Slovenia’s President, Nataša Pirc Musar, emphasized that, following the Second World War and Cold War, there were hopes for and beliefs in lasting peace, security, and cooperation, as enshrined in the UN Charter.  Sadly, that vision has not materialized.  “In fact, the situation has worsened.”  That is because the Security Council “is failing to meet the expectations of the world — if it ever has”.

Instead of working for peace, some of the five permanent Council members “work in their own interests instead”.  The promise of the Sustainable Development Goals is also faltering, as millions of people are pushed further from the most basic services. International law appears to “stand at the precipice of irrelevance”.  The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide risks becoming a relic and International Criminal Court prosecutors face intimidation. Countries are withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and UN agencies, diminishing multilateralism.

She questioned how to explain these trends to children, whether to tell them the mighty may kill with impunity because they can.  She advocated for making a stronger UN by establishing a permanent advocacy network to give the Pact for the Future unconditional, sustained political support.  She proposed the creation of a Global Forum for the Future, which would be a movement of nations working for multilateralism to drive the Pact of the Future’s implementation forward at every level. She said there must be reform of the Security Council, which should not be a body standing above international law to defend some interests at the expense of others.  The Assembly must request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on whether any permanent Council member can claim a legitimate veto right over such norms.

The gap in gender equity must be confronted, Ms. Musar said.  Only 13 per cent of leaders of multilateral organizations have been women, and the UN has never had a woman as Secretary-General.  “Let us make history!”  By the end of this session, there should be a Madam Secretary-General-elect, she stressed.  Yet, not only gender representation but actual gender equity must also be achieved. It benefits entire societies and requires systematic change.  A gender perspective must be in every strand of international organisations’ policymaking, a result of the effective participation of women and girls.  The UN can only succeed as a community if we accept that “there is no future for humanity without a fundamental change”. The mandate of the Global Forum for the Future would be to push towards such a change that would inspire hundreds of millions of people.

Governments, artists, influencers and visionaries, using science, technology and global connectivity, can join to defend humanity, creating an irresistible voice demanding real action by all Governments on the Pact for the Future, she added  They can hold to account those behind wars, genocidal policies, and crimes against humanity.  This requires inclusive and fearless leadership.  “We must not surrender to a world where power alone prevails.”  If leaders can offer nothing but terror, conflict, pollution, fear, inequalities, and war, then “we are complicit in crimes against our civilisation and our planet.”  She called for efforts to reject arrogance, hatred, and wilful blindness of inequality and injustice, wars of aggression, crimes against humanity, and genocide — “because they tear us apart, for generations”.  “We should do the right thing.  We did not stop the Holocaust, we did not stop the genocide in Rwanda, we did not stop the genocide in Srebrenica.  We must stop the genocide in Gaza.  There are no excuses anymore.  None.”