Statement by Mr Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th session of the General Assembly on “The Future of Global Governance: A Commitment to Action” A Policy Forum
Friday 23 October 2015
Mr Secretary General, President Rød-Larsen, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen good morning to you all.
Let me begin by thanking IPI for organising today’s very timely policy forum. As we celebrate the birth of the UN some 70 years ago, today is an excellent opportunity to look at more strategic issues that face our institutions of global governance.
The revolutionary 2030 Agenda for sustainable development adopted just one month ago, represents a comprehensive, inclusive, integrated and bottom up approach to achieving sustainable development.
With three major reviews and other on-going processes within and outside the UN going on in the area of peace and security, perhaps this 70th Anniversary is an opportunity for a similar broad based review in that area.
The three reviews on Peace Operations, Peacebuilding and Women, Peace and Security are distinct from one another and follow their own well-defined processes. But they are also closely inter-related. And they are also linked to the Secretary General’s Plan of Action for Preventing Violent Extremism and the forthcoming General Assembly review of the Global Counter-terrorism strategy.
We therefore need to think about the common themes emerging from these reviews – is it the primacy of the politics? Is it preventive interventions? And what about the role of regional organizations?
We need to also reflect on what they tell us about the UN for the future – what will be its role in the global peace and security architecture? What kind of capacities does it need to resolve intractable conflicts such as those in Syria or the wider middle-east? How can it become more capable at addressing asymmetrical threats? And how it can overcome the internal fault-lines including across the main organs as well as fragmentation both in policy and operational terms?
This is the type of conversation I want to advance during my Presidency. I want Member States and a wide and representative set of other stakeholders – civil society, the business sector, academia and others – to reflect on the challenges and opportunities.
My high-level thematic debate on 10 and 11 May next year will be dedicated to this theme and seeks to inspire fresh thinking that will promote stronger coherence and integration of the UN’s response in this area.
The event will be prepared through engagements here in New York and elsewhere, and I encourage your active participation. Today a good starting point for that discussion and I look forward to hearing your views. Thank you.