Total Number of Pages: 15
Suggested Title: The United Nations and Multilateralism
New Resolution
General Church Budget Implications: None
Global Implications: Yes
Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool (Isaiah 1:18 ESV).
He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Isaiah 2:4 NIV).
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (Matthew 5:9 NIV). Reasoning Together to Secure Peace and Justice
The world is the responsibility of each of our communities where the securing of peace and justice for one individual, one community, and one nation contributes to the securing of peace and justice for all globally. This is a theological posture that is also at the core of multilateralism.
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1 KJV). God’s people are graciously blessed to joyfully partake of the fruits of God’s good creation. To work for justice and peace for all is to affirm God’s promise of abundant and full life for everyone on earth.
To work for justice and peace is to lay claim to our common humanity and shared cosmos, whose destiny and survival lie in the flourishing of true security and just peace, of human rights founded on
human dignity, of human progress and well-being built on sustainable practices, of human health and the planet’s health, and of mutual interdependence and diplomacy governing the relations of peoples and nations.
These are what truly constitute multilateralism: evolving and living into a truly just, peaceable, participatory and sustainable international community. Multilateralism is diplomacy that engages collaboration and cooperation. Multilateralism is at its best when peoples and nations reason together with words and agreed texts arising from respectful dialogue and recognition of the common good.
The United Nations (U.N.) organization embodies this ideal of multilateralism. In the words of the President of the 73rd Session of the U.N. General Assembly (2018-2019), María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, “It is abundantly clear that peace is more than the absence of war. To be sustainable, peace must be nurtured, before, during and after conflict. Peace, development and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. We must work across this continuum – at the General Assembly and beyond – if we are to address the many challenges we face. And we must embrace multilateralism if we are to foster a lasting peace for the world.”
United Methodist engagement in international affairs dates back to 1934 with the establishment of the Commission on World Peace. But the creation of the United Nations provided the impetus for greater and direct engagement with this multilateral organization. A few months after its October 24, 1948, founding, the inaugural meeting of the U.N. General Assembly was held at the Methodist Central Hall Westminster, in London, between January 10 and February 14, 1946. A little over a decade since the U.N. Headquarters was built in New York, visionary Methodists built across from the United Nations building the Church Center for the United Nations as a witness to “the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:42).
The United Nations and related international agencies collaborate multilaterally on many issues and concerns. These concerns could be lingering or emerging, including breaches of the peace, wars and conflicts, or epidemic outbreaks, including pandemics, for which the U.N. has the greater, if not enormous, capacity and mandate to mobilize human and material resources. The world is made better when collective will is mustered and global resources are harnessed to address these global challenges. The U.N. has a charter obligation to do just these. For example, the U.N. is working hard to prevent pandemics by developing treatments for HIV/AIDS, viruses like Ebola, bird and swine influenzas, and pernicious diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.
The U.N. has a charter mandate to stop wars and prevent conflicts. It approaches this mandate with a deep diplomatic tool kit in the fields of conflict transformation and management. Its peacekeeping operations are in the difficult locations with lingering conflicts and violent flashpoints. Its disarmament work is geared toward the prevention of nuclear proliferation, and putting to halt the development and use of biological and other weapons of mass destruction. It is also about curbing the production, proliferation, and use of small arms. To this end, we lend support to the Disarmament Agenda of the U.N. Secretary General (24 May 2018).
The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. In its more than seven decades of existence, the U.N. has evolved to reflect our changing understanding of peace and security, which is at the core of the U.N. mandate. Multilateral dialogues and the recognition of the common destiny of humanity and the cosmos have led to the understanding of security that is beyond the assured existence of sovereign nation states. Human security flourishes with the recognition of human dignity and human rights for all peoples. The more than seven decades of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948), and subsequent human rights treaties and mechanisms, are a testament to not only the human yearning for dignity but for the earnest protection of human rights.
Human security includes, for example, food and water security, and the security that decent jobs and living wages provide. Human security promotes gender equality, especially the empowerment of women and girls. Human security recognizes the humanity of indigenous peoples and the need to secure their indigenous knowledge bases and resources.
The U.N. is also about peace and security that result from the elimination of hunger and the eradication of poverty. The key to achieving the U.N. Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development lies in focusing on the measurable goals and targets that are part of the agenda. Sustainable development underscores the primacy of human dignity and human rights. The social transformation it aims to achieve lies in addressing historic inequalities, exploitation and oppression, especially those brought about by colonialism, slavery, genocide, the holocaust, and the scourge of two world wars for which reasons more than 70 years ago the architects of what is now the United Nations, were compelled to recognize and to never let the world and its peoples experience them again. Such compelling recognition inspired the drafting of the Charter of the United Nations (1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
The U.N., all too human an institution, remains called to these mandates and more. The major positive strides for global peace, security and sustainable development shadow the shortcomings of this global institution. Former U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold described the U.N. as a human institution, saying, “The U.N. was not created to take mankind (sic) to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.”
Multilateralism must prosper norm-based policy coherence. If the pursuit by the international community for sustainable development goals (SDGs) was to result in the transformation of people’s lives and communities, it must pursue not only the eradication of hunger and poverty, but also address the inequalities and injustices that hitherto economic and social development models have spawned. Such pursuit must be based on solidarity, justice, cooperation, mutual accountability, common but differentiated responsibilities, and the participation of all stakeholders: governments, nongovernmental organizations, and peoples and their communities.
Our Common Humanity in Christ
Our claim to common humanity in Christ, and our assertion that all peoples and nations reverence God’s good earth, and recognize every person’s sacred worth and inherent dignity define our support for the United Nations. This support lays claim to this human institution whose lofty objectives contained in its Charter are but human imaginings of governance of the relations of nations and the well-being of peoples. Still, we assert in our Social Principles that the United Nations and its related bodies are “the best instruments now in existence to achieve a world of justice and law” (2012 Social Principles, ¶165.I]D]).
The Christian faith and community are rooted in theological understanding that is at once local and global. The foundation for the Church’s involvement in the quest for peace and justice everywhere can be found in the following biblically based beliefs:
1. The transcending sovereignty and love of God for all creation and the expression of that love in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, whose mission was to reveal understanding about that divine presence, to proclaim a message of love and salvation, and to bring justice and peace;
2. the unity of creation and the equality of all races and peoples;
3. the dignity and sacred worth of each person as a child of God; and
4. the Church, the body of believers, whose global mission and public witness to building peace, seeking justice, and reconciling peoples and communities testifies to God’s action in history.
The Pillars of Peace for the 21st Century
The world is the responsibility of each of our communities where the securing of justice for one individual, one community, and one nation contributes to the securing of justice and peace for all. To work for justice and peace for all is to affirm God’s promise of the fullness of life: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1 KJV); “I came so that they could have life – indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest” (John 10:10b).
The United Methodist Church, therefore, reaffirms its support for the United Nations and calls upon all governments to fully support it fulfilling its Charter and its highest calling to work for peace and justice for all. Furthermore, The United Methodist Church affirms the following principles as Pillars of Peace for the 21st Century:
1. Political Accountability. Peace rooted in justice requires increased political collaboration and accountability within the United Nations system, and among regional bodies, governments, local authorities, peoples’ organizations, and global economic structures to seek the common good and equality for all.
2. Economic Accountability. Peace rooted in justice requires increased moral, ethical, and legal accountability at all levels from governments, financial institutions, multilateral organizations, transnational corporations, and all other economic actors to seek a just, participatory, and sustainable economic order for the welfare and well-being of all people and all creation.
3. Legal Accountability. Peace rooted in justice requires a comprehensive international legal system, capable of change as conditions require, in order to prevent and resolve conflicts, to protect rights, to hold accountable those who disturb peace and violate international law, and to provide fair and effective review and enforcement mechanisms.
4. Liberation and Empowerment. Peace rooted in justice requires the participation of vulnerable and marginalized groups seeking to promote justice and peace in those mechanisms capable of redressing the causes and consequences of injustice and oppression.
5. Peace and Conflict Resolution. Peace rooted in justice requires the nurturing of a culture of peace in homes, communities, religious institutions, nations, and across the world; the use of nonviolent means of resolving conflict; appropriate systems of common security; and the end of the unrestrained production, sale and use of weapons worldwide.
6. Human Dignity and Rights. Peace rooted in justice requires respect for the inherent dignity of all persons and the recognition, protection, and implementation of the principles of the International Bill of Human Rights so that communities and individuals may claim and enjoy their universal, indivisible, and inalienable rights.
7. Preservation of the Environment. Peace rooted in justice requires a commitment to long-term sustainability of the means of life, and profound reorientation of economic systems and individual lifestyles to support ecological justice for human communities in harmony with the whole of creation.
International Justice and Inclusive Human Community
“So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Romans 14:19 ESV).
International justice requires the participation and determination of all peoples. We are called to look beyond the “limited and competing boundaries of nation-states to the larger and more inclusive community of humanity” (United Methodist Council of Bishops’ Call for Peace and the Self Development of Peoples).
Unprecedented international cooperation has occurred through the United Nations and its specialized agencies as they and member-states collaborated to solve global problems of health, education and the welfare of people, especially children and mothers. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been successful in this area, especially in achieving universal primary education and reducing child mortality. UNICEF’s advocacy on behalf of the rights and welfare of children in situations of armed conflict, including the condition of children recruited and used as soldiers, is highly commendable. The work of this institution in prioritizing migrant and refugee children is of utmost importance.
Commendable achievements have been reached through multilateral cooperation, especially in the areas of sustainable development, universal human rights, religious freedom and tolerance, peacebuilding and security. Most laudable are the advancements in gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially the creation of the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (U.N. Women)
and U.N. Security Council Resolution #1325 on the role of women in peacebuilding and security. The year 2020, marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda” arising out of U.N. Security Council Resolution #1325. It is a banner year to rededicate ourselves to “ensure the full implementation of the human rights of women and of the girl child, as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms” (Beijing Declaration), and the importance of the involvement of women in peace and security issues in achieving long-lasting stability (Resolution #1325).
In other areas, however, political considerations have diminished the support needed for the United Nations to achieve its goals. Many nations, including the most powerful, participate in some programs only when such action does not interfere with their avowed national interests and advantage.
At a time when global peace and security concerns have increasingly become transnational, the work of the United Nations, through the International Atomic Energy Agency, needs greater support by all governments so that it can efficiently and effectively perform functions dealing with nuclear security, especially in improving international coordination, monitoring, reporting, sharing of information and best practices among states and the private sector. In this regard, the agency commits itself to promoting the early entry-into-force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), a treaty that codifies the illegality of nuclear weapons in a comprehensive manner, including prohibiting the development, possession, use, and threat of use of nuclear weapons, with the goal of leading to their total elimination. This agency further reaffirms the vital importance of the positive obligations set forth in the TPNW, which provide for environmental remediation and for victim assistance to those who are affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons. The agency’s commitment to this historic treaty is in line with the calls to abolish nuclear weapons enunciated in “God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action,” a pastoral letter by the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church (2009).
Global warming and climate change are urgent issues that need utmost attention by all peoples and communities, and in all levels of governance. We support a fair, ambitious and binding agreement to address climate change built on the common but differentiated responsibilities of each nation to reduce emissions and provide resources for adaptation and resilience. The U.N. is positioned to lead in addressing climate change through the mechanisms set up by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Responses to climate change must be rooted in global solidarity and justice. Such responses must reflect people’s demands that are focused on a global energy transformation, defense of food sovereignty, and recognition of human rights so that any global temperature goal minimizes harms and impacts on peoples and the planet. Upon developed countries are placed legal and moral responsibilities to provide financing needed for adaptation and international mitigation, and upon all the recognition of common but differentiated responsibilities. These and other ways to bring nations into common cause to undertake ambitious but necessary efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects are what the Paris Accords of 2015 are about. With support of the accord, peoples and nations of the world can then collaboratively tackle the threat of climate change.
Peace, World Order and the Rule of Law
Peace and world order require the development of an effective, enforceable framework of international law that provides for peaceful settlement of conflicts between and among nations, and the protection of human rights and guarantees of justice for all people. The role of religious institutions in peacebuilding is well established and recognized, including that of the World Council of Churches and Religions for
Peace International. It is a role that supports, works alongside with, and undergirds multilateral peacebuilding efforts at the U.N. and other regional bodies such as Africa Union.
While wars continue and many conflicts remain intractable, the work of the Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations is crucial and deserves continued support. Professionalization of peacekeepers, including the adherence to discipline and human-rights principles, forms part of this support. We must be ready to admonish the United Nations and its peacekeeping forces when there is proven and clear violation of their sworn duty in the countries they are deployed to be a force of peace, goodwill and exemplar of the values embodied in the U.N. Charter, but most especially in the protection of human rights.
While the International Court of Justice is fully in place to adjudicate conflicts between and among states, we call on all nations to ratify the International Criminal Court so that it becomes an effective and responsible body to adjudicate on war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression. Nations should remove any restrictions they have adopted that impair the effective functioning of both courts.
The industrialized world must not dominate development agencies. We support efforts to make controlling bodies of such agencies more representative. We support the development and strengthening of international agencies designed to help nations or peoples escape from domination by other nations or transnational enterprises. In this instance, support is crucial for the sustainable development and governance of the least developed, land-locked, and small island developing countries of the world. Without such support, these countries risk making little progress in any of the key indicators of achieving eradication of hunger and poverty within the framework of the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, including the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We must support a better and more effective and just protection of the human rights and welfare of people on the move, regardless of their migratory status. Towards this direction, we support the
implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, otherwise called the Marrakesh Compact on Migration (2018, https://bit.ly/2HyOgmd) and the Global Compact on Refugees (2018, https://bit.ly/2DUrzXY) and call on U.N. member-states to sign on to them.
As asserted by Churches Witnessing With Migrants (CWWM, 2017, https://bit.ly/2OYrep9): “Freedom of movement is a human right that allows peoples to forge human relations and found sustainable communities. Forced migration is a climate change, violation of human rights. Violent situations, environmental degradation, militarization, wars, lingering conflicts and political persecution in countries have resulted in internal displacement and forced and external movement of peoples that have produced asylum seekers and massive numbers of refugees. Under such conditions, people have fled their communities and sought refuge elsewhere, including in other countries. In situations like these, indigenous peoples, women, children, and peoples with disabilities who are migrants or are family members of migrants are especially more at risk and vulnerable. A meaningful dialogue on migration must address these, including refugees and asylum-seekers.”
We must “urge governments to ratify and implement relevant United Nations and International Labour Organization (ILO) treaties and conventions, and amend their national laws to be consistent with such treaties and conventions, especially the U.N. Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and ILO Convention 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers.”
Economic and political considerations greatly affect issues of food, energy, raw materials and other commodities. We support efforts in the United Nations to achieve new levels of justice in the world economic order and work for the realization of internationally agreed development goals through the United Nations and other multilateral organizations such as African Union, especially the post-2015
Sustainable Development Goals (See United Methodist Resolution #6025, “Globalization and Its Impact on Human Rights and Human Dignity”). Critical to the realization of sustainable development is support for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
We support the concept of collective action against threats to peace. This collective action is possible and meaningful when pursued within a multilateral framework. Reform of the United Nations, including and especially the Security Council, is crucial in this regard. Such reform must include organizational and programmatic coherence aimed at transforming the U.N. to be a relevant, useful, responsible and accountable body in dealing with today’s global challenges. It must be a United Nations that takes seriously the participation of peoples in keeping with its Charter. Reform must include making the Security Council more democratically representative, transparent, accountable in its structure, and decision-making.
Wars fought, be it for causes to seek justice, or other causes through acts of terrorism might well be averted, diminished, or stopped altogether, if the nations of the world would work vigorously in concert to seek changes in oppressive political conditions and exploitative economic systems. This cooperation should use human rights as foundational principles of national, international, and human relations, including the promotion of rapprochement among cultures and religions. Just, equitable and sustainable sharing of the world’s resources will greatly address the economic despair, political anguish and war weariness of many peoples and communities of the world.
Supporting a Robust Multilateralism by Collaborating in the Connection
The United Methodist Church and its global connectional system of Christian public witness and social action is strategically positioned to join in this mission. We recommend that Christians, and all people of
goodwill, work to support, strengthen and improve the United Nations system and its agencies, and commit to the following in their respective countries and locations:
BULLET Educate about and promote among our members the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a standard of achievement for all peoples and nations. We must recognize and promote human dignity and protect it with human rights, ensuring that people are rights-bearers and nations are duty-bearers. We must advocate in legislative halls around the world for the universal ratification of international agreements, covenants and conventions, including protocols arising from these conventions.
BULLET In light of our Church’s call to an act of repentance for our institutional participation in the violation of the dignity and rights of indigenous peoples, including the pillage and plunder of their communities, indigenous knowledge and resources, we must call for the global ratification of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, approved in 2009 by the United Nations General Assembly. We must help realize the human rights of indigenous peoples and their full participation in society through our support of the work of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
BULLET United Methodists throughout the connection must advocate for adequate funding of the United Nations system by advocating for their governments to pay their U.N. dues and increase, rather than shrink the U.N.’s regular budget. As global challenges are growing enormously and overwhelming the capacities of multilateral bodies to address them, commensurate funds and resources must be earnestly pursued and allocated so that solutions are found for these challenges.
Date: August 26, 2019
The Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe General Secretary
Bishop Sally Dyck
President of the Board
General Board of Church & Society Phone: 202-488-5629
E-mail Address: gso@umcjustice.org