The United Nations will celebrate its 75th anniversary in September 2020, and to mark this occasion, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, launched a large and far-reaching global conversation to support enhanced international cooperation to address the most pressing threats for our planet and build the future we want.

A series of formal consultations and informal dialogues are being held this year as part of a global campaign that intends to gather the views of stakeholders across sectors, borders, and generations on the future of multilateralism and its role in managing global trends, including climate change, changing demographics, new technologies and inequalities.  

Political dialogues

UN Member States have begun intergovernmental negotiations on a political declaration to be adopted at the UN75 Leaders’ Summit on 21 September 2020, which will reflect their commitment to multilateralism, the UN and “their shared vision for a common future.”

The first consultation meeting held on 21 February, open to Member States and permanent observers -, intended to discuss the food-for-thought paper on how the UN can strengthen multilateralism and reinvigorate global governance, respond to major global challenges, deliver on commitments, mobilise resources and involve a wider diversity of actors to advance the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.    

Facilitators reported that during the meeting participants noted the need to: address on the declaration text key issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss, reform several UN bodies and ensure meaningful participation of the civil society, among other relevant topics.  

The following consultation will be held in early April, with a zero draft being released in May. The UN General Assembly has agreed that negotiations on the declaration will conclude by June.

Civil society dialogues

The UN2020 campaign is working to develop a civil society Declaration and Plan of Action to be adopted at the UN75 People’s Forum for the UN We Need, taking place on 23-24 April, as an opportunity for global civil society to share its views on the state of world affairs, global governance, and the way forward.

The Declaration welcomes inputs that will inform its content and the advocacy going forward.

To view the preliminary draft declaration please click here

Regional governments and stakeholders interested in providing inputs or making general suggestions can do so by filling out this form and/or send inputs directly to dperell@bic.org  using the subject line “Input to UN75 Civil Society Declaration”.

Worldwide conversation

UN75 invites the general public to join the worldwide online conversation on shaping our planet’s future, by completing the 1-minute-survey at www.un75.online and sharing their message (and photo) on social media under the title ‘I had my say’ and the hashtag #UN75.

Regions4 invites all regional governments – both at political and technical levels – to join the conversation and share their messages using the hashtag #RegionsVoice.

Further information