As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, the call for radical structural change is growing louder. At a recent event held by the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom, or UNA–UK, to commemorate the first session of the U.N. General Assembly, Heba Aly, director of the Article 109 coalition, made the case for a “fundamental reclamation” of the U.N. Charter — the organization’s foundational document that hasn’t been significantly reviewed since 1945.
In an interview with Devex, Aly, the former CEO of The New Humanitarian, argued that the current global security system is in a state of “complete breakdown.” Citing the U.N.’s inability to address sovereign breaches, artificial intelligence, and climate change, she posited that the 80-year-old architecture is no longer fit for a post-internet, nuclear, and ecologically strained world.
Aly’s vision centered on invoking a long-overlooked promise within Article 109 of the charter, which allows for a review conference to redistribute power among the two-thirds of the U.N. membership that were still colonized when the organization was founded. Moving beyond technocratic cost-saving measures, she advocated for a new global social contract that addresses U.N. Security Council dysfunction and provides a formal voice for nonstate players.
About the author
Thomas Cserep
Thomas Cserép is an Associate Editor who manages and oversees Devex's social media presence, coordinates Devex’s audience outreach, and produces the This Week in Global Development podcast. Prior to Devex, he worked as a freelance journalist, with his writings appearing in a variety of publications, including Get Spanish Football News and the magazine of the Hungarian Geographic Society.