Building a Just World Order (Session 1)

The World Citizen Book Club hosted a session featuring Building a Just World Order by Dr. Alfred de Zayas. This event explored Dr. de Zayas’s 25 Principles of International Order—described by Maria Fernanda Espinosa, President of the 73rd UN General Assembly, as “a modern Magna Carta” for achieving peace with social justice in the 21st century.

About the Book

In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council created the mandate of the Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order. Building a Just World Order compiles 14 reports, notes, and comments by Dr. Alfred de Zayas during his tenure as the first mandate-holder from 2012 to 2018. The book formulates 25 principles of international order, defines domestic and international democracy, the right of self-determination of peoples, and a human right to peace. Dr. de Zayas proposes reforms to the UN system—notably the Security Council and the functions of the Secretary General—and advocates reversing the adverse impacts of World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies, slashing military expenditures, rendering free-trade agreements compatible with human rights, abolishing tax havens and investor-state-dispute arbitrations, alleviating the foreign debt crisis, and criminalizing war-profiteers and pandemic vultures.

About the Author

Dr. Alfred de Zayas is a former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, former senior lawyer with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee, and Chief of the Petitions Department. He is the author of nine books and more than 200 scholarly articles.

Discussion Highlights

Dr. de Zayas’s examined how 25 principles could serve as a framework for reforming the international order and discussed the tension between current global governance structures and the human rights imperatives outlined in the book.