Since 1992, the forums of United Nations (UN) have variously enabled civil society constituencies, representing the UN Charter’s “peoples of the United Nations” to join deliberations on policy and program issues. The Major Groups and Other Stakeholders (MGOS) currently include 21 stakeholder constituencies that are an integral part of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs as enshrined in the UNGA Resolution 67/290 [AR]. This diverse collective also operates a gender-balanced coordination team that negotiates the type of engagement to be pursued in HLPF functions and processes. The current Co-Coordinators of the range of MGOS are Ms. Rashima Kwatra (The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Persons` Rights), representing the LGBTI Stakeholder Group (elected March 2023), and Mr. Oli Henman (Action for Sustainable Development), representing the NGO Major Group (elected July 2023).
Since the inception of the Major Group engagement[*] in UN conferences and bodies in 1992, HIC and its HLRN has affiliated with the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Major Group (NGOMG). The NGOMG is arguably the largest and most-diverse MG. After serial attempts to assert shared positions and platforms in the HLPF, since 2021, the NGOMG has not issued a sectoral paper of common positions and proposals.
Hearing All MGOS Perspectives
As covered in HLRN’s Land Times/أحوال الأرض issues 27 and 29, the annual HLPF session on Major Groups and Other Stakeholder (MGOS) perspectives, part of the HLPF since 2020, has become progressively less issue oriented from 2022 to 2023. Even though this year’s overarching concern was the prospects of reform of UN governance, the Major Groups Perspective session in the 2024 HLPF attained a different common denominator with its coordinated message this year pitching civil society good practices to states, rather than analyzing priorities for reform.
Under the theme, “Partnerships for transformative and urgent actions,” Amb. Maritza Chan-Valverde (Costa Rica) opened the MGOS Perspectives session, reminding delegations that not only states are implementing the 2030 Agenda, but the Major Group partners serve as needed bridges between government and communities, as well as keep alive the promise of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the subject of the Charter: “We the peoples of the United Nations.” She also noted the “UNMute Civil Society” initiative to expand civil society’s role in UN processes generally.
Moderating the session was Mr. Henman, who set the stage by referring to declining services and narrowing spaces for civil society globally. He focused also on the encouraging manifestation of global solidarity and humanitarian action, when governments have been unable or otherwise constrained to respond to people’s needs. This year’s MGOS Perspectives session was guided to offer a positive spin on civil society action to support the SDGs, rather than present a set of demands and priorities for change.
This year, six panelists addressed the following guiding questions:
The panel started with Ms. Frances Zainoeddin, UN Focal Point got the Stakeholder Group on Ageing. After memorializing the evolution of the MGOS mechanism vis-à-vis the HLPF, she reminded the chamber that paragraph 89 of the 2030 Agenda provides for MGOS to participate in follow-up, review and report processes in line with resolution A/RES/67/290 [AR], as well as the UN Charter’s Article 70 [AR] and numerous ECOSOC resolutions [AR]. Importantly, too, she pointed out that a seat at the table is not the same as preferred participation in negotiations, and the future does not only belong to the young or those yet unborn, but for all humankind. The current failure to achieve the SDGS is not just a lack of political will, she noted, but a lack of common human, human decency and respect for humankind: “We are all in this together, and have no time to lose.”
Ms. Jordania Urena, Deputy General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation, then reminded the audience of the workers’ struggle for an equitable stake in sustainable development based on social justice. With reference to SDG 8, she noted that we still need universal social protection, but many are still being left behind. She cited examples from Mexico, Nepal and Namibia in which workers are still fighting for decent work.
Mr. Paul Divakar, Founder of The Inclusivity Project and representative of Communities Discriminated against on the Basis of Work and Descent. Although the responsibility to implement the 2030 Agenda begins and ends with states, civil society’s role is to make sure that no one is left behind, articulating those demands in the local, national, regional and global spheres. He offered the good-practice examples of Quilombolas in Brazil and Dalits in Nepal, who have achieved special recognition for having been historically left behind. He cited other cases such as Palenque (Latin America), Roma (Europe), Burakumin (Japan) and Haratine (Mauritania). He recognized that Indigenous Peoples also have shown how learning from their lifestyles is integral to realization of the SDGs.
Mr. Rey Asis, Program Coordinator, Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, did mention corporate capture, which subject was missing in last year’s MGOS Perspectives session. However, Mr. Asis reference was in the abstract, not attributed to the UN context and the 2024 reform agenda. The thrust of his presentation was a profile of his organization and a call for access and participation for migrants to be able to speak for themselves.
Ms. Caroline Rucah, Executive Director, Western Kenya LBQT Feminist Forum, then spoke about the disconnect between the democratic Constitution of Kenya and the country’s ratification of core human rights treaties, on the one hand, and on the other, the continuing legal struggles to be recognized, exercise rights to freedom of association and to register representative organizations. These community efforts, Ms. Rucah concluded, are examples of the successful pursuit of equality and inclusion.
The lead discussant was Ms. Amina Bouayach, Secretary of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI). She observed that the bulk of work remains ahead, although we have passed the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda. She noted the limited effective partnerships, especially of women, children, refugees, migrants and persons with disability (PwDs) that have reduced the scope and impact of the SDGs, especially in the context of conflict and disasters. For her part, she cited how NHRIs have adopted a strategy for follow-up on the SDGs, notably Goals 16 and 17.
Children and Youth
At the tone-setting 8 July opening session of this year’s High-level Political Forum (HLPF), organizers invited the Children and Youth Major Group (MGCY). As a demographic constituency, rather than a functional constituency such as small farmers, education and academia, or business and industry, MDCY, like the Women’s Major Group (WMG), nonetheless takes collective positions on issues ranging from war to climate change, humanitarian affairs, human rights, migration. Shannon Lisa represented MGCY addressed “intergenerational injustice and the existential crisis” in the ‘town hall’ segment.
Miss Lisa identified five urgent MGCY priorities:
During the opening of the High-level Segment of ECOSOC / Ministerial Segment on 15 July, MGCY Organizing Partner Sameh Kamel also called for accountable governance and youth cooperation with government. In addition, he made a pitch for universal social protection; that the UN’s focus on security be more ambitious; Security Council reform, including youth engagement in it; frontline communities in permanent leadership roles; development of circular economy and protection of environmental and human rights defenders.
Mr. Kamel demanded from the upcoming Summit of the Future and Pact for the Future:
Women’s Major Group
Also a demographic constituency group, the women also showed internal coherence in their positioning vis-à-vis the UN and the 2030 Agenda. On 3 June, the Women’s Major Group (WMG) urgently called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and liberation of Palestine, specifically referring to Israel as a settler-colonial state and its acts of genocide and ecocide. The Women called out global north governments, particularly Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States and others, for their glaring complicity in arming, aiding and abetting, enforcing and justifying the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The statement pointed out that those states have been undeservedly proud of their human rights records and their feminist foreign and development policies, while deliberately undermining international peace, security and justice by unconditionally supporting the Israeli colonial-settler project. WMG thereby injected the often missing aspect of the extraterritorial commitments and obligations of states in the 2030 Agenda, especially regarding Goals 16 and 17.
The next day, WMG published its position paper for HLPF 2024. It pointed out that “Our rights, our bodies and our planet are in peril,” as the most structurally marginalized bear the brunt of convergent crises that only exacerbate pre-existing inequalities. The paper noted the rise in militarism and warfare, widespread human rights violations and the dismantling of essential social services for basic human needs, creating new layers of vulnerability, especially for women, girls and gender-diverse people. To remedy this trend, WMG demanded an urgent redirection of military expenditures toward social spending and accelerating efforts toward peace, disarmament, and feminist change, calling on governments to end imperialist occupation and uphold people’s right to justice, self-determination and sustainable development. (These issues also proved contentious in the debate toward adopting the Ministerial Declaration.)
The WMG addressed this Summit for the Future year to assert that “the world can no longer afford to ignore the flawed systems of neoliberal capitalist development and unlimited growth that prioritize private profit over people and the Planet, exacerbating the catastrophic impact of the triple planetary crisis for Global South populations.” The WMG position asserted that governments must do more to uphold international laws and commitments created to protect our human rights including sexual and reproductive health and rights, other species and Planet Earth. As self-identified feminist activists and human rights defenders, WMG urged governments of the Global South to be bold and ambitious, reject false solutions and “demand reparative and adequate climate finance for the ecological crisis wrought by capitalist greed.”
In light of WMG’s anti-militarist and anti-imperialist call, it is worthy of note that only one side event on the official HLPF program, organized by YouNGO, broached the subject of disarmament, a priority theme of the Summit of the Future. With the whole of the MGOS reflecting an innocuous common denominator among the interest groups in the MGOS Perspectives session, this was contrasted by the WMG and MGCY messaging of clarity and internal coherence.
Photo: The MGOS Perspective session at HLPF, 15 July 2024. Source: UN web TV.
[*] N.B.: ‘Engagement’ is a generic term used in the UN System for relations with nonstate parties. It does not imply any particular type, level or quality of that relationship, which is the subject of a typology found elsewhere. For elaboration, see Sherry Arnstein, “A Ladder of Citizen Participation,” Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 35, No. 4 (July 1969), pp. 216–24, https://organizingengagement.org/models/ladder-of-citizen-participation/?print=pdf; and “Stakeholder engagement and African cities,” Civil Society Forum Statement to Africities 9 Summit, Kisumu, 17–21 May 2022, http://www.hlrn.org/activitydetails.php?id=p2xrYw==.
