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If the Zambia debacle doesn’t force a change in African borrowing practices, the AU can dump Agenda 2063 and all its dreams of development and economic integration out the window. The people of Zambia are going to suffer deeply because of the Lungu government’s decisions. If African leaders do nothing to prevent similar tragedies, they are the enemy of the African people and they have to go.
The Dialogue draws inspiration from the climate change movement and brings more voices to the table. The Declaration is overly general but universally agreed (what else was universally agreed in 2020?). It packages the 17 SDGs and more into 12 priorities and draws on existing tools like the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030 even as COVID-19 rages. It offers civil society a document around which to coalesce, to demand action from governments individually and collectively, just as eyes turn to the recommendations requested of Secretary-General Guterres by next fall.
UN75 is an opportunity to re-engage the global community, from the world leaders giving addresses at the General Assembly, to the billions of citizens watching those speeches from home. We cannot expect anyone else to solve our problems. Everyone has a role to play, a way to contribute, and a valued voice to add to the conversation. That’s the beauty of the UN75 initiative. I believe strongly in that message, having spent the better part of the last decade empowering Israeli and Palestinian youth to tackle regional and global challenges via Model United Nations (MUN).
According to Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “The 75th anniversary of the United Nations should provide an opportunity to do more than look back and celebrate past achievements. Governments must take stock of the current challenges facing the UN. The hard months and years ahead will require determined and principled leadership. Multilateralism is not an option: it is the only path that can deliver a green, sustainable and equitable recovery.”
We all know that Malaysia has been active in the UN since 1957 and we have played a key role especially in peacekeeping, on human rights, having served in the Human Rights Council, global advocacy on the removal of the apartheid regime in South Africa and on the rights of Palestinian and Rohingya people. Malaysia has also been active at the global, regional (especially ASEAN) and domestic levels in promoting the role of the UN in development and global peace.
At this, the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, the world is seeing yet another collective tragedy unfolding, its effects analogous to that of a war, though of a different form. And many predict that it presages additional global calamities. Like previous historic inflection points, a robust dialogue on the future of humanity is needed. The People’s Declaration and Program for Global Action adopted at the UN75 People’s Forum in May is one contribution to this necessary global discourse.
We have insisted decades ago, precisely in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, that gender equality and women’s human rights are not meant to be conceived as only as a national issue. Rather, a full understanding of what it means to mainstream gender equality at the core of every actions requires us to center our attention on global macro and structural measures. This is perhaps where Member States have a glaring debt in the face of their international commitments in relation to women’s human rights
At a time when the world’s fate hinges on effective global and regional cooperation, young people are showing remarkable support for global and regional systems rooted in solidarity, cooperation, justice, and human rights. From making viral the Chilean anti-rape anthem calling against gender violence and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement against racism to, most recently, leading a social movement (#EndSARS) against police brutality in Nigeria, youth mobilization is at an all-time high.
The theme of inclusivity as a justification of the BBI process featured some of the concerns of the young people in Kenya through selected representatives. Inadequate job opportunities, stringent barriers to entry into employment, and business, among others, are some of the issues raised as the causes of the widening gap of exclusion of the younger generation. On the other hand, the theme of shared prosperity suggested that the most pressing hindrance to intra-generational equity in Kenya is the lack of capacity to generate sufficient jobs and employment for the youth
This year’s commemoration of Peace Day is special as the universe is grappling with a common enemy: the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has caused a switch in the manner in which the globe operates as it has shown the world that we are not really not each other’s enemies, and we must unite to battle against the common enemy that is the global pandemic. The theme for this year’s Peace Day is ‘Shaping Peace Together’ and the UN invited the world to spread compassion, kindness, and hope in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
