The UN’s Normative Role in an Agenda 2030 World

Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen:

I have just been briefed by Bruce Jenks about the very fruitful discussions you have had on the UN’s normative role and I am grateful that I can add a few reflections from my side. I would like to thank the Graduate Institute and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation for organizing this seminar which provides an important opportunity for reflection in times of wide-ranging disregard for or questioning of the norms that have guided the international community for many years.

Norms help us to develop a shared understanding of how we expect ourselves and others to behave. However, at a time of increased empowerment of the individual and a more general fragmentation of power at a global level, many of the agreed norms and rules are being challenged. Scrutiny is healthy and democratic, but it becomes problematic when the questioning turns into blind rejection without offering constructive alternatives. And examples of blatant disregard for certain norms and rules can be seen at all levels, from the local to the international – from domestic populism to the breaking of humanitarian law in conflicts worldwide.

In some cases, the rule-breaking may be selfish calculation, but in others it is based on our collective failure to explain the norms and rules in a way that makes people understand why norms exist, and how they benefit each and every individual on this planet.

International Geneva generates extremely important norms and regulations that have a direct impact on the lives of everybody. Many of the world’s leading norm-setting organizations are concentrated here and have forged a unique ecosystem of expertise and operational capacity. The Human Rights Council, for example, defines and monitors norms to protect basic freedoms and rights worldwide. Similarly, in the domain of trade and intellectual property rights, UN entities in Geneva are making major contributions. Individual freedoms or free trade cannot be achieved without agreement on shared rules and norms to avoid discrimination.

At today’s seminar, you have heard a colleague from the International Labour Organization whose labour standards improve working conditions worldwide, and you heard from a representative of the World Health Organization whose health guidelines have saved countless lives. The UN Economic Commission for Europe is one of the other key standard setting organisations in Geneva with global impact on issues such as transport, road safety, vehicle regulations, trade facilitation standards, and agricultural standards etc. And even outside the UN system, our partners in Geneva are active in this domain. The International Organization for Standardization is perhaps the clearest case in point, having published more than 21,000 International Standards and related documents, covering almost every industry, from technology, to food safety, to agriculture and healthcare.

Looking ahead, a key priority in view of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to ensure that the norms and standards that are being defined in Geneva – the technical and operational hub of the international system - reinforce the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. And we need to make sure that planning for implementation takes both existing and new norms into consideration to adjust quickly to the rapidly changing environment and challenges we are facing. This requires a high level of coordination. And there is a lot of potential for collaboration. Non-State Actors, including the private sector, have increasingly taken responsibility to set up their own normative frameworks [e.g. food security/organic food]. It is crucial to ensure that these frameworks do not compete, but are part of an integrated approach under the 2030 Agenda.

We need to become better at involving all local stakeholders in the implementation and the monitoring of adherence to international norms, beyond existing support through advice and capacity building. A rule that is imposed from the outside is rarely – if ever – as effective as one that people have internalized. The 2030 Agenda can only be achieved if a much wider cross-section of society, from government agencies to NGOs, academia and the private sector internalizes the norms on which we need to rely in implementing the agenda.

All actors need to be on the same page and global norms help to establish guidelines. To facilitate the cascading down of norms from the conference halls of Geneva to the street corners in our Member States, the Perception Change Project, which I launched here in Geneva, is working on innovative ways to communicate about decisions taken in Geneva and beyond, and their implications on the ground. And we are also exploring ways of ensuring that bottom-up communication can be facilitated, including through social media. People need to be able to tell us what they think. We need such feedback so that the international community can ensure that the norms to be developed address the needs.

Norms need to be flexible enough to accommodate change while being strong enough to persist in spite of challenges. This is a delicate balance where in particular the UN but also other international organizations have an important role to play. It is crucial that we stop the trend of global norms being increasingly perceived as rules designed to favour the few and disadvantage the masses. Norms should not be limited to expected behaviour. They have to be perceived as desirable again. And here in Geneva, we have a rich ecosystem full of positive examples that we must use to better to explain the direct and beneficial impact of crucial norms on every individual.

We all have a role to play in making this happen. I thank you once again for having convened this important seminar here in Geneva and for connecting New York and Geneva on such a crucial topic. I hope that today’s discussion has generated some concrete ideas and actions for how to more forward to strengthen the UN’s normative role.

Thank you very much.