Page 62 - Bulletin, Vol.81 No.2, December 2022

very concrete to the more aspirational. Notable is the proposal for a multi-stakeholder
effort to reduce violence world-wide in all its forms, including violence from criminal
groups and interpersonal violence in the home.

There are several recommendations that go to the heart of how the UN functions.
Working towards a ‘UN 2.0’ able to offer ‘system-wide solutions to 21st century
challenges’, the Report envisages an institution more inclusive, responsive, and
consultative and ‘a reliable guardian for our future’.

The necessity for strengthening global cooperation to address the existential crises
facing humanity is increasingly clear. Our Common Agenda offers a wide-ranging,
integrated and compelling strategy of the next major steps. It is vital that they be
implemented by the next Australian government.* The Labor opposition’s plan to
appoint a dedicated ambassador for human rights is a step in the right direction.
Strengthening international institutions as a way to reduce conflict and tackle global
problems is in Australia’s national interest, and all our interests.

Copies of the whole strategy, Our Common Agenda, are readily available at
https://www.un.org/en/un75/common-agenda

Erika Feller AO and John Langmore AM

[Editor’s note: Erika was Assistant High Commissioner for Protection in UNHCR before
she retired. John was Director for Social Policy and

Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the UN Secretariat
from 1997-2002.

Both are now at the School of Government, Law Faculty, Initiative for Peacebuilding,
University of Melbourne.

*This article on the UN’s ‘Common Agenda’ was first published (May 2022), prior to the
Federal election, in ‘Pursuit’, the University of Melbourne’s magazine.]

60 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 81 No. 2, 2022-12