UN2020 and UN75 Update with Jeffery Huffines

Event Description

When the United Nations turned 75, member states agreed on a four-page declaration that mostly repeated promises they had already made. Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS) held this hour-long UN2020 update online on Saturday 12 September 2020. UN2020 was a civil society campaign for a leaders-level review of the UN system at its 75th anniversary. The update looked at how civil society had tried to shape the declaration. It also covered the special events marking the anniversary and the campaign itself.

Jeffery Huffines described the campaign’s work since 2016 and 2017. UN75 was the global conversation the United Nations launched for its 75th anniversary. Civil society’s UN75 People’s Declaration drew nearly 1,000 endorsements. Campaigners met with the office of the president of the General Assembly and the Secretary-General’s UN75 team. Breakfast dialogues brought diplomats and civil society together during the negotiations. The campaign also held joint events with Together First, a related civil society campaign.

Huffines compared the proposals of UN2020, Together First and the Stimson Center, a research institute. They included a UN parliamentary assembly and stronger international justice. They also included a single senior contact point for civil society at the UN. He then walked through the declaration. Its only concrete request is that the Secretary-General report back with recommendations within a year.

Speakers

Jeffery Huffines, Senior Advisor, UN2020 and Together First. From 2009 to 2019 he was UN representative in New York for CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organizations.

Titles are as of the event date.

Policy Focus

UN75, the UN2020 campaign and United Nations reform. Huffines argued that the declaration’s value will depend on implementation and accountability. He said the United States had insisted on weaker language on the Paris Agreement. He set out a possible road map to a 2023 world summit on inclusive global governance.

See also: the February and March 2020 UN2020 updates.

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