President,
Let me first thank China for organizing today’s open debate.
Norway is a dedicated multilateralist. Effective international institutions - and cooperation - provide predictability, strengthens our resilience and makes us more secure. It serves our common interests.
The lesson of the past 80 years is that there is no other way to a peaceful and prosperous world than through multilateral cooperation based on international law. That is why we need a UN that is relevant and able to address the global challenges of our time.
With the Pact for the Future, we have agreed on a framework for renewing and reinvigorating multilateral cooperation.
President, let me highlight three points:
First, reform of the Security Council.
The world has changed since 1945, and so must the Council.
Lack of institutional reform undermines legitimacy and efficiency. The inability of the Council to act in many of today’s most serious conflicts exacerbates this.
Norway supports a reform that makes the Council more representative and more efficient. Both permanent and elected seats should be expanded, and the historical injustice to Africa addressed.
The use of the veto should be limited, rather than expanded. The frequent use of the veto has paralyzed the Council, undermining its credibility.
In line with the Pact for the Future, we particularly need to discuss how to ensure the consistent application of Article 27 (3). No state should vote in its own case.
Second, the rule of law.
Through generations of careful deliberations and negotiations, we have developed a corpus of international law, not least the UN Charter, that is the foundation of peaceful relations between states.
Through the UN, we also established the other key principles that codify international humanitarian law as well as international human rights law, including women’s rights.
We must be consistent in the application of the rules.
We must avoid double standards.
We must treat similar cases similarly, irrespective of the context.
We must speak out if our adversaries violate these rules and we must speak out if our friends violate them.
We must support and protect the institutions that uphold the law, including the ICJ and the ICC, and we must fight impunity, and we must hold perpetrators to account.
Third, financial governance reform.
Increasing inequality creates poverty, erodes trust and leads to populism and extremism within countries.
Increasing inequality between countries undermines global trust, hence also the efficiency of the multilateral system.
The Pact for the Future rightly addresses the need to increase financing for sustainable development, provide sufficient and timely debt relief to countries in distress, reform the international financial architecture and to promote more inclusive and effective international tax cooperation.
President,
Norway will continue to advance global governance reform to ensure that the UN remains able to fulfill its mandate, as stated in the Charter.
That is to address the global challenges of our time, more specifically to maintain peace and security, to uphold human rights and to advance sustainable development - the three main pillars of the Charter.
Thank you