On 4 February 2019, delegates from the General Assembly attended an informal meeting with former Presidents of the General Assembly on the theme: “Revitalization of the United Nations in favor of a strengthened multilateral rules-based system.”
The panel was comprised of the current President of the General Assembly (PGA) María Fernanda Espinosa, Miroslav Lajčák (Slovakia, 72nd Session), Peter Thomson (Fiji, 71st Session), Mogens Lykketoft (Denmark, 70th Session), Vuk Jeremić (Serbia, 67th Session), Joseph Deiss (Switzerland, 65th Session), and Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa (Bahrain, 61st Session). Prior to the open meeting, the PGAs met privately that morning in closed session to discuss the topic themselves.
The PGA officially opened the meeting with an address which outlined her own ideas for reform and revitalization, which was followed by each former PGA in descending order of the GA session they presided over. After their remarks, the floor was opened to the attending delegates representing countries and groups, then the meeting concluded with responses from the former PGAs and a formal closure by the current PGA.
PGA María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés started with a warning about the rise of nationalist rhetoric in global politics and its opposition to multilateral thought and bodies. Overcoming this encroachment to multilateralism, thus improving the GA's effectiveness, along with considering ways to counter the rising focus on national over global issues in local political discussions, became a recurring theme in the discussion.
The current PGA outlined the importance of combating the perception that multilateralism is a threat to sovereignty. Most delegates agreed, including Cuba, who iterated that the opposite was true: that it is through the cooperative process of multilateralism that state boundaries are respected. The Russian delegate did not disagree with this sentiment outright but spent much of their time impressing the importance of respecting national sovereignty as foundational tenant of the Charter, and that respecting it and other established international law remains an imperative.
Former- President Miroslav Lajčák was the first of many delegates who stressed the importance of not only trust between the member states for diplomacy, but also gaining the trust of the global citizenry. The former PGA asserted a two-fold strategy for addressing the trust deficit between the UN and the global populace: 1) alleviating issues that directly affect populations and 2) simplifying the language of the UN to make the institution more comprehensible to outsiders. This was reiterated by almost all of the former PGAs, including Haya Rashed Al Khalifa who added that the best defense against radicalism, in this case radical national-centrism, is education.
Fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) became an agreed upon means to demonstrate the UNGA's effectiveness, and therefore the value of multilateralism. As Mogens Lykketoft and the delegate from Jordan stated, the very existence of Agenda 2030 and its SDGs proves that countries can come together to solve issues that cross national and ethnic boundaries.
This lead to a discussion of ways to strengthen the UN system to accomplish those critical SDGs. Every panelist impressed upon the body the importance of strengthening the office of the PGA, giving it the authority and the budget to tackle issues, SDGs or otherwise. The limitations of the one-year term was given thought by panelists well, the concern being that a one-year term is not enough time to address and implement solutions for the wide breadth of issues that the member states bring to the GA.
The delegate from Egypt suggested the creation of a running list for outgoing PGAs to pass on of goals and solutions they were unable to implement in their own terms. Egypt also expressed what many other representatives stated: that the revitalization of the GA was critical as the GA remains the most democratic congress (in size, representation, and its lack of a veto) of the UN and its central organ. While the SC deals with crises, the GA is charged with solving the root causes of those crises
Other popular suggested reformations included increasing the synergy between UN organs and reducing redundancies, encouraging what Jan Kenneth Eliasson termed "working horizontally, rather than vertically." This notion was repeated often throughout the talk when it came to working with the SC. Many requested a closer, more collaborative relationship between the GA and SC, and the PGA and the SG. Along these lines, delegates applauded the recent efforts regarding reformation of the SG selection process and the SC (especially those made by former PGA Lykketoft and current SG Guterres, respectively), but many delegates and panelists called for more, although no specifics were mentioned.
Current PGA María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Vuk Jeremić, the representative of the EU, and the delegate from India all mentioned in their statements the opportunity for reflection and reform afforded by the upcoming 75th anniversary of the UN in 2020.
In their closing remarks, former PGAs Deiss, Thomson, and Jeremić iterated the importance of making the UN relevant to the youth, responding to comments from delegates, especially Tajikistan, about the importance of youth outreach. That doing so would both reinvigorate multilateralism and keep the next generation from repeating the mistakes of extreme nationalism and sectionalism which lead to the UN's creation in the first place.
In closing, the PGA María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés thanked everyone for their participation, and promised that the talks would be ongoing; a sentiment that is met with praxis with the HLPF meetings and discussions regarding global economic governance and development mandated by A/RES/65/94 both being scheduled for in the upcoming GA session.
The full text of PGA Maria Espinosa Garcés’s speech can be found at the UN’s website.
A recording of the meeting can also be found on the UN’s website here.