Imperative to restructure institutions of global governance: Ansari

PRAGUE - Vice-President Hamid Ansari on Monday said it is imperative to restructure institutions of global governance in view of the interlinked, economic and financial, security, and environmental threats emerging sharply in the recent times, which impact the capacity of players on the global stage.

Speaking here on the theme “Challenges of Global Governance in the 21st century” organised by the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Indian Vice-President told the audience that no discussion of global governance in the contemporary context would be complete without attention being paid to what has been called the ‘Hydra-Headed Crisis’ confronting the world.

Ansari said that he intended to refer to “the overlapping, even interlinked, economic and financial, security, and environmental threats that have emerged so sharply in the past year or so. They are interlinked and impact the capacity of players on the global stage.”

“They also reflect on national and global governance, demonstrate the limitations of national governance and the inadequacy of existing global mechanisms,” he said.

“The experience reiterates the imperative need for restructuring institutions of global governance to make them more representative, more effective and more dedicated to the common, rather than sectional, good,” said Ansari.

Ansari also said: “Global Governance is today understood as a minimum acceptable framework of norms, principles and rules needed to tackle global problems and achieve global objectives, and that are upheld by a broad institutional framework, including multilateral, regional and international organisations, national governments, the private sector and civil society.”

“These objectives include eradication of poverty, mitigation of conflict, achieving minimum standards of health and education, environmental sustainability, upholding human rights and addressing the problem of hunger,” he added.

“Good governance is about leadership, sensitivity to the concerns of others, and upholding of basic norms of equity, justice and fairness. It is essentially about humanity defined in universalistic terms,” he stated.

Stating that the dimensions of the problem, and the complexity of the task, unavoidably bring forth disjuncture and challenges, Ansari said: “We know, in the first place, that while the primacy of nation-states has not ended, their absolute control over their territory and their citizens has been partly ceded to trans-national, multilateral, global and regional institutions and mechanisms. This upward power shift is still a work-in-progress as exemplified by the experience of the European Union.

Stating even when there is a convergence of views and recipes, the experience of individual societies remains critical to correctives, Ansari said: “It is in this context that I wish to speak of my country. India is one-sixth of the world in terms of population, is a vibrant democracy and is a microcosm of the diversities that characterise our world. It has been rightly called ‘the largest multicultural society in the world’,”

Highlighting one of the three aspects of India’s experience, Ansari said: “First, and the most important, is the accommodation of diversity and acceptance of multiple identities. We have been fortunate in implementing it due to our civilisational heritage and innate capacity for synthesis.”

Quoting from the words of a distinguished academic, the Vice President stated: “The Indian Constitution was well ahead of its time not only in recognizing diversities but also in providing for representation of the collectivities in the formal democratic structures.”

“The special provisions for guarantees or affirmative action in eight broad categories - caste, class, tribe, backwardness, religion, region, sex and language - is evidence of this approach for securing justice and ensuring cultural autonomy in a composite culture within a framework of a quasi-federal structure,” Ansari added. (ANI)