September 2024 is the date set for world leaders to discuss global security and economic threats. One of the main reports that will be on the table at the aforementioned Future Summit will be the New Peace Agenda, proposed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres.
This working document proposes twelve recommendations, which range from the elimination of nuclear weapons or the control of all types of weapons, promoting new preventive and diplomatic mechanisms, to the construction of a more robust collective security machinery. Despite wanting to provide new responses to reinforce SDG 16, it still generates many reluctance, contextualized within the framework of a growing distrust towards multilateralism.
One of the recommendations of the New Peace Agenda points out the need to address the links between the current climate emergency, peace and security (linking the aforementioned SDG 16 with, mainly, number 13: climate action) through of the recognition of this connection as a political priority, in addition to ensuring their mutual feedback. However, the working document highlights, among many other aspects, how global research communities can collaborate more effectively with multilateral organizations, in addition to warning about the low level of knowledge of diplomats and officials on the subject.
Another area where the women, peace and security agenda still needs to be deepened (and therefore, a greater link between SDGs 5 and 16). Although the new peace agenda mentions the need to review existing power dynamics, organizations such as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) denounce the need for a better intersectional analysis, starting with more realistic participation policies. (and not only numerical representation) of feminist civil society organizations or a better approach by states to prevention policies. Above all, it highlights the need to combat all the structural dimensions of gender violence and patriarchy at a global level.
The debates surrounding this new peace agenda should be read as a proposal to provide more and better responses to current threats. However, beyond the growing distrust in multilateralism, the current situation (armed conflicts in Gaza or Ukraine) also makes us see the need for better application and respect for international law, also absent in the central body of the aforementioned document. Furthermore, it is worth considering whether what needs to change are the questions: is the current multilateral system necessary and efficient? And, more specifically, if this proposal arises from the United Nations, shouldn't the solution begin by changing the structure and functioning of its Security Council?
*The author of the text, Albert Caramés Boada, is director of FundiPau
