Something has to change!

 In meteorological terms, the current geopolitical world view points to hurricane force winds of a magnitude we have never seen before.
   There is the deliberately misrepresented war in Ukraine, the brutal slaughter in Palestine and the civil wars in Myanmar, in the Republic of Congo, in Syria and Venezuela. Climate change-related disasters occur in Africa and the Caribbean, mafia violence dominates life in Haiti.
    Then there is mass psychosis and fearsome and stupid populism in the United States, as well as a confused Europe that has forgotten what it promised itself in Paris in 1990 for freedom.
    Deliberate disinformation and “false flag” ventures such as Nordstream 2, Bucha, Gaza and, let us not forget, rigged national elections, are constant geopolitical and criminal attempts to win the support of the citizens.
    Part of this worldview is also the immense, omnipresent corruption that continues to spread and is one of the causes of the “poverty of the many”, while at the same time the “wealth of the few” is unbelievable.
    The sick environment as well as nuclear armament are the great dangers for all (!) 193 member states of the United Nations!
    “Things must not stay as they are” – who among us could disagree with this important statement by Günter Verheugen and Petra Erler?
    Something must change indeed!
    The “hope of the many” that responsibility will be spread across broader shoulders in order to achieve a fairer world order for all must not be disappointed. This hope, reaching for the stars, in no way means that our feet should not remain on the ground!
    The wall of “resistance of the few” against the “hope of the many” is high, but can be overcome with the “ladder of conviction”. “Mountains separated the people, but the people climbed the mountains”, says a great Afghan proverb.

Western unilateralism has had its day

It is encouraging that new leaders from the non-Western world, not only from China, are unstoppably and successfully more and more intensively espousing a “different”, a better, world. New alliances have formed, such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Chinese Silk Road Programme and the climate change conferences. They are increasingly shaping our world order. Western unilateralism has undoubtedly had its day.
    Perhaps some of you will think that I am painting a too one-sided black-and-white picture here. I assure you that this is in no way my intention. My statements reflect an actually ongoing process of change and not a final state.
    With this in mind, I would like to briefly address two issues that I believe are of crucial importance for the evolving world order:

1. the necessary reform of the United Nations, arguably the global institution most important for the well-being of humanity, and:
2. the necessary acceptance of the universality, not only of human rights, but also of human duties.

Issue 1:

After a delay of 79 years (see Article 109 of the UN Charter), there will now be a summit conference of the UN General Assembly in New York on 22/23 September to discuss the future of the UN 1 – an important start for a new and urgently needed UN which is to fulfil its obligations to peace and security in the 21st century.
    It will be a long road, with deep potholes. Western governments will initially refuse to agree to a geopolitical, geographical and structural reorganisation in the sense of equality and equivalence.

USA: military-economic power
and disregard for international law

At the risk of being misunderstood, I would like to add: Five years of research have led Professor Richard Falk and me to the empirically proven conclusion that the US governments, in the interest of their global geopolitical ambitions, have always relied on their military and economic power throughout the years, without recognition of existing and binding international law. We therefore believe that this is the main cause for the turbulence in international relations and for the disappointing performance of the political UN since the last decade of the 20th century (see Richard Falk and Hans von Sponeck. Liberating the United Nations. Realism with Hope, Stanford, 2024, p. 292, para 2).
    We are convinced that over time the US and other Western countries (about 8% of the world’s population!) will realise that without a willingness to compromise and converge, their locomotive will be left behind on a side-track.

UN reform must take
new global realities into account

In 79 years, the list of pending UN reforms has become a long one. The most important pending reforms include:

• adapting the Security Council to today’s geopolitical and geographical realities; new major powers and permanent seats for Africa and Latin America; more seats for Asia;
• a reinterpretation of the right of veto in the Security Council;
• an expansion of the decision-making rights of the General Assembly;
• international tribunals that not only have advisory functions but are also endowed with the right to make decisions;
• greater independence and freedom of decision for the UN Secretary-General (Charter Articles 100 and 101);
• increased and secure funding for the work of the UN;
• integrated cooperation between the legislative, judicial and executive units of the United Nations with each other and with civil society.

The most difficult reform will undoubtedly be to “democratise” the UN! This will involve building trust among the nation states, especially the major powers, in order to create a selfless multilateral spirit.
    This will be hard work in which civil society must play a decisive role. As the unforgettable  Kofi Anan said: “People should feel with their heads and think with their hearts.” What a great guiding principle for human life!

We need a General
Declaration of Human Duties

Issue 2:

Since the founding of the United Nations in 1945, a great many important international human rights have been created, including the two covenants on civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights – a valuable step forward for the coexistence of all people. For many years, however, there have also been calls for “human rights” to include “human duties”.
    In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, there is only a rather circumspect reference to “human duties”, namely that “Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.” (Article 29).
    For 47 former heads of government and heads of state, this reference was not enough, and they therefore decided to sign a draft Universal Declaration of Human Duties. One of the signatories was the Swiss Federal Councillor and several-time President of the Swiss Confederation Kurt Furgler.
    A short time later, the Human Rights Commission in Geneva discussed the issue of rights and responsibilities, and the UN General Assembly in New York passed a resolution in support. Unfortunately, things have stayed the same ever since.
    Neither the UN nor governments have addressed the issue since then.
    The time has come to reconsider the link between human rights and human duties, and to do so with renewed vigour. The goal: to create a legal basis for the introduction of a human rights covenant. This should be decided in the UN General Assembly at the planned summit on the future of the UN and also in the two international courts.
    Much, very much has to change in order to make the human world a more humane place. Not only the “others”, but all of us can make a contribution to this.
    There is much more in each of us than we think!  •

¹   Hans-Christof von Sponeck gave this lecture on 31 August 2024, three weeks before the adoption of the UN “Pact for the Future” (see page 13 of this newspaper). [Editor’s note.]

(Translation Current Concerns)

*   Hans-Christof von Sponeck, born in Bremen in 1939, studied demography and physical anthropology at the universities of Bonn, Tübingen and Washington and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Marburg in 2010. He worked for the United Nations from 1968 to 2000. During this time, he worked in New York, Ghana, Pakistan, Botswana, India and was Director of the UNDP’s European Office in Geneva. From 1998 to 2000, he was UN Coordinator and the Assistant UN Secretary-General responsible for the “Oil for Food” program in Iraq. In February 2000, he resigned in protest against the sanctions policy against Iraq. Various awards and publications. In July 2024, Stanford University Press published his new book, Liberating the United Nations. Realism with Hope, which he co-authored with Richard Falk.