United Nations & Multilateralism - Archive

American economist Joseph E. Stiglitz addressed the second UN Forum on Business and Human Rights on 3 December 2013. In his powerful speech he called on Governments to move beyond soft law towards a binding international agreement on business and human rights. He concluded: "Economic theory has explained why we cannot rely on the pursuit of self-interest; and the experiences of recent years have reinforced that conclusion. What is needed is stronger norms, clearer understandings of what is acceptable—and what [...]

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung has published a report authored by GPF’s Barbara Adams and Lou Pingeot. The report titled “Whose Development, Whose UN?” gives an analysis of the future 'we don’t want' and the challenges facing the UN in the run up to the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. It takes a look at the state of the UN’s historically values-based framework and the interests of the different development actors shaping the post-2015 development paradigm, particularly focusing on the [...]

A joint statement was drafted by participants of the first annual People's Forum on Human Rights and Businesses calling for an international legally binding instrument on human rights, transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The Forum demands the establishement of monitoring mechanisms that include the supervision of extraterritorial obilgations of transnational corporations.

In her book review of Birgit Müller's (ed.) "The Gloss of Harmony: The Politics of Policy Making in Multilateral Organisations", Ingeborg Gaarde writes: "This book takes us to the negotiation rooms and backstages at UN Headquarters as well as to the local sites where global policies show their direct impact [...] The authors show how international organizations are working in disciplined arenas with layers of embedded power dynamics, and in the confrontation between representations. However, the chapters of the book [...]

Harris Gleckman has published an article titled ‘ECOSOC’s New Role and Its Old Culture’. The article written for iisd surrounds the extensive reforms made to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). After the latest reform resolution, four distinct new elements to ECOSOC have appeared following the governments agreement on new operating rules for the council.

A group of United Nations human rights experts urges governments worldwide to take into account a set of guidelines on extraterritorial obligations adopted by leading specialists in international law and human rights on 28 September 2011 in Maastricht, the Netherlands: the Maastricht Principles.

United Nations' Unions call for action ahead of the 2013 General Assembly about the credibility of mercenaries being used to carry out security and peacekeeping work. Their call is based on a report published by the United Nations’ Working Group on the use of mercenaries, which reveals that the UN is increasingly outsourcing contracts for armed guards, convoy security, security advice, risk assessment and transport services. This report is supported by Global Policy Forum’s report on the use of Private [...]

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung has issued a publication about the newly formed ACT initiative created by 22 UN countries to accelerate and promote developments in accountability, coherence and transparency within the UN Security Council. ACT also aims to encourage non-council members to take part and reform the prior working methods of the council to allow non-members to benefit more from the body.

A new policy paper published by the German NGO Forum on Environment and Development argues that the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa will not be able to combat hunger and food insecurity in Africa. On the contrary, the paper, to which Global Policy Forum contributed, points out that the New Alliance is mainly focused on providing multinationals with opportunities to reap profits through the creation of environments conducive to investment. Thus, the paper calls for [...]

Martin Khor, director of South Centre, explains how the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement could potentially disadvantage participating developing countries. He points out that local producers will have to compete with large foreign businesses. Moreover, the TPPA will give foreign companies more opportunities to sue governments, while also raising the prices of medicines.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Second World Conference on Human Rights, which produced the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action, a wide range of civil society organizations gathered in Vienna this week. They adopted the Vienna+20 CSO Declaration, which emphasizes the primacy of human rights and calls for rights to be made operational.

The world faces an unprecedented coincidence of global crises. They testify to the failure of the dominant model of development and economic progress that is oriented on a technocratic modernisation path, is blind to human rights and the ecological limits of the global ecosystem, confuses growth of Gross Domestic Product with progress in society, and regards poverty as a primarily technical challenge in which categories of inequality and social justice are neglected.

The Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development [...]

On 31 October 2011 the Reflection Group submitted a statement to the secretariat of the Rio+20 Conference to be held in June 2012. It was prepared during a drafting session in October in New Paltz, NY and highlights some of the issues and proposals that will come up in the final report of the Reflection Group again. The final report will come out in spring of 2012 after a final meeting of the Group.

The financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009 only reached the developing world with a time lag. At least in parts of the Global South the crisis is having a huge social and economic impact. As a result, the prospects of achieving the internationallyagreed developing goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), by2015 are receding ever more into distance.But the crisis has also brought about a change in the economic policy discourse. The blind faith of neo-liberal economists and the overnments [...]

Having seen dynamic developments in the 1990s, relations between the United Nations (UN) and civil society are now at a critical stage. The number of private actors participating in international negotiations has been increasing and led to a more extensive involvement of these actors in global policy processes. But all attempts to extend formal participatory rights for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the UN have failed so far.

Some governments have responded rather defensively to the increasing (quantitative) presence of non-state [...]

This paper discusses the main causes of the steep run-up in global food prices and the resulting spread of hunger to nearly a billion people worldwide. Authors James A. Paul and Katarina Wahlberg conclude that biofuels and the agro-industrial approach to food production are the main culprits of the food crisis. The paper looks at a wide range of factors endangering nutrition for all, including population growth, unsustainable consumption, international trade policy and climate change. The authors argue for effective [...]

Global Policy Forum's Katarina Wahlberg criticizes the World Bank's proposal to create a Green Revolution in Africa. By focusing on boosting agricultural production through scientific development of more productive crops, the Bank disregards the fact that the Earth's biological systems cannot be exploited forever. The supporters of the new Green Revolution also fail to address the major causes of the global food crisis, including biofuel production and unsustainable global consumption of meat. The author calls for a shift from industrial [...]

Global Policy Forum's Katarina Wahlberg warns that for the "first time in decades, worldwide scarcity of food is becoming a problem." Increasing demand of cereals for food consumption, cattle feeding and in particular biofuel production, is driving food prices to record levels. Especially the poor, who spend a majority of their income on food, will suffer. To make matters worse, the food price hike is also affecting the amount of food aid available, as governments have not increased funding for [...]

This Global Policy Forum report critically reviews the global food aid system. Author Katarina Wahlberg argues that food aid donors fall short in prioritizing the needs of the poor and hungry. Instead, donor countries use food aid to promote their own national strategic and commercial interests. Such food aid not only fails to reduce hunger, it can also harm long-term food security in recipient countries.

The UN mandate authorizing the Multinational Force in Iraq is up for renewal in late 2007. In this memorandum, Global Policy Forum argues that the Security Council should not renew the mandate. The memo recalls the many ways that the MNF violates international law and human rights. It points out that the political and humanitarian situation in Iraq is worsening and the great majority of Iraqis see the MNF as an occupying force that prevents national reconciliation. The Iraqi parliament [...]

In late 2007, the UN Security Council will consider renewal of the mandate that authorizes the presence of the US-led multinational force (MNF) in Iraq. Global Policy Forum outlines the little-known demands of the Iraqi parliament to ratify any new agreement on the MNF. The Iraqi constitution requires the cabinet to submit such agreement for ratification and the parliament has already passed a law demanding conformity with this provision. A majority of parliamentarians also wrote a letter to Security Council [...]

One day before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon chaired the second "Global Compact Leaders Summit" in Geneva, a group of NGOs sponsored a hearing to assess the UN corporate initiative. Speakers addressed the failure of the Global Compact to hold its signatories accountable for basic human rights, as well as environmental and labor standards. The speakers also discussed how many translational corporations exploit their Global Compact memberships to advance their public relations, and oppose initiatives calling for binding international regulation [...]

This Global Policy Forum-Friedrich Ebert Foundation joint paper analyzes how UN relations with NGOs as well as the corporate sector affect international policymaking and multilateralism. The author, GPF-Europe's Jens Martens, warns that "despite the image of greater flexibility and efficiency," such partnerships could increase businesses' influence in politics while impeding long-term development strategies. Martens therefore calls for a system to regulate the UN's interaction with corporations, ensuring that profit-driven initiatives do not overshadow public interests.

Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have acquired considerable importance at the UN since the beginning of the 1990s. Yet attempts made since the last review of the consultative arrangements between the UN and NGOs, in 1996, to reform NGOs’ formal opportunities for participation, have been unsuccessful. The recommendations made by the Cardoso-Panel on the future of UN-civil society relations played no apparent part in debates on UN reform in 2005. Instead, governments sent out the opposite signal during the Millennium+ 5 Summit [...]

This briefing paper analyzes the report "Mobilising Political Will," published by the Finnish government in the context of the "Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy" conference. The Helsinki Process tries to bring more democracy into the global governance system, through a "multi-stakeholder approach," involving not only governments but also NGOs and business representatives. While participants generally expressed support for the multi-stakeholder approach, some NGO representatives hinted that sharp differences of opinion among the participants led to "too timid" suggestions on [...]