The Upcoming UNGA Convocation: A Crucial Moment For Global Issues
This article was originally published at Devex
As the UN prepares for its annual General Debate next week, many questions have been raised about its importance and effectiveness. Based on past UNGA gatherings, it is more than likely that this upcoming conference will not differ from previous sessions for several reasons, including the Assembly’s operational mode, which is based on consensus-based decision-making and leads to watered-down resolutions reflecting the “lowest common denominator” of opinions rather than intrepid action. Competing national interests among member states impede meaningful agreement on contentious issues. The Assembly’s 193 member states make it difficult to focus on fruitful debates. Finally, on matters of international peace and security, the Security Council holds primary responsibility, which can limit the Assembly’s role. The GA can make recommendations, but it lacks the authority to enforce its resolutions, and even when there are important issues, there is no concrete follow-through.
Although the GA cannot adequately address the plethora of crises, adversarial rivalries, and persistent violent conflicts globally, given the urgency of three major crises adversely affecting nearly every country—climate change, human rights violations, and the pervasiveness of violence worldwide—it stands a good chance of acting on them forcefully through specific UN bodies because political considerations may play a lesser role.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty adopted in 1992 which provides a framework for global cooperation on climate change and has near-universal membership with 198 countries. Its mission includes stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions and allowing ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change. Since its inception, two critical child treaties have been adopted: the Kyoto Protocol (1997) set binding emission reduction targets, and the Paris Agreement (2015) set a global pact to limit temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Although the UNFCCC has made significant progress, the continuing severity of climate change, manifested in massive fires, floods, and extreme temperatures, is causing havoc around the world and will have dire implications for the global community unless UN members use their collective power to do much more to combat climate change.
To begin with, the UNFCCC secretariat should strengthen its weak enforcement mechanisms, which have limited the effectiveness of agreements like those in Kyoto. It should also increase the national targets, as current national pledges are inadequate to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Second, transparency and accountability can be enhanced by employing stronger monitoring systems and reporting on emissions and climate actions. Third, technology transfer can be accelerated by sharing clean technologies with developing countries while providing them more financial and technical assistance. Fourth, the secretariat should engage non-state actors by increasing the involvement of businesses, cities, and civil society in climate action. Fifth, the secretariat must improve upon public awareness and education and integrating climate action with sustainable development goals.
Ultimately, success will depend on increased political will and cooperation from member countries. To achieve that, it will be necessary to streamline decision-making processes because the consensus-based approach often slows progress and dilutes agreements.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
The second most critical UN agency is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), whose primary mission is to promote and protect human rights globally. Its mandate includes promoting universal human rights by playing a leading role in addressing human rights violations globally and coordinating that throughout the UN structure. In addition, it promotes the ratification and implementation of international human rights standards by taking preventive actions and responding to human rights violations. Finally, it provides critically essential education, technical assistance, and advisory services on all human rights-related issues.
Sadly, despite its indispensable importance, the OHCHR has failed to address many grave human rights violations sufficiently and is unable to effectively confront powerful countries like China for their gross human rights abuses, politically discriminating against specific country violations that escape accountability. Furthermore, OHCHR experiences limited accessibility in many countries like Russia and, as a result, fails to follow through in its efforts to implement its recommendations adequately. Ironically, what adds to OHCHR’s travails is that countries like China, Venezuela, and Sudan, known for their egregious human rights violations, are members of the Human Rights Council, which imposes further constraints on its mission.
Several measures could be taken to strengthen OHCHR’s effectiveness. First, it is imperative to bolster the collection of data and analysis to track human rights progress or lack thereof. This would significantly strengthen the agency’s operational impact on the ground, help prevent human rights abuses, improve the follow-up mechanisms to ensure implementation, and boost the Council’s ability to respond to urgent crises.
In addition, the Office should develop stronger partnerships between national statistical offices and human rights institutions and increase accessibility for the victims of human rights violations while reforming the Human Rights Council’s membership standards by excluding states engaged in severe human rights violators. Implementing such reforms, OHCHR would considerably enhance its performance, provided that the UN member states empower it to fulfill its critical mission.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
The UNSC is the primary UN body responsible for addressing global violence and maintaining international peace and security. Its powers include recommending peaceful conflict resolution methods, investigating disputes and calling on parties to settle their conflict peacefully, imposing sanctions, deploying UN peacekeeping operations, and authorizing force when necessary to maintain or restore peace. Furthermore, the Security Council coordinates with other UN entities, like the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, to implement its decisions and manage field operations. However, disagreements between permanent members, as seen in the current Russia-Ukraine war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, limit the Council’s effectiveness.
Many of the UNSC’s shortcomings lie in its composition, structure, and power play. The UNSC has 15 members—5 permanent members (China, France, Russia, UK, and USA, known as the P5) with veto power, and ten non-permanent members elected for 2-year terms. Any resolution taken requires nine affirmative votes, including concurring votes of permanent members.
The UNSC has often failed to effectively rein in international violence for several reasons, including the veto power held by the P5. This usually leads to deadlock on critical issues, even when there is broad support from other members, and prevents action on many conflicts and crises. The P5 members prioritize their geopolitical interests over global peace and security, often leading to selective action in some conflicts while ignoring others. In addition, the UNSC lacks reliable means to enforce its resolutions when countries choose to ignore them, and the slowness of the council’s decision-making process limits its ability to compel compliance.
Several potential reforms have been proposed to address these issues and improve the UNSC’s effectiveness. Few are hard, if not impossible, to change or modify, including reforming the veto power and enlarging the Council to make it more representative of the global community. Nevertheless, several working methods can substantially improve its effectiveness, including enhancing transparency, inclusivity, and the Council’s operations, developing mechanisms to hold member states accountable for implementing resolutions, and focusing on preventing mass atrocities.
The dangerously heightened global tensions require bold action to prevent many elements of the three prevalent crises from escalating or becoming irreversible. Despite the UNGA’s limitations, with concerted efforts, the leaders of the major powers should attempt to mitigate some of these ominously unfolding crises and use the platform of the upcoming General Assembly to that end.