The UN must go ‘back to the future’ to meet today’s global challenges

Eighty years ago, in the aftermath of world war and the genocide of millions, the United Nations Charter was signed into force. Proclaimed by and for “We the Peoples,” the U.N. was to help prevent conflict, defend human rights and advance our common dignity. 

Despite its many imperfections (the power imbalances hardwired into its Security Council, for instance), the U.N. plays a key role in world affairs, acting as the world’s central square — a singular gathering place where all countries, on putatively equal terms, can debate shared aspirations, identify common challenges and, at their best, accelerate development for all. 

But now, 80 years on, where are we?

With genocide in Gaza, neglected armed conflicts elsewhere, a climate crisis undeterred, aid slashed, human rights rolled back and multilateralism eroded, grave crises loom. Authoritarian member states seem set on a nihilistic path, swinging wrecking balls at the post-WWII multilateral system with scant regard for consequences and no alternative plan, save for brutalist scrummages between competing national interests.

Yet, for multiple generations, the U.N. has been a lifeline. Subjected to discrimination, exclusion and extreme poverty, targeted by hate, trapped on the frontlines of humanitarian crisis, forced into displacement or statelessness, millions have relied on its support, on its food and essential medicines and on the shelter of its universal standards when rights are violated. For countless activists targeted by oppressive regimes and repressive laws, U.N. human rights standards and underpinning law are the only tools available to push back against repression, restrain state power and demand accountability.

Thus, it is to the least powerful that a weakened U.N. brings its most important impacts.  

Nowhere is that more apparent than for sexual and reproductive health and rights. Women, newborns and adolescents trapped in crisis settings, people living with HIV/AIDs, gay and transgender people and those marginalized by hate and prejudice all now face intensifying threats as norms are unpicked and specialized funding streams and targeted lifesaving interventions are slashed, lost altogether and even criminalized.

The stakes couldn’t be higher as the U.N. secretary-general prepares to release his reform agenda. That agenda, we are told, is to modernize and enhance the U.N. However, it seems the reform agenda is instead largely an austerity exercise, rushed through with little preparation and even less consultation.

With the issue of sexual and reproductive health and rights already under relentless assault from well-funded forces, the UN80 reforms risk sidelining service provision and program delivery even further, eroding the U.N.’s work for gender equality along with it.  

What would today’s world look like without the U.N.? It seems we’re about to find out — to discover an even more fragmented world, where supra border causes of climate crisis, contagion, conflict and corruption are even further neglected; where poverty flourishes under less resistance; and where response to humanitarian crises is even more feeble and military solutions are the favored resort.   

It’s why the International Planned Parenthood Federation believes U.N. reforms should take us “back to the future” — back to “We the Peoples,” but also forward to global priorities and action that are rooted in universal values.

What would this look like?

Engagement with “We the Peoples”: Every day, my organization delivers life-saving services to the hardest to reach and the most underserved people, from Gaza to Afghanistan and Sudan. In 2024 alone, we reached 67.5 million people, 20 percent of them in humanitarian settings. The U.N. General Assembly promised to “leave no one behind,” but absent civil society organizations such as ours, the U.N. lacks meaningful engagement with local communities. With its operations stripped back to bare minimum, the U.N. must engage localized civil society organizations far more, for not only local efficacy but moral legitimacy as well.

Human rights at center: Our world full of crises puts our common humanity at stake. Whatever the future holds, human rights must be our guide star. Yet even before this year’s brutal cuts, the U.N. spent just 5 percent of its total budget on human rights. At the hands of heavily funded anti-rights actors, international human rights standards have been battered and the rule of law undermined. It's time the global majority U.N. member states get serious about fighting for, and funding, a United Nations capable of standing up for all human rights for all. 

A stronger accountability role: Member states’ human rights promises are too rarely kept, but more pertinent than ever. With rising fascism and authoritarianism, spreading inequality and corporations and plutocrats harvesting immense profit from conflict and unfair trade, the world needs a multilateral system capable of holding member states to their promises, including by protecting and amplifying civil society voices and ensuing accountability is placed within reach of those left further behind. The future U.N. must hold promise makers accountable.

That’s the U.N. we deserve, whether under a tough budget or a generous one.  Austerity is no excuse. After all, the U.N. Charter and universal human rights were not born in prosperity but amidst a world in ruin. The world needs a bolder, more visionary human rights vision for the future U.N., one worthy of member states’ obligations to the rights of the most vulnerable people on the planet, and robust enough to stand up to the bullies that would disunite nations.

A former U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore is chair of the Board for International Planned Parenthood Federation. She previously served as assistant secretary-general and deputy executive director at the United Nations Population Fund, and as executive deputy secretary general at Amnesty International.