If the institution cannot reconcile the Global North’s hypocrisy with the legitimate demands of the Global South, its relevance will wither.
When the General Debate of the UN General Assembly’s 80th session opened on September 23, the cavernous hall in New York was once again filled with the familiar spectacle: heads of state taking the rostrum, diplomats scribbling notes and the global press parsing every phrase.
But this year’s theme – “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights” – rang painfully hollow. As delegates extolled cooperation, the world outside the glass walls at Turtle Bay seemed consumed by war, inequity and mistrust, not least with the devastation in Gaza.
