Global South and its demand for 'reformed multilateralism' in a multipolar word

The existing multilateral system was created after the Second World War. More than 750 million people living under colonial rule in countries could not participate in this process when the UN Charter was adopted in June 1945. It was only following the independence of India in August 1947 that the entry of newly independent former colonial countries, referred to as the Global South, into the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) occurred. The agenda of the Global South in multilateral institutions prioritizes the consolidation of their sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the creation of a supportive external environment for their accelerated socio-economic development. The Global South’s demand for “reformed multilateralism” seeks to correct institutional biases built into multilateral decision-making structures by the major powers of 1945, while ensuring an interlinked, effective, and “human-centric” functioning of the multilateral system. The two major structures that are the focus of demands for “reformed multilateralism”, in terms of equitable participation of the Global South in their decision-making process, are the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Global South calls to reform multilateralism seek to safeguard the special and differential treatment provisions designed to increase the effective participation of developing countries in multilateral institutions. The veto provision, requiring the “concurring votes” of the five self-selected, unelected, “permanent members” (known as the P-5, consisting of China, France, Russia, the UK, and USA) in UNSC decisions, has ensured that the UN Charter’s mandate giving “primary responsibility” to the UNSC for maintaining international peace and security has been used to further the geopolitical aims of these five states, often at the expense of Global South interests. The weighted quota governance system, giving Western economic powers of 1945 dominance over decisions by the IMF, has similarly been used to impose conditionalities on economic and governance policies of Global South states. India put on record its opposition to the UNSC’s undemocratic veto provision at the first session of the UNGA on 18 January 1946. It asserted that the veto safeguard measure had been “unwillingly” agreed to after receiving the commitment in Article 109 of the UN Charter by the major powers to review the provisions of the treaty ten years after the UN was established. This review, due by 1955, has not taken place till today. Similarly, efforts to reform the IMF quota-based decision-making system came to a head only after the voluntary contributions of several Global South countries to the IMF’s financial bail-out corpus to rescue major Western economies from the 2008 financial crisis. In 2010, the IMF agreed to reforms by readjusting the quotas of several Western members and increasing the quotas of emerging economies of the Global South, like India and Brazil. Till today, these reforms have not been implemented. Despite these structural impediments, working through the UNGA using the democratic principle of “one-country one-vote” enshrined in Article 18 of the UN Charter, the Global South has succeeded in bringing its priorities to the fore of the multilateral system. Represented by the Group of 77 (G-77) since 1964, the Global South catalyzed the formation of the UNDP in 1965 to coordinate the implementation of the multilateral development agenda. This agenda was given shape by the G-77’s Charter of Algiers in 1967 calling for a New International Economic Order. A holistic approach to environmental protection and accelerated development emerged after the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment of 1972. In 1986, the UNGA declared the “right to development” as an inalienable human right. In 1992, the UN’s Earth Summit adopted “sustainable development” as an integrated agenda, resulting in the negotiation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biodiversity. This process culminated in 2015 with the UN’s adoption of the ambitious, universally applicable, Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development revolving around 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The overarching goal of Agenda 2030 is the eradication of poverty. Agenda 2030 commits to “broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance” (SDG 16.8). It commits to multilateral flows of finance and technology to implement the SDGs. Yet, the prospects for achieving the SDGs by 31 December 2030 have suffered major setbacks during the past three years. These setbacks have primarily impacted the Global South. Since early 2020, the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic has, according to the World Bank, pushed an additional 100 million people, mostly in the Global South, into extreme poverty, and exacerbated inequalities within and between countries. Multilateral institutions have been held hostage to the protectionist priorities of developed countries when responding to Global South initiatives for using effective international cooperation to mitigate the pandemic. In 2015, when Agenda 2030 was adopted, the UN reported that 60 million people across the world were impacted by violent conflicts placed on the agenda of the UNSC. By 2022, this figure had ballooned to 314 million, a stark indictment of a malfunctioning UNSC riven by increased P5 confrontation. Adding to the misery of people living in conflict areas, in Asia, Africa, and Latin America is the ineffectiveness of the UN Secretary-General’s elaborately funded and structured preventive diplomacy system, consisting of the Mediation Support Unit, the Standby Team of Mediation Experts, and the High-Level Advisory Board. Agenda 2030 asserts there “can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development”. Yet, multilateralism today is being fractured by the rise of new forms of confrontational regionalism. The steady erection of protectionist trade and investment barriers, the recourse to unilateral economic sanctions applied extra-territorially to sovereign countries, and the weaponization of the negotiated economic and technological interlinkages of globalization are indicators of the dangers lying ahead. These are amplified by calls by some major Western powers for a “second Cold War” to the detriment of the Global South. Dialogue and diplomacy using the commitment to convene a General Conference of the UN in Article 109 of the UN Charter is increasingly the most viable method for the Global South to reform multilateralism. The UN’s Summit of the Future in 2024, and the 80th anniversary commemoration of the UN in 2025, provide a window to achieve this outcome. The author is former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.