AUSTRALIA - EXPLANATION OF POSITION ON THE PACT FOR THE FUTURE
STATEMENT BY H.E AMBASSADOR JAMES LARSEN, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF AUSTRALIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
07 October 2024
President, distinguished colleagues,
Australia was pleased to join consensus on the Pact for the Future and its accompanying Global Digital Compact and Declaration for Future Generations.
The Pact is testament to our collective determination, even in challenging times, to make our multilateral system fit for purpose to meet contemporary needs and expectations.
Let me take this opportunity to thank our co-facilitators Ambassadors Lindertsee and Gertz and also our colleagues from Zambia, Sweden, the Netherlands and Jamaica for their tireless efforts.
I also commend the leadership of the President of the General Assembly in helping us reach a consensus outcome.
Australia was a founding member of the United Nations and we continue to believe there is no alternative forum capable of bringing all members of our global community together to address shared challenges and to improve our citizens’ lives.
Yet, we are conscious that today, trust in and respect for the United Nations is declining.
For this reason, we celebrate the Pact as a demonstration of our collective determination to address this.
Australia welcomes the Pact’s emphasis on sustainable development including reaffirmation of our commitment to accelerate progress toward achieving all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
We support action to provide and mobilise finance from all sources to address sustainable development gaps.
We agree with the need to reform international financial architecture and institutions to improve the voice and representation of developing countries, strengthen development impact, and build resilience in the most vulnerable countries.
We endorse the call for reform of the Security Council. Australia will continue to advocate for greater permanent and non-permanent representation for Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Australia welcomes the Pact’s focus on strengthening the Peacebuilding Commission and we look forward to supporting this during our forthcoming term.
We are pleased the Pact highlights the importance of women, peace and security. As all of us know, Gender equality is a primary predictor of peace and sustainable development.
The Pact also makes clear that peace and security or sustainable development cannot be achieved without recognition of human rights.
We welcome recognition that it is the duty of all States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Australia welcomes the Global Digital Compact’s foundation in international law, including international human rights law.
Both international cooperation on and the governance of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, must be in compliance with existing international law and universal human rights.
Australia supports the Compact’s focus on narrowing the gender digital divide, and its commitment to women’s and girls’ leadership and participation in cyberspace and digital technology design, development, regulation and use.
Australia reaffirms the Compact's commitments in support of an inclusive, safe, and secure digital future.
And we reaffirm our view that implementation of the Compact will be most impactful and enduring if it aligns with existing processes – including the World Summit on the Information Society and the Internet Governance Forum.
Inclusion is not only based on connectivity. A focus on increased digital literacy and civic participation is vital to ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age.
On the Declaration on Future Generations, Australia stands ready to play our part in creating a better future for all.
And we particularly welcome the Declaration’s emphasis on respecting, promoting, and protecting the deep knowledge and rights of First Nations peoples.
Like others, there are elements of the Pact, Compact and Declaration which we consider failed to be sufficiently ambitious or which should have been included in the final text.
This includes the missed opportunity to strengthen the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Nations human rights mechanisms.
We also share the concern that the Compact fails adequately to reflect the indivisibility and interdependency of all human rights.
It is regrettable that the Pact fails to address the very clear links between the adverse impacts of climate change on our efforts to sustain peace.
On the Compact, we missed the opportunity to recognise the vital place of multi-stakeholder engagement and cooperation. Digital governance is not the responsibility of individual states.
For Australia, it is clear that digital governance including of the internet, data, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies must be multi-stakeholder driven, expert led and consensus based.
It is also unfortunate that the Compact only superficially addresses the essential interrelation between technology as an agent to progress the sustainable development goals and promotion of human rights.
On the Declaration, we would have preferred to see an appropriate reference to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Universal access to sexual and reproductive health services and the realisation of these rights are critical steps towards empowering women to make their own choices about their sexual and reproductive health without coercion or discrimination.
Excluding this from the Declaration is a denial of human rights.
And we urge all countries to commit to protect, respect, and ensure the fulfillment of their human rights through the development and implementation of policies that advance comprehensive access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.
President in conclusion, Australia commits to engage actively in the development of the mandates, structures, modalities, timeframes, and funding for the new mechanisms and follow-up processes included in the Pact and it associated instruments.