• by Nora Happel (united nations)
• Wednesday, July 15, 2015
• Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 15 (IPS) - Amid a range of new and old challenges, from climate change to gender equality and war crimes, a new report by the Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance emphasises the need to reform the U.N. system.

Highlighting a vision of "just security", the report titled "Confronting the Crisis of Global Governance" provides reform proposals to address key global challenges at the intersection of justice and security. It is based on three thematic categories: state-fragility and violent conflict, climate and people, and the interconnected global economy.

The 12 reforms suggested in the report range from U.N. conflict mediation, empowerment of women, implementation of the responsibility to prevent, protect and rebuild, climate governance and green climate technology to a reform of the U.N. Security Council and the creation of a parliamentary advisory body for the U.N. General Assembly to encourage civic participation.

The Commission was co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright and former Nigerian Foreign Minister and U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari.

Albright, who spoke at Tuesday's launch event, pointed to major shortcomings of the current U.N. system, including the workings and composition of the Security Council and a deficit of democracy shown by a lack of civil society involvement. She said the aim of the report is to present concrete ideas for solving these problems.

According to the former U.N. ambassador, last week's veto of the Security Council resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre of 1995 as "genocide" is a "sign that the international system in this regard is not keeping pace with our problems".

"The work of the Commission is about Security and Justice. In Srebrenica, there was a breakdown of security and actions at the U.N. show how hard it still is to achieve justice."

On the other hand, she said, examples such as the concept of "responsibility to protect" show that the U.N. is able to " itself to changed situations".

The report was released amidst ongoing international debates on the post-2015 development agenda, including the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September and the Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in November and December.

In this political context, the goal of the report is to ensure key challenges to global governance such as rising numbers of political conflicts within states, fragile states, forced displacements, migration crises, continued discrimination of women, especially in terms of education, employment and reproductive health, climate change and environmental degradation are being given appropriate consideration by the international community.

Edited by Kitty Stapp

© Inter Press Service (2015) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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