UN Charter Review in 2020: An Urgent Necessity

Amid the unraveling of the liberal international order, the United Nations system has become dysfunctional to the point that maintaining it in its present form is a clear and present danger to the future of human survival, a leading expert argues.
“The challenge is to create institutions to be able to respond to international issues before they magnify the already existing crises,” TIM MURITHI states in the latest Global Governance Spotlight published by Bonn-based sef: Development and Peace Foundation.
The 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in 2020 is an opportune time to genuinely review and examine whether the UN system that we currently have is designed to effectively address the pressing issues which threaten to further fragment global society in a manner that precipitates forces of intolerance and violent extremism, MURITHI writes in the brief titled ‘United Nations Charter Review in 2020: An Urgent Necessity!’
“It would be naïve to think that the beneficiaries of the current system, notably the Permanent Five (P5) members of the UN Security Council who form a cohort of self-selected elite global governors, will allow change to happen without them undertaking measures to bully and cajole compliance from those seeking change,” the author contends.
Many countries clamor to be a part of the ‘club’ at the UN Security Council, but, once there, are always ineffectual and relegated to marginal issues because the P5 have effectively ‘captured’ the UN system. It is unlikely that tinkering with the edges, in the form of so-called UN reform, will generate institutional models that lead to a deepening of global democracy, MURITHI states.
“It will be necessary for members of the UN General Assembly representing the 5 billion people who are excluded from being part of the elite global governance cohort, to build a ‘coalition of the willing’ to advance the collective interests of humanity.”
A UN Charter Review Conference, ideally convened in 2020, can be triggered by a General Assembly resolution activating Article 109 of the organization’s founding document, which will create a platform for global deliberation. A key outcome could be the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly which can promote inclusive dialogue and decision-making on pursuing effective collective problem-solving with the view to urgently addressing the global challenges, he states.