A Second Charter: Imagining a Renewed United Nations

The Global Governance Forum and the Baha’i International Community’s United Nations Office organised a UN Charter Reform event on 19 September 2023 at the Baha'i International Community offices in New York and online, co-sponsored by the International Environment Forum in complement to the 27th IEF Annual Conference. This three-session event built on a call, signed by over 400 prominent individuals including 20 Nobel Laureates, and an initial statement drafted by an informal group of academics, former government and United Nations officials, and civil society representatives.

While UN Charter reform has been a topic of consideration since the establishment of the United Nations, events including preparations for the Summit of the Future and the endorsement of an Article 109 conference in the report of the High Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, gave impetus to the issue.

This event advanced this conversation. The three panels for the day focused on Collective Security and Disarmament, Sustainable Futures, and Imagining a Renewed United Nations. The confirmed speakers included the President of Club de Madrid Danilo Turk, former President of the General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa, former UN Ambassador Amanda Ellis, Dr. Youssef Mahmoud, and Professors Daniel Deudney, Thomas Weiss, and Andrew Strauss, among others.