Global Futures Forum and Peoples Pact for the Future:

Peace and Security Consultations

February 15 to 28, 2023

Final report

Introduction

In order to address key global issues impacting on future generations (armed conflict, nuclear threats, climate change, survival of ecosystems etc…) the United Nations General Assembly has decided to hold a Summit of the Future: Multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow on 22-23 September 2024, preceded by a preparatory ministerial meeting at the United Nations in New York on 18 September 2023.

The Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UN) is facilitating civil society input into the UN Summit and its preparatory process. This includes a Global Futures Forum on March 20-21, preparing a People’s Pact for the Future to be released in April 2023 and consultations on seven themes relating to the UN Summit.

The Peace and Security Consultations took place from February 15-28, 2023, through e-mail list-serve and online meetings. UNFOLD ZERO hosts the webpage for these consultations.

Further consultations were undertaken by UNFOLD ZERO and Coalition for the UN We Need following the Global Futures Forum, as well as engagement with the UN facilitators for the UN Summit of the Future. These led to a revised Chapter 2 on International Peace and Security for the Peoples Pact for the Future which was finalised for the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi.

Objectives of the consultations

a) Facilitate a broad discussion of the issues and initiatives relating to international peace and security, leading to concrete proposals for advancing in the People’s Pact and general advocacy for the SDG Summit 2023, New Agenda for Peace and Summit of the Future.

b) Ensure that the mix of proposals includes some which could be picked up by governments in the near future and adopted at the UN Summits, as well as some more innovative proposals which might find traction amongst civil society organizations in the short-term and could lead to government/UN action in the medium to long-term.

See the compilation of proposals

Approaches to Peace and Security

The consultations will take an inclusive approach to peace and security issues and frameworks. Participants are invited to share proposals on any peace and security issue that is of importance to them, taking into consideration that proposals relating to the other six themes that are also relevant to peace and security, may be being addressed more comprehensively in the other thematic strands.

Participants are also welcome to make proposals for the peace and security theme from a range of frameworks/approaches to peace and security, including national security, common security, human security, feminist foreign policy, trans-generational security, international law, global governance and others. See Introduction to the Peace and Security theme for a short outline of these frameworks.

The facilitators recognize that, in general, these are not separate and competing security frameworks, but are intersecting and mutually supporting.

Dates & Times for the online consultation meetings

There are two online consultations for Peace and Security theme. The first consultation was on February 16 and included an overview of the Summit process, discussion on the different frameworks on peace and security, and suggestions of Peace and Security proposals for the Peoples’ Pact for the Future and the Summit of the Future. (Power Point introduction to the Feb 16 consultation – also in PDF).

The second consultation was on February 23. It picked up suggestions/proposals that appeared to have traction and discussed these further in order to consolidate them for passing on to the Global Futures Forum.

Each consultation was held in two sessions of 90 minutes each: the first timed for participants from Asia/Pacific and the second timed for participants from the Americas/Africa/Europe/Middle East.

 

    • Session 1.A: Thursday February 16. 7am Central Europe Time (CET).
      Timed to suit Asia/Pacific.

    • Session 1.B: Thursday February 16. 10:30 Eastern Time USA / 16:30 CET.
      Timed to suit Americas/Africa/Europe/Middle East.

    • Session 2.A: Thursday February 23. 7am CET.
      Timed to suit Asia/Pacific. 

  • Session 2.B: Thursday February 23. 10:30 Eastern Time USA / 16:30 CET.
    Timed to suit Americas/Africa/Europe/Middle East.

Background reading

Registration and facilitators

To register with us and engage in the Peace and Security theme, please send an email to gfuturesforum@gmail.com or visit https://c4unwn.org/e-consultation/. The co-facilitators of this theme are: