. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION .
Text transcribed from video on You Tube
Excellencies, distinguished delegates to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, it’s an honour to address the general debate of your 148th Assembly. I’m speaking to you as Chair of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela who work for peace, human rights and a sustainable planet. I’m also speaking as a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former President of my own country, Ireland and a former Senator.
Video of speech
I served for 20 years in the Upper House of the Irish Parliament and in all these roles and all throughout my career, I’ve appreciated the opportunity to engage with the IPU. Parliaments play an indispensable role in building bridges for peace and understanding and consensus on how to tackle shared challenges. This role is particularly valuable today in an era of increasing social polarisation and geopolitical tensions.
The IPU plays a critical role as a forum where parliamentarians can come together, exchange experiences and discuss the challenges of the hour, something I learned from attending IPU events during my time in the Irish Senate in the 1970s and 80s and it has been a privilege to be invited to address the Assembly on a number of occasions since. Today I’m happy to hear that the Assembly will also focus on multilateralism in this year when the world is gathering at the upcoming Summit of the Future convened by the UN Secretary-General to chart a new pathway forward for international cooperation. It’s no exaggeration to say today that we are at a moment of crisis in multilateralism.
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Where in the world can we find good leadership today?
How can parliamentarians promote a culture of peace?
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Our world faces existential threats that can only be tackled collectively from the climate and nature crisis and pandemics to nuclear weapons and the risks of unregulated artificial intelligence. But at precisely the moment when cooperation is critical, geopolitical tensions and confrontations are rising and too much decision-making is governed by short-term self-interested calculations. While the COP28 summit in Dubai last December did make some progress producing the first text that directly recognized the need to move away from fossil fuels, we remain in a climate and nature emergency.
Each month since June last year has seen a new temperature high and the pathway we are on is unsustainable. Yet leaders are still not acting at the pace and scale required. We’re four years on from the onset of COVID-19, a global pandemic that cost the lives of millions and exacerbated inequality between and within nations.
But we are struggling to form consensus on a pandemic accord that would help prevent and better prepare the world for future pandemics. 55 years after the treaty onthe non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, nuclear powers have not met their commitment to reduce their arsenals. Instead, the few remaining nuclear agreements mitigating catastrophic risk are expiring and we face a renewed nuclear arms race with some leaders openly threatening to use nuclear weapons in current conflicts.
We see a proliferation of conflicts including Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine and Israel’s disproportionate response to the horrific October attacks by Hamas. The multilateral international peace and security architecture, most notably the UN Security Council, appears completely ill-equipped to deal with these crises. While conflicts elsewhere, from Myanmar to Sudan, are not getting the attention that they need.
It’s against this backdrop that The Elders are calling for long-view leadership to tackle existential threats and to build a more resilient and equal society. Long-view leadership means showing the determination to resolve intractable problems, not just manage them. The wisdom to make decisions based on scientific evidence and reason and the humility to listen to all of those affected.
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