own the Summit for the Future is insufficient to address the world’s greatest problems, but the changes reflected there, combined with more work announced the UN General Assembly, reforming the United Nations, comes a long way to bring hope to many, in times when peace and hope are in short supply.

At the UN General Headquarters broadcast live to the world the Summit of the Future was passed by a large majority of World leaders who attended. The stated aims were “to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future.” The UNGA followed on 24 September with many world leaders speaking at both events.

The United States, Argentina and Paraguay were the only nations in the Americas to vote against the resolution adopted by the Summit of the Future. So did another eleven nations, seven of which are small Pacific islands who all usually vote with the US (Fiji, Micronesia, Nauru, Tonga, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu) – plus Israel, Malawi, Hungary and Czechia. Aside from these three, in the Americas all nations voted for the resolution with seven abstentions from Canada, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama and Uruguay.

A Philosophy of Choice for the Future

Jeffrey Sachs at a Pre-Summit of the Future address mentioned that a philosophical discussion of the kind of Future World We Want, does not occur at the UN security council, nor at the G-20; nor do world leaders (or their military generals) speak of philosophy. Sachs referred to both categories as those “who determine our lives and deaths”. Sachs emphasized peace and young people but noted that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist’s doomsday clock (founded by Einstein and Oppenheimer) is at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to the end of the world it ever has been!

Sachs referred to US navy openly suggesting a war with China by 2027, something he described as ‘insanity’. Migrants, marginalized populations, future generations, post-colonialism, relations with the biosphere are truly philosophical subjects, he added. He took great solace in the fact that great philosophers were often failed policy advisers or politicians, referring to Plato, Confucius, Machiavelli, Locke and John Stuart Mill. Sachs then spoke about the importance of the Pope’s initiatives and the importance of standing for peace.

As the Pope is South American, he too is following an analysis of the disparate reactions to both meetings at the UN. The following is taken from the speeches of South American presidential leaders.

Brazil

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, addressed the general debate of the 79th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. He greeted the Palestinian Nation at their first meeting. “Here yesterday we adopted the Summit of the Future”, Lula mentioned, adding that “the world is living in a time of growing anguish and fear. 2023 was the most conflictive year since WWII with global military spending at US-$ 2.4 trillion”, he said. Peace in Ukraine can be reached based on the Chinese and Brazilian six-point plan, he added, but the situation in Israel and Palestine with 40,000 Palestinian children, women and men killed by the Israeli Defence Forces shows that what was claimed as a “right to defence” has become the “right to vengeance”.

We cannot go off planet, Lula argued, we are doomed to climate change interdependence. Failure and under-funding of this task. This first led to denialism, but that too, he argued, has succumbed to a harsh reality of climate change with 2024 probably going to be the hottest year on the human record (again). Lula mentioned floods in Southern Brazil, two million hectares of fire damage in the Amazon and terrible drought. On the positive side he added that his government was reducing Brazilian deforestation and that it would be eradicated by 2030. “Listen to the indigenous people”, he pleaded.

Brazil will host COP-30 in 2025 in the real belief that multilateralism is the only way to overcome climate change. It is time to face the debate about the slow pace of the planet’s de-carbonization and work for an economy less reliant on fossil fuels. Isolationism or ultra-liberal experiments (in neighbouring Argentina, for example) only worsen the difficulties of an already impoverished continent.

The 150 largest corporations have made profits of 1.2 trillion dollars. The rich pay much less tax (on percentage terms) than many poor people do. Yet 733 million people are undernourished, a massive increase. The UN is increasingly paralyzed. Comprehensive charter changes have not been made, but they’re needed now, one-off adjustments are not enough, the reform will be difficult, but that is our responsibility and “we cannot wait for another World War”, Lula argued. He highlighted the following challenges:

Transforming the Economic and Social Council into the main form for dealing with  sustainable development and the fight against climate change with a real capacity for finance,
Revitalizing the General Assembly for peace and security,
Strengthening the Peace Building Commission,
Reform the Security Council, its composition, working methods, and veto powers, in order to make it more effective and representative of contemporary reality. Excluding Africa and South America, Lula claimed, is a result of domination practices from the colonial past,
Work should be integrated with other fora like the G77, BRICS, Caricom etc …

Argentina

Argentina was represented at the UN by their Head of Foreign Relations, former banker Diana Mondino, who, like the Argentine president, rather than speaking to the world’s future, which her government had rejected, she spoke instead of Argentina’s past. Mondino began with a “lighthouse of liberty & freedom” speech, reflecting the curious libertarian experiment underway in Argentina (which is not going too well so far).

Milei, Mondino and their small LLA party, are busy rewriting Argentina’s constitution using bulk packs of preprepared legislative changes written by corporate lawyers, adding a very illiberal list of presidential decrees (DNU’s they are called in Argentina) to bring the nation back to an idealized and mythical ‘past’ captured in the 1853 Argentine Constitution.

Next up, Javier Milei spoke at the UNGA just before President Bukele of El Salvador. Milei made even Bukele look good. He introduced himself, “for those you who are unaware”, as a liberal libertarian economist, one who never aimed to be a politician but who was honoured with the Presidency after the resounding failure of 100 years of collectivist economic destruction. In truth Milei was a member of the national congress for two years before standing for presidential election but Milei is liberal with the truth, too.

In his first speech to the UN General Assembly he “humbly” warned the UN against continuing with its “collectivist” policies then went on to describe the values of his “new Argentina”. Then Milei decided to lecture the UN on the UN. He began by congratulating the institution on the long peaceful period and economic growth since the end of WWII and avoiding another World War. Javier then commented on the success of five great powers sitting at the same table each with veto powers working together albeit with counter-posing interests. Javier defended the countries at the five seats of the defense council quoting some prophet called Isaiah, peaceful nations and swords being beaten into ploughshares. This somewhat idyllic notion lives largely in Milei’s imagination. Argentina, he added, considers the UN socialist, and his government is thus anti-UN and, most especially, against Agenda 2030.

Milei then started to ramble, slipping into Trumpian alt-right anti-globalism. The UN, he said, having stopped being a shield to protect the reign of men, had become “a Leviathan with multiple tentacles deciding how citizens should live imposing its ideology on an endless list of topics”. The ideas of US President Wilson, who spoke of “peace without victory“, was a successful model, Javier argued, but had been abandoned, replaced with supranational government of international bureaucrats attempting to impose on citizens a specific way of living. The Summit for the Future in New York that week, Milei argued, brings us further down this tragic path, calling on ‘us’ to define a new social contract redoubling our commitment to the 2030 ‘socialist‘ agenda.

He then went on to preach to the 150+ nations who voted against the state of Israel that they had voted wrongly against the only country that defends democracy in the region. It only went downhill from there. The lock-downs in 2020 were a “crime against humanity”. “We are at the end of a century of anarchy and the ‘woke’ agenda and fatal end of liberty in Argentina.” On and on it went as the hole he dug himself into deepened. Milei finished his speech with a threat that Argentina would abandon its longstanding neutrality claiming that God will bless his country. He didn’t mention which God that might be nor whom should be afraid.

Colombia

Gustavo Petro Urrego, president of Colombia also spoke at both events, first at the Summit, then the General Assembly. As to the Future, Petro shared some wisdom from Stephen Hawkins. Later at the UNGA, on 24 September, he spoke about power and money and the destructive power of war and climate change. Referring to national leaders at the UN he said that: Those of us who are important are those who want to sustain life on Earth. But power does not listen to weak presidents, those nations that do not have war machines active in the Gaza genocide, he said ironically.

Going back to climate change, Petro added that eleven million hectares of Amazon forests burned in a Month and now the Amazon is burning again. Ernest Hemingway said that bells would toll for all of human life. The democratic project of human kind is dying with life while racists are getting ready to dominate the world. When Gaza dies the whole of humanity will die, he argued. The people of God, it turns out, is all humankind, he added. We are all the chosen ones referring explicitly to 20,000 kids dead in Gaza. Like in the film “Don’t Look Up!”, Petro argued, global media is obsessed with the power of the richest one percent, the oligarchy, and they have the power to make or break news stories.

Fossil fuel capital cannot continue. Carbon in the atmosphere is lethal. Intelligent life must defend itself (and defend other lives) from the climate harms caused by a global oligarchy. New wealth needs to be created, possibly with a controlled AI, but, Petro said; “The flag we fly is the flag of life.” We need to choose between life or greed. The free market maximizes death, he said.

Petro concluded that it is time for the people to wage a battle to solve human kind’s problems, for that we need to come together. Let us revive that magic that has allowed us to survive till now, via a global revolution. If life manages to triumph over its very own extinction it won’t be the global oligarchy that will rule the world any more, they will be defeated to enable true democracy.

Chile

Gabriel Boric, the president of Chile, addressed the general assembly speaking of an end in privilege and greater distribution of wealth so that the climate crisis becomes a priority, but he reminded people of what Lula da Silva said, that if we reach success (as it’s currently defined) we would still only get to 17% of what we need. He said that the UN needed to be revitalized and the security council needs reformation. Boric focused on the establishment of a new security council with Brazil, India and “at least one African nation” on that new council. He suggested the deadline should be the 80th anniversary of the birth of the United Nations. Next year, September 2025! He reminded us of the swift collapse of the failed League of Nations advocating, instead, for fast change to keep the UN alive.

Boric also supported African suggestions for global taxation revenue collection to finance the fight against climate change where nations and multinational companies pay their fair share to the nations who provide their wealth. Human rights are ambiguous when our friends are responsible for the human rights abuse, he argued, citing double-standards for Palestine, Venezuela, Ukraine, Nicaragua or Afghanistan. All are human, we all have human rights. Rather than choosing between Israeli barbarity or Hamas barbarity, Boric called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a release of hostages with Israel respecting international law and ending growth in illegal settlements. He also called on the UN to bring peace between Russia and Ukraine.

He then continued with a list of other issues including AI and finishing with climate change calling these another of a list of problems that defy borders. He cited Chilean wild fires, even commenting on the fires in Córdoba that burned as he spoke in Argentina. Boric, referring to these fires, called on leaders not to deny human influence in climate change (an obvious reference to Milei’s ignorance on the topic).

Conclusion

Time to pave the way for a peaceful and Fossil Fuel Free Future,  some of South America’s presidents are behind it! But not, it seems, poor Argentina…

Eine Lanze für den Multilateralismus