UN Member Research Articles

Global South: Conceptual Approaches and SocioEconomic Processes

In a dynamic world, developing in the direction of polycentricism, the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, forming together the so-called Global South, are increasingly prominent. Today, the Global South comprises nearly two-thirds of the UN member states, accounts for about 80% of the world’s population, about 50% of world GDP and about a half of total international trade. These dry figures alone point to the paramount methodological, scientific and practical importance of studying the economic and socio-political issues of the Global South, a comprehensive analysis of its role in the world economy and politics, in the globalization, and also in geoeconomic and geopolitical relations. Equally relevant is the analysis of the Global South’s participation in the international community’s efforts to combat global challenges, including climate change, the eradication of poverty, the fight against cross-border terrorism and drug trafficking, humanity’s victory over the COVID-19 pandemic and the launch of the recovery economic growth undermined by the coronacrisis. According to the author’s of the article point of view, the former colonial and dependent countries forming the GlobalSouth, many of which have achieved state independence in the last 50-60 years, have accumulated considerable experience of joint actions to defend their economic and political interests, established mechanisms and organizations of cooperation in a variety of fields. Far from simplifying the extremely difficult present situation and not turning a blind eye to existing problems and difficulties, it is logical to assume that a rich historical experience and a large international weight can enable the countries of the Global South to participate actively in building a more sustainable, just and secure world order.

Changing Climate, Unchanged Mandate: bric Countries in the UN Security Council

Abstract The UN Security Council has turned its attention to the link between climate change and security several times. Its members and other UN member states participating in discussions have remained divided over the Council’s engagement. Among vocal opponents are the bric countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. This article examines the argumentation of these countries during seven UN Security Council meetings between 2007 and 2020. The bric countries often concede that climate change is a threat, but they strongly resist the idea that such a threat could be addressed by the Council. I use a Critical Legal Studies approach to analyse how the bric countries bolstered their key argumentation before the Council. I find that the bric countries exploited a ‘background rule’ concerning the unsc mandate and used it to reaffirm the limits on the Council’s action. They were thus able to avoid self-contradiction and strengthen their political position through a legal argument. This complemented other objections they raised against the Council’s involvement: its insufficient expertise, inefficient tools, and the inapplicability of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities to its decision-making.

Life cycle assessment as tool for realization of sustainable development goals - towards sustainable future of the world: mini review

“One planet, one main goal: good life for all”: it could be a motto of sustainable world. Sustainability is global mega trend in all fields of life to promote prosperity protecting our planet. Sustainable development is a requirement and a priority for all people all over the world. It is defined as development of the current world with a view to the future generations. In 2015, the UN Member States established Agenda 2030, including seventeen “Sustainable Development Goals”, SDG, which should be realized by 2030. Objectives scope all areas of life, namely quality of human life, ecosystem, world peace or partnerships. Each goal has an environmental context. According to the “United Nations Environment Program” (UNEP), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a perfect method in the context of the environmental dimensions of the SDGs. The concept not only concerns the effects of the process/production system or the product/service but also all stages of its life (from cradle to grave), considering the carbon, environmental, consumer or biodiversity footprints. LCA is the only comprehensive eco-innovation indicator and policy implementation technique of sustainable development in companies in terms of eco-efficiency and eco-products. This mini review provides a survey of the current state of knowledge on sustainability and sustainable development as well as the relevance of new holistic methodology bridging SDGs with LCA, on the base of the newest scientific worldwide literature.

Articulating the Effect of Pesticides Use and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The Science of Improving Lives through Decision Impacts

Nothing vast comes into a mortal’s life without a curse. Identifying the pathways of pesticide impact can be multifaceted as well as complex, as humankind faces the magnificent challenge of food systems reconfiguration toward providing and delivering healthy foods that individuals can access while protecting planetary health. Ideally, chemical pesticides used inappropriately in agricultural activities has shaped serious health as well as environmental problems in the global south. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as well as World Health Organization (WHO) approximate that the rates of pesticide poisoning occur 2-3 times per minute, having roughly 20,000 employees dying yearly from exposure, mostly in emerging countries. From an environmental point of view, “chemically-polluted runoff” comes through fields that pollute both ground as well as surface waters, destroying freshwater ecosystems, damaged fisheries, as well as creating growing and sustainable "dead zones" in the coastal areas near the river’s mouths of the drain agricultural areas. The environmental as well as health hazards resulting from pesticides could remain comparatively avoided through education as the first step towards achieving the SDGs as well as creating sustainable incentives toward curbing the overuse trend. Other important challenges need to be resolved, for example social inclusion; poverty reduction; education, increased equity as well as health care; sustainable energy; conservation of biodiversity; water security; and changing climate adaptation as well as mitigation. These challenges are interlinked as well as embodied in 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which all UN member states have accepted since 2015 as well as built round the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, managing the rapid accelerators considerately will need negotiation as well as collaboration from a wide range of civil society sector, private as well as public actors. The time has come toward putting the challenge of sociotechnical innovation as well as massive human ingenuity toward usage to safeguard the next generations as well as the planet future. While, the world is not on the pathway toward realizing its global goals come 2030. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, uneven progress had been witnessed, as well as more focused considerations was required in many areas. The sudden onset of the pandemic abruptly hampered the SDGs implementation and, in other cases, twisted decades of progress backwards.

New Direction to the Sustainable Development Goals in Job Creation Bill in Indonesia

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) deliver a long list for UN Member countries to do, especially in the legal and regulatory frameworks. UN SDGs contain many kinds of human needs aspect, and it is not easy to regulate all through the conventional legislative process. It raises the needs of the omnibus bill use. This article studied the opportunities and the urgency of the omnibus bill use to solve this problem. The author uses a doctrinal method with literature studies to examine how SDGs can be obtained with the use of the omnibus bill. The omnibus bill has the potential to help countries achieve the UN SDGs. In the implementation stage, the author found that it is a normal phenomenon that a political will contains economic interests in the adaptation process, likewise, with the omnibus bill case in several countries. However, it does not erase the fact that there has been a wave of resistance in its implementation due to people's unpreparedness in accepting changes brought by the political policies that are contained in the controversial omnibus bill. Therefore, the government must ensure that the omnibus bill is open to the change opportunities demanded by the people to improve the omnibus bill.

Revisiting Security Council action on terrorism: New threats; (a lot of) new law; same old problems?

AbstractThe devastating events of 9/11 triggered the adoption of Resolution 1373 (2001) by the UN Security Council, a contentious development which was much debated and was widely seen as presaging a new type of activity by the Security Council – legislating for all UN member states. And yet, in the counter-terrorism sphere at least, the Council’s legislative activity in the years following 9/11 was relatively modest. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, that activity has been far exceeded by the Council’s response to the emergence of ISIL in 2014. This more recent activity is of interest beyond the confines of counter-terrorism, but has received far less scrutiny to date. This article will remedy this gap, revisiting, in light of the recent activity, the relative merits and disadvantages of making counter-terrorism law through Security Council resolutions. It makes two main contentions. The first is that – due to some factors which were anticipated in the early 2000s and many which were not – Security Council resolutions on terrorism constitute a distinctive category of international law-making and pose serious challenges for the application of organizing principles and processes of general international law. The second is that, for these reasons as well as doubts as to the necessity and efficacy of recent action, making counter-terrorism law through Security Council resolutions should be the exception rather than the norm.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: Can multinational enterprises lead the Decade of Action?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 by all UN member states and have been embraced by many multinational enterprises (MNEs) and international NGOs. They created a ‘hybrid governance’ platform in which companies, governments, NGOs, and knowledge institutes can work on achieving common goals through targeted action and serve as the leading global sustainable development framework until 2030. By the year 2020, however, progress towards the goals proved slow, prompting the UN to announce a ‘Decade of Action’. The slow or limited adoption and implementation of the SDG Agenda by MNEs – in close interaction with government policies – is one of the root causes for delayed progress. The question is no longer ‘why’ MNEs should develop sustainability strategies, but rather ‘how’. A number of related questions arise. What have been the roles of MNEs in progress towards the SDGs, what is needed from them in the future, and what can be the role of international business (IB) scholarship in shaping discussion and action? This Special Issue tackles these questions from four angles: (1) identifying and helping to fill theoretical gaps in IB research on the SDGs; (2) asking which SDGs and targets provide promising venues for societally relevant IB research topics; (3) assessing and helping to fill empirical gaps by using, complementing, and upgrading relevant SDG indicators; and (4) showing how IB research and policy practice can become better aligned.

Universities’ Reporting on SDGs: Using THE Impact Rankings to Model and Measure Their Contribution to Sustainability

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have voiced growing concerns about sustainability issues since Agenda 2030 was approved, but this is not enough for societal stakeholders seeking and delivering innovation and excellence. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action, and pose a challenge for HEIs as for the efforts made to fulfill them and knowing how to assess their performance. However, the metric management system implemented by HEIs quickly led to rankings emerging, which compare HEIs to metrics not related to the sustainability dimensions of the 17 SDGs. The main aim of the paper is to assess the level of reporting and alignment of SDG achievements with the overall the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking score. For this purpose, our study (i) models and quantifies the impact of HEIs’ disclosure of SDG information on HEIs’ overall THE Impact Rankings score, (ii) analyzes whether the best ranked universities are indeed significantly related to different SDGs than other not-so-well-ranked ones, and (iii) models the differences in the overall score and its alignment with distinct SDGs by dimensions, subjects, and geographical regions. In order to do so, a descriptive analysis, non-parametric tests, and linear and logistic regression analyses were performed. Our results reveal that the overall ranking is related to the reporting of HEIs’ SDG achievements. Moreover, the more positive actions related to health, education, industry, responsible consumption and production, climate action, and partnerships there were, the higher the position of HEIs in the general ranking was. However, we found differences between top-ranking universities and others in geographical location, disclosed information, and impact. Thus, the best-ranked universities are more committed to transferring knowledge to industry to satisfy its needs (SDG9), support strong institutions in their countries, and promote peace and justice (SDG16). Finally, SDG9 and SDG17 are the most relevant and constant SDGs when modeling the alignment of SDGs with HEIs’ dimensions (teaching, research, citations, industry income, international outlook) and subjects (technological and social sciences and humanities). HEIs integrating SDG actions into the strategic management of universities and, consequently, reporting their SDG performance to promote sustainability and contribute to sustainable development, is advisable.

Imperfect progress: treatment options for opioid dependence

UN Member States have set the following targets to end the HIV pandemic by 2030: by 2025, 95% of people living with HIV will know their status, 95% of those will receive antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 95% of those receiving ART will achieve viral suppression. People who use drugs can, and should, benefit from ART, which will improve their health and wellbeing and protect their sexual partners from HIV transmission.

The statehood of Eurasia’s de facto states: an empirical model of engagement by great powers and patrons

ABSTRACT The article designs an empirical model to compare the level of engagement of de facto states in Eurasia by three great powers and non-great power patron states. The authors build diagrams based on three variables – military, political, and economic – whose indicators are determined by an expert survey. Russia engages the most de facto states and to the greatest degree, while the US falls behind since engaging the de facto states is not a key national security concern. However, neither holds a universal principle of engaging de facto states – each case is treated based on broader political and national security considerations. China, wary of domestic separatism, has no military ties with the de facto states and limited economic and political engagement. Taiwan scores the highest among the de facto states with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Abkhazia falling behind by a large margin. The Peoples’ Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and Transnistria score the lowest. The study reveals, the degree of engagement matters more than the number of the UN member states formally recognizing a de facto state.

Scaling Impact Investment for Sustainable Development Goals: An Empirical Analysis

Impact Investing is a community of investors willing to create social and environmental impact along with financial returns by investing either directly with Base of Pyramid[1] (BoP) enterprises or indirectly through enterprises that help in creating impact by investing in BoP organizations. Adoption of SDGs[2] quantified the expectation paradigm of the global community for social, environmental and economic achievable and projected/targeted achievement of SDGs by 2030 made the governments, businesses, institutions daunted with the task in hand hence, it is imperative for investing community to contribute its share as well. With high social need and underserved population India has become a test bed for impact investing. However, with increasing impact investing, Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) gains significant importance as it allows investors to evaluate impact and channelize fund to most effective solutions. The present study conducted for year 2019 not only attempts to explore impact investing landscape in India and its future dimension but it simultaneously does content analysis of impact report of investors using impact value chain[3] and indicators developed on the basis of SDGs targets and indicators. The analysis aims to establish a link between developed indicators and impact, the link once established, developed indicators will provide agile, cost effective, quantifiable and measurable basis to impact that has worldwide acceptance. [1]Base of Pyramid refers to the poorest two-third of the economic human pyramid living in abject poverty. [2]SDGs, adopted in 2015 by all UN member states, are universally accepted goals and targets under goals to guide sustainable development and create a sustainable world for all. [3]Impact Value chain is a tool build on theory of change to illustrate how enterprise activities lead to desired outcome and impact by setting a relationship between activities, output, outcome and impact.

A UN for All? UN Policy and Programming on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics

Sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) have been on the UN’s agenda for more than twenty-five years. Many of the earliest developments took place in the UN human rights mechanisms and Human Rights Council. Increasingly, however, UN agencies, funds, and programs are also integrating SOGIESC into their policy and programming. This paper explores what these UN entities have been doing to respect, protect, promote, and fulfill the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people. It looks at how the UN’s work on SOGIESC has intersected with its work on human rights, global public health, development, humanitarian affairs, peace and security, and gender. It also assesses what has been driving forward policy and programming on SOGIESC and the barriers that have held back further progress. The paper concludes with recommendations for the UN Secretariat, UN agencies, funds, and programs, supportive UN member states, and LGBTI activists across five areas: -Building the human resources needed to institutionalize the UN’s work on SOGIESC; -Making the UN a safe and accepting workplace for LGBTI people; -Mainstreaming and coordinating work on SOGIESC; -Strengthening partnerships between the UN and other actors; and -Continuing to expand policy and programming on SOGIESC into new areas.

A dataset of correlation coefficients of UN member states’ SDGs indicator pairs during 2000–2017

A dataset of correlation coefficients of UN member states’ SDGs indicator pairs during 2000–2017

The UN Security Council as an eff ective instrument for ensuring peace and security stability in Africa

The article highlights the activities of the UN in the African area: promoting the economic development of the UN states; combating international terrorism and organized crime; ensuring international security; preventing armed confl icts; strengthening cooperation of Member States in the fi ght against infectious and other dangerous diseases. The close attention of the UN Security Council to the political processes taking place on the African continent yields tangible results. Peacekeeping missions are being sent to hot spots in Africa. The military contingents of these missions, together with the army units of states, participate in the fi ght against militants of illegal armed formations, reduce the intensity of confl icts, help the civilian population to survive in a diffi cult military-political situation, as well as assist in the post-confl ict reconstruction of countries. Given the weakness and imperfection of the local armies, UN member states help to train the peacekeeping forces of African states. Russia, along with other states, is preparing Africans for peacekeeping activities through the Ministry of Internal Aff airs and the Ministry of Defense.

National security of countries all over the world

The article continues the study “Modeling and Assessment of National Power of Different Countries all over the World” dedicated to the calculation of national power indicator. It is currently the most informative and popular indicator in the world that integrally characterizes the aggregate potential of a particular country and at the same time allows comparing the level of its power and socio-economic development with other countries. The research results were published in the article “Modeling and Assessment of National Power of Different Countries all over the World”. If national power of the state, in fact, determines its potential capabilities and gross indicators are mainly used for the calculation, then national security indicators are calculated on the basis of normalized values (as a rule, per capita) and indicate the level of development of one or another component of the social-ecological-economic system of the country, as well as the efficiency of using the existing potential. In this article we will calculate national security indicators of UN member states using the methods of multivariate statistical analysis. Moreover, we will estimate threshold values for all national security factors considered herein. The last part of the paper will contain a forecast of national security for the medium term.

Regional approach to achieving sustainable development goals: legal analysis of the EAEU experience in creating a common labor market in its relationship with SDG 8

The article is devoted to the study of the role of the regional component in implementation of the Agenda for Sustainable Development until 2030. Achievement of the 17 Goals and 169 targets in the field of sustainable development indicated in it can hardly be conditioned only by the successful and effective policy of each of the UN member states in this direction. This is explained, first of all, by the fact that the implementation of the Agenda envisages both the interaction of countries at a universal level and largely depends on their regional cooperation, including through integration associations. Wherein, the study of the relevant experience of the Eurasian Economic Union as one of the largest regional associations of economic integration is of considerable interest in this matter. The authors consider practical achievement of the mentioned Goals, primarily Goal 8, through the prism of ensuring freedom of movement of labor within the Union and the effective functioning of its common labor market.

OIC Resolutions on the “Afghan Question” in 1980–1989

This article is devoted to a review of the political position of the Organization Islamic Conference (OIC) and its evolution regarding the Afghan armed conflict of 1980–1989. The source base for the article is the texts of the resolutions on the situation in Afghanistan and the final communiqués of the OIC Islamic Conferences of Foreign Ministers, the coordination meetings of the OIC Foreign Ministers and the Islamic Conferences at the highest level. The first section of the article examines the extraordinary session of the OIC Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers held in January 1980, which discussed the “Afghan question” and the decisions taken therein laid the foundations for the OIC's position on the Afghan armed conflict. The second section examines all subsequent OIC resolutions on Afghanistan and their features. The OIC solidarized with the UN and the Non-Aligned Movement in its attitude to the situation in Afghanistan, although there were differences in approaches to certain issues – for example, since January 1980, the OIC began to invite members of Afghan anti-government groups to all Islamic conferences as representatives of this country. The OIC member states in relation to the “Afghan issue” showed greater solidarity within the framework of this organization than the UN member states or the Non-Aligned Movement in relation to the same issue, although individual countries expressed reservations on the “Afghan” resolutions of the OIC. The position of the Organization of the Islamic Conference regarding the Afghan issue remained stable throughout the 1980s, undergoing minor changes.

Tasks of improving the UN's activities and training personnel for work in the Organization

The article presents a personal view of the former executive offi cer of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation/USSR to the UN on the state, problems and prospects of development of this Organization. It provides an analysis of the activities of UN member States and their foreign ministries to use opportunities to preserve peace and international security. Particular attention is paid to the inconsistency of the US course in the fi eld of arms control, reform of the UN and its Security Council, with an emphasis on the analysis of Russia's position. The article highlights the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs in preparing recommendations for Russian delegations when discussing specifi c items on the approved agenda at the annual sessions of the General Assembly. Much attention is paid to those areas of the UN's activities, the regulation of which would meet the interests of Russia and other Member states: the fi ght against international terrorism and organized crime; ensuring international security; promoting economic development of the UN state; prevention of armed confl icts; strengthening the cooperation of Member States in the fi ght against infectious and other dangerous diseases. The need to improve the structures and apparatus of the UN is emphasized. In this regard, it is emphasized the need to organize at a high professional level training of competent specialists for work on the UN line in the Russian Foreign Ministry and in the UN structures in New York, Vienna, Geneva, etc.

Razbijanje SFRJ i Srbije

The paper recapitulates the process of the destruction of the Yugoslav state (SFRY and FRY). Special attention is given to the key factor in that process, the will of the West, embodied in the USA and the EC (EU), for whom the continued existence of Yugoslavia was no longer of geopolitical interest. The conferences on Yugoslavia, organized in Brussels and The Hague, were supposed to serve to legitimize this goal: the disappearance of Yugoslavia. The author points out that when the West did not manage to achieve its goal with political solutions, it involved NATO, through the aggression in 1999. Previously, Serbia's legitimate opposition to terrorist acts by the KLA on its territory, as an internal issue par excellence, was declared a threat to "peace and security in the world", and the UN Security Council took it as a permanent topic of its sessions. There had been secessionist uprisings and armed conflicts in UN member states before, as there are today, but the Security Council never before dared to violate the article of the UN Charter that states that these questions are the exclusive competence of the member state concerned. An exception was made only in the case of Serbia, although the defense against KLA terrorism was legal and limited to the territory of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, i.e., the Yugoslav state border was never crossed. The false claim of William Walker, the head of the OSCE mission in Kosovo and Metohija, concerning the massacre in Racak, was the cause of the war of aggression against the FRY. By illegally naming the protectorate of Kosovo as the so-called state of the Albanian national minority, the West took this as the final stroke in the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and Serbia, thus ignoring the story of the phoenix rising from its ashes.

УЧАСТЬ УКРАЇНИ У СТВОРЕННІ НОВОЇ АРХІТЕКТУРИ РЕГІОНАЛЬНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ У СФЕРІ ЗАХИСТУ ПРАВ ЛЮДИНИ

It is known that the principle of sovereign equality and reciprocity of States underlies contemporary international relations. All UN member states are equal in legal status and obliged to co-operate with one another. At the same time, the role of each state on the world stage directly depends on its efficient geopolitical interactions and the willingness to engage in win-win cooperation. The article analyzes the increasing Ukrainian cooperation practices since 2020 through the establishment of the subregional alliances to pursue the newly approved foreign policy strategy. The associations are promoted concerning building a new international security architecture in human rights. The article deals with updated governmental strategic documents aimed at enhanced engagement of Ukraine in regional cooperation. The report also considers theoretical grounds for creating subregional human rights protection mechanisms within the European regional systems and includes the comparative analysis of the most effective subregional associations since the late 1990s. Human rights are a unifying factor in global relations of the last century. Therefore, the study has found that Ukraine's strategy to revive old and create new formats of subregional cooperation, such as the Lublin Triangle, the Association Trio, the Quadriga, and, of course, the Crimea Platform, brings back to the international community agenda issues related to the human rights protection, as well help achieve essential important geopolitical goals of Ukraine. Such activities allow Ukraine, in the short-term perspective, to receive additional vaccines from COVID-19 and modern weapons to strengthen the Defense Force to deter the Russian military aggression in eastern Ukraine. At the same time, in the medium term, the defined strategy will help Ukraine to become a full member of the EU and NATO. And in the long run – to implement the policy of reintegration and deoccupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and its peaceful return to Ukraine within internationally recognized borders. Eventually, such subregional alliances improve the structure of human rights protection within the Universal human rights protection system and European regional mechanisms, strengthen Ukraine's position in international negotiations and consolidate Ukraine's role in international relations as Europe's Eastern Gate.