Renewing the
United Nations.
ONE SHARED FUTURE
An institution can be indispensable and in need of renewal at the same time. This is a program of renewal, begun on the first day, resting on five commitments.
Forty years ago, in a basement in Beirut, I made a promise that if my children were spared I would devote my life to peace.
The work I would bring to the United Nations is the continuation of that vow, on the largest possible scale. The authority of this office rests on one foundation, independence: the Secretary-General serves the whole of the membership, and no government, no bloc and no ideology. It is precisely because I am willing to speak candidly with each of them that I can be trusted by all of them.
IPrevention. Mediation. Peace.A United Nations that keeps the peace
A United Nations that keeps the peace
The Charter's first purpose is to maintain peace. Yet prevention and mediation remain under-resourced as conflicts persist. I learned the craft of peace in the process that ended the Ecuador–Peru war, settled in Brasilia in 1998 through patient diplomacy supported by guarantor states. That experience informs the approach I would bring to today's protracted conflicts.
- Rebalance the UN toward prevention and place mediation and good offices on stable footing, using the office to travel where the wars are
- assemble small groups of trusted guarantor states to accompany each major process from first contact to final verification
- and make Resolution 2719 real by funding the first regionally-led peace operation without further delay.
IIRepresentation. Legitimacy.A Security Council worthy of the 21st century
A Security Council worthy of the 21st century
The Council was designed in 1945, and its permanent membership does not reflect the regions and populations it serves today. Entire regions have no permanent seat. A credible renewal of the United Nations must address that imbalance and build a Council that can act with broader legitimacy.
- Champion the principle, not the personalities: permanent representation for the regions history has left out across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. The choice of which nations hold new seats belongs to the membership, but silence on a question this central is itself a choice, and I will not be silent.
IIIDevelopment. Opportunity.Development and a fairer fiscal world
Development and a fairer fiscal world
Progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals is held back by debt burdens and a persistent financing gap. For developing countries, servicing debt can crowd out investment in health, education and their own future. My work with the Yasuní-ITT Initiative brought these tensions into focus: protecting biodiversity and enabling development require financial arrangements that make both possible.
- Make the reform of unsustainable debt a standing priority of the office
- turn UN development work toward enabling national and local delivery, measured by what a country can sustain on its own
- and champion a fairer financial architecture, scaling innovative instruments from debt-for-nature conversions to blended finance.
IVRights. Climate. The next generation.The dignity of the human person
The dignity of the human person
Peace rests on the dignity of the person, and that dignity now reaches into domains the founders could not have imagined. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology and the digital economy are remaking work, warfare and the body itself, shaped today by a handful of states and companies largely without the world's consent. Climate change, meanwhile, threatens security and survival around the world, including in nations that did least to cause the harm.
- Defend the independence of the UN's human-rights work and the people who carry it out
- make the UN the credible convener on AI and the new technologies, building on the Global Digital Compact
- bring young people into the institution as a matter of legitimacy
- and pursue a climate agenda that respects both the science and the livelihoods of ordinary people, giving adaptation the weight it has long been denied.
VTransparency. Accountability.A United Nations renewed from within
A United Nations renewed from within
The UN has become slow, fragmented and expensive, with accumulated mandates and overlapping bodies, compounded by financial pressures. A renewal driven by a cash crisis is not the same as one driven by a vision, and cuts made under pressure too often fall on the wrong things.
- Treat mandate discipline as a permanent function, with a sunset clause and a clear measure for every recurring mandate
- consolidate back-office functions across the system while protecting mandates that are genuinely distinct
- and make the Organization's finances transparent and its performance measurable, while telling every capital plainly that member states must pay what they owe, in full and on time.
The vision.
The record.
Where others speak of reform, I speak of renewal, pursued with the speed, the honesty and the appetite for results the world has a right to expect.