Together First spells out what we would like to see from world leaders

By Together First on 3rd June, 2020
Blog photo

On 14 May 2020, the co-facilitators of the UN75 Political Declaration published the “Zero Draft” of the declaration - the starting point for negotiations among UN Member States.

H. E. Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani and H.E. Anna-Karin Eneström submitted this draft to the President of the General Assembly as the first iteration of the political declaration that will eventually be adopted during the 75th UN General Assembly in September. This declaration will capture the commitments of world leaders on the occasion of the UN’s 75th anniversary, and their proposals for strengthening our global system and “building back better” after the Covid-19 crisis.

The UN General Assembly had previously agreed that negotiations on the political declaration will conclude by the end of June. Member States met last week for what is likely to be a few weeks of consultation and negotiation.

It is a very strong draft. Together First would like to express our gratitude to the co-facilitators for their ongoing commitment to this declaration. We thank them for their efforts and leadership on this matter and welcome the positive and inspiring vision they have outlined.

However, we believe further improvements are both possible and necessary. We therefore wrote to the co-facilitators offering our support and thanks, and making three additional points:

  1. We felt the level of ambition could be increased, particularly in the context of the existential threats we face.
  2. We felt that while the co-facilitators had attempted to include “concrete action points”, in several places the recommendations could be made more tangible and substantive.
  3. We placed significant emphasis on the crucial importance of a well-resourced, inclusive and politically supported follow up mechanism.

Together First will continue to follow the negotiations of this document closely, and will release into the public domain as much information regarding it as we are permitted. 

You can read our full letter here.

Photo: UN75 Dialogue with the Secretary-General "Youth in the Driving Seat". c. UN Photo/Mark Garten