Pact for the Future running into expected roadblocks. Very good article/Devex

Will the UN's attempt to usurp world governance get the slapdown it invites?

I have excerpted key sections from a long article published by Devex, “the Global Development Newsletter.”

https://www.devex.com/news/un-future-summit-seeks-to-unite-a-fractured-world-108305?

Not one of the five big powers (the permanent members of the Security Council) will be represented by a head of state or government at the summit. [I guess they don’t want any of the doodoo or recriminations to land on themselves.—Nass]

… With negotiations entering their final lap, Russia is leading a coalition of autocratic governments, including Iran, Nicaragua, Syria, and Venezuela, in a last-ditch effort to scrap a series of contentious provisions from three declarations — the Pact for the Future, a Global Digital Compact, and a Declaration on Future Generations — which are to be endorsed on Sunday by world leaders. They include the standard menu of the autocrats’ targets: Protections for human rights, gender equality, and freedom of expression.

They seek the removal of clauses that urge governments not to enact internet shutdowns, or impose economic sanctions, and the removal of language that erects legal guardrails to prevent the excessive use of electronic and digital surveillance of their citizens. The talks, said one U.N. insider, are expected to “go down to the wire.”

… For many, the high-level gathering provides another annual opportunity to mark the abject failure of governments to achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals aimed at ending extreme poverty and inequality by the year 2030, undermining the very notion that history is bending on an arc toward progress and justice. Since 2015, when the SDGs were launched, key barometers of human well-being and progress have been sliding backward. Instead of achieving their aim of ending extreme poverty by 2030, governments are observing increasingly high levels of poverty.

…The draft future pact underscores the need for greater global solidarity. It includes five overarching themes — including sustainable development, peace and security, global governance, future generation, and digital technology — and a 60-point action plan, urging countries to do everything from eradicating poverty and expanding the U.N. Security Council to devising a global governance framework for preventing war in outer space. But nearly a year of hard-fought negotiations has also exposed the cultural, religious, and geopolitical fault lines between the U.N.’s 193 member states who quarreled for months over abortion, nuclear disarmament, sanctions, financial and security council reform, and who controls the Internet.

“The mood around the preparations for the Summit in NY this year has been pretty low,” Richard Gowan, the U.N. representative for the International Crisis Group, told Devex. “Most diplomats around New York are a little skeptical of what the summit can achieve. As a result, the summit will almost certainly exceed expectations because they were not set high.”

… The U.N.’s failure to contain wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan have contributed to the sense of pessimism.

… Michèle Griffin, director of the Summit of the Future team in the secretary-general’s office, has worked on U.N. reforms for decades. She acknowledged that the international system is on its heels, noting that the U.N. has encountered some “geopolitical curve balls” — including wars in Gaza and Ukraine — that have complicated the preparations for the future summit.

“We couldn’t have faced stronger headwinds,” she said in a telephone interview. But she said the three draft declarations contain a series of “groundbreaking” achievements, including a commitment to enlarge the Security Council and redress the historical underrepresentation of Africa on the council.

On Thursday, the U.S. announced its support for two permanent Security Council seats for African nations, and reiterated its backing for permanent seats for Germany, India, and Japan. It is also in favor of permanent representation for Latin America and the Caribbean, and a nonpermanent seat for small island developing states, reflecting the need to address climate change. But Washington made it clear it does not intend to give up its veto power or extend it to any new countries.

… For some, doubts remain about the commitment of big powers, including traditional champions of the world body such as the United States, to a rules-based international order, anchored by the U.N. Charter.

… Beyond the debate about the future, many diplomats have been dispirited by the U.N.’s retreat from its traditional conflict resolution role.

Guterres told Reuters that he has not had a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the start of the Israel war with Hamas. The U.N. has largely been sidelined from mediating peace efforts in Sudan, and it has sought to limit its activism to promoting humanitarian access for victims in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine.