Call for UN Reform at Global Judicial Summit

Context

At the International Conference of Chief Justices in Lucknow, the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has called to reform the UN and international order to be in a position to tackle the international conflict and humanitarian crisis. 

Need For Reform

• Obsolete Power Structures: The UN Security Council (UNSC) remains a mirror of the distribution of power of 1945:
  • Permanent members (P5) of five permanent members (P5) exercising veto power (The veto has repeatedly stalled the UNSC to act on Ukraine war, Israel-Palestine conflict, Syrian humanitarian crisis & Myanmar crisis).
  • There is no representation of major developing countries.
  • Africa and Latin America are completely underrepresented on permanent seats.
• New Threats Emergence: The UN was not designed to deal with new threats in the era of cyber warfare, weapons of AI, global terrorism, energy supply, climate-induced displacement, and pandemic size health crises. These dangers necessitate new multilateral regulations, norms, as well as institutional capabilities.
• Loss of Credibility of Multilateral Institutions: Multilateral organisations, including the WHO, WTO, IMF, and UNSC, are accused of bias, political interferences, ineffective responses, lack of funds, and slow decision-making processes which undermine the credibility of the global rules based order and encourages unilateral behaviour by the powerful states.
• Marginalization of the Global south: According to the developing countries, their key concerns which are development financing, climate justice, debt relief, and access to technology in an equitable manner are marginalized in the existing global governance.

India’s Position on Reform

• Expansion of UNSC: India favors the G4 countries (Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan) proposal of increasing permanent membership to include developing countries and to make the regions which are underrepresented in the present structure have a better representation. An appeal is also made to limit abuse of power of veto.
• Global South Advocacy: India advocates towards the inclusive international order through leadership in such forums as the G20 Presidency, Global South Summit, IBSA, and BRICS+.
• Reformed Multilateralism: India focuses on predictable development financing, fair trade standards, climate equity, and technology transfer as the key elements of a reformed system.

Way Forward

• The United Nations and international order that has to change is not the one that exists but instead the multilateralism that must be rejuvenated to address the challenges of the 21st century. 
• Establishing structures to deal with emerging fields such as cyber, AI, space, pandemics, and climate-induced migration.
• This is to strengthen multilateral institutions whose governance is transparent.
• Improving the role of regional blocs like African Union, ASEAN, European Union, IORA and QUAD.

Source: The Indian Express

Mains PYQ

Q. What are the main functions of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)? Explain different functional commissions attached to it. (2017)

a) At the International Conference of Chief Justices in Lucknow, the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has called to reform the UN and international order to be in a position to tackle the international conflict and humanitarian crisis.

b) India favors the G4 countries (Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan) proposal of increasing permanent membership to include developing countries and to make the regions which are underrepresented in the present structure have a better representation. An appeal is also made to limit abuse of power of veto.

c) India advocates towards an inclusive international order through leadership in such forums as the G20 Presidency, Global South Summit, IBSA, and BRICS+.

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