PAGBABAGO
When the United Nations was created in 1945, its primary aim was to promote peace and security. Now, 78 years later, its membership had not only increased to include 193 member countries, but its structure and goals broadened, as it continues to seek responsive approaches to basic human rights.
Today, with its special agencies and new structures of governance, its mission is focused on facilitating attainment of sustainable development goals through its six main arms and its specialized agencies.
Global challenges such as right to food security and hunger through agricultural productivity are addressed by the Food and Agriculture Organization; right to health by the World Health Organization; right to basic needs of children and women by UNICEF; right to just labor conditions by the International Labor Organization; right to justice by the International Court of Justice and related bodies; social and economic rights by the Economic and Social Council; right to clean environment and ability to respond to climate change by the UN Environment Program; right to education, information and communication by UNESCO.
At the recent UNESCO Internet Trust Conference, some 4,300 participants gathered to suggest regulatory solutions to the crisis of online information. A first such global meet, the speakers called for the urgent need for common global guidelines to ensure the reliability of information while protecting human rights.
In the absence of regulation, “the blurring of boundaries between true and false, organized denial of scientific facts and amplification of disinformation had flourished, much better than the truth,” Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s director-general noted.
“Our communication systems today are insidiously manipulating us. Lies spread faster than facts,” according to our own Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa, the global meet’s keynote speaker. “Facts are really boring. Lies, especially when laced with anger and hate, with tribalism – us against them, they spread! It’s like throwing a match into kindling.” Algorithms, surveillance capitalism undermine the right to facts. Without facts, you can’t have truth, without truth, you can’t have trust, and we have no shared reality.”
Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in his letter to DG Azoulay, emphasized the dangers coming from the digital environment – “how it had led to market and power concentration in the hands of a few companies and countries.” He recalled how hate speech and the spread of misinformation had claimed victims, mostly the vulnerable, during recent violent attacks on democratic institutions in Brazil.
As societies evolve and as it faces continuing crisis and complexities of modern life, there indeed is need to seek innovative approaches in meeting these challenges.
Among UNESCO’s primary challenges are the threats posed by the new information technologies – loss of privacy, growing gaps in access to education and information due to social, economic, and political factors. Food security is challenged not only by demographic but also similar political factors – aggrandizement of capital in the hands of a few; a growing recognition of need to provide environmental rights to nature, threats from climate change and pandemics; and threats faced by millions of migrants and indigenous peoples who are driven out of their ancestral lands.
While the United Nations has been widely accepted and its initiatives found to be “effective, even though not perfect,” it had been criticized for its lack of quick response to some peace and security concerns. This fault is found in its current structure where it cannot even enforce a global compact as it has no specific measures or sanctions for non-compliance.
But, after weighing all considerations – the continuing rise of threats and challenges to our social and political order, the decline of democracy and the continuing presence of populism and authoritarianism, still, our best bet and alternative is multilateralism. And the United Nations is playing a more than satisfactory role towards the promotion of a balanced social order.
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