Pakistan, speaking on behalf of a 17-member like-minded group at consultations for the UN ‘Summit of the Future’, has stressed the need for its outcome document to accommodate the concerns and priorities of the developing countries.
“This must reflect on our commitment to achieve consensus and unity in the negotiations,” Ambassador Munir Akram said as the consultations resumed on Thursday to prepare for the ambitious Summit, which will be held next year. The 2024 Summit was proposed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his ‘Our Common Agenda’ report to address the issues of peace and security, setting out a “New Agenda for Peace,” with more investment for peace-building, support for regional conflict prevention, a reduction of strategic risks such as nuclear weapons and cyberwarfare, and a dialogue on outer space to ensure that it is used peacefully and sustainable. The Summit will adopt ‘A Pact for the Future’ – a concise, action-oriented outcome document, to be agreed in advance by consensus through intergovernmental negotiations. The co-facilitators leading the intergovernmental preparatory process for the ‘Summit of the Future’ are: Germany’s UN Ambassador Antje Leendertse and Namibia’s UN Ambassador Neville Melvin Gertze.
The like-minded group, on whose behalf the Pakistani envoy spoke, include Algeria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Russia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
In his remarks on behalf of the group, Ambassador Akram said the negotiations on “A Pact for the Future” should build upon the areas of agreement on ‘elements’ that emerged during the consultations held prior of the current session of the UN General Assembly. These “elements” should be agreed first, before moving on to fleshing out their details, he said. Otherwise, the preparatory process will have no intergovernmental direction. “The full eradication of poverty must be an overarching and crosscutting issue across all our negotiations,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“A Pact for the Future” should reaffirm the principles and purposes of the UN Charter; support multilateralism and enhanced international unity and cooperation; call for the implementation of UN resolutions regarding development and eradication of poverty; and set out steps to accelerate the achievement of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), including implementation of the “Political Declaration” of the SDG Summit. The like-minded group, Ambassador Akram said, also underlined the need for addressing the multiple existing and emerging security challenges in a comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable manner by avoiding unilateralism and polarization and fully adhering to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
In this regard, the group called for the meaningful engagement of the youth in line with the intergovernmental nature of the UN in issues affecting them. It also made a case for equitably addressing the needs and priorities of current generations, while taking into account demographic as well as cultural realities and projections of the current and future generations. Ambassador Akram underscored that the ‘Pact of the Future’ should have comprehensive and balanced coverage of all institutions, which will form part of a new and more equitable global governance arrangement. The reform of the three principal UN organs and the strengthening of the Peacebuilding Commission must be accompanied by the reform of the international financial, trade and technology architecture to make it more just, equitable and responsive, he said.
