Statement delivered by Ambassador Stefano Stefanile, Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations, at the Event on Reviewing the Commitment to Multilateralism: A High-level Dialogue of the Presidents of the General Assembly, ECOSOC, Security Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights —
Thank you, and I just wish to add Italy’s voice to this discussion in support of multilateralism, we do care about multilateralism, to use the expression used by the Indonesian Ambassador minutes ago, and I think we prove it on a daily basis through our active participation in the UN works and activities.
We firmly believe in rule-based international order and we also believe that the United Nations are the primary forum in which States come together and developed a shared normative framework and narrative.
Only a strengthened United Nations, we believe, can be the pillar of an international system that ensures peace, justice, equality and prosperity.
At the same time we realize that multilateralism is under criticism and its efficiency is being increasingly questioned, mostly because of the negative effects of globalization – and I refer specifically to the aggravation of social and economic imbalances and inequalities – so multilateralism somehow is seen as responsible for not being able to prevent and counter these negative effects
In this context, the response should be bi-dimensional: we must should reform and we should somehow recommit.
Reform the way our multilateral system works in order to make it more effective and more relevant to the lives of people across the world and the ongoing reform processes here at the UN are crucial to improve effectiveness of our work. Recommit in the sense of relaunching our commitment to a renewed multilateralism approach as the only way in which the international community can come together to find effective solutions to common problems.
We do believe that reformed and reinvigorated multilateralism should continue to operate in a logic of a shared responsibility among States, whether it comes in peace and security, climate change, sustainable development, migration, or any other issue of global concern.
The essence of an effective multilateralism here at the UN and beyond UN, being the framework of the discussion the Security Council, the General Assembly, or the ECOSOC should remain the willingness and the capacity to reach the widest possible consensus, although not necessarily unanimity, I take the point, even on the thorniest of the issues through genuine inclusive and open dialogue.
Thank you.
