International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace. April 24th.
Pia Mullen/ GICJ
“Around the world, we see an utter disregard for — if not outright violations of — international law — including international human rights law, international refugee law, international humanitarian law, and the UN Charter itself, without any accountability.” This is the condemning statement of Antonio Guterres UN Secretary-General given on the 22nd July 2025. During this session, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted a draft resolution to strengthen mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes– this mechanism being multilateralism.
The International Day for Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace was enshrined in A/RES/73/127 on December 12 2018. It described ‘the urgent need to promote and strengthen multilateralism’ and how the international day was necessary ‘to reaffirm the importance and relevance of multilateralism and international law and to advance the common goal of lasting and sustained peace through diplomacy.’
What is Multilateralism:
Multilateralism can be simply described as the collaboration between three or more states. But at its core, Multilateralism is the connective tissue of the international system, and over the years has woven the structural framework of the United Nations (UN).
Nascent ideas of international cooperation were platformed by the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations, during its founding in 1920. Multilateral tenets of diplomatic dialogue and collaborative problem-solving became solidified as global principles, especially in the stark aftermath of the First World War. The United Nations now has 193 member states, growing from the original 51 states that signed during its founding in 1945.
It is also vital to conceive of multilateralism as multidimensional. It is not merely a framework negotiated between states, but a set of values that can be upheld in everyday grassroot decisions. Antonio Guterres has highlighted in the past how values of multilateralism can be upheld by “a protestor standing up to repression, a journalist standing up for press freedom, or an everyday citizen standing up for their neighbour" [1].
Multilateralism is, in essence, the solidarity of people, states and organisations behind a common goal of sustainable peace.
Smallpox eradication and the prohibition of chemical weapons: a testament to Multilateralism
The diplomatic cooperation of states and non-governmental bodies has yielded huge successes in the past. In the 100 years before the eradication of smallpox in 1977, the disease killed hundreds of millions of people. Extremely virulent and with a fatality rate of 30%, the global system’s eradication of smallpox now stands as the epitome of multilateral cooperation. When in the 1960s and 1970s, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War, it was the multilateral diplomacy facilitated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which enabled the two countries to lead a global programme that would eventually eradicate smallpox. The USSR offered 25 million doses of the smallpox vaccine to WHO for mass roll out, a donation which was coupled with the technical and material assistance of the USA in 20 African countries [2]. It was a vital break from the USA’s bilateral assistance policy, and instead demonstrated a political will and commitment to contribute to a global common good. WHO was key in the training of healthcare staff, vaccine production and coordination of multilateral negotiations. Countries including the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands jointly produced standardised vaccine production and testing procedures, ensuring an effective vaccine was available globally [3]. It was ultimately due to this multilateral collaboration that smallpox, a disease which had plagued humans for millennia, was eradicated in 1977. It remains the only disease that has been eradicated in humans.
Twenty years later as the tension of the Cold War era began to dissipate, multilateralism drove yet another milestone agreement for international peace. On April 29 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) came into force and declared ‘a total and permanent ban on the preparation, production, storage and use of all chemical weapons [4]. This multilateral push to ban chemical weapons came in the wake of the horrors of chemical warfare used in the American-Vietnamese and Iran-Iraq wars.
Today 98% of the world's population continues to be protected by this permanent multilateral agreement, with the convention having 193 member state signatories. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) continues to inspect, convert and destroy chemical weapon production facilities. It uses CWC as the charter for this operation, highlighting how multilateralism can influence warfare, peace and security prospectively.
Multilateralism today: emerging concerns
Today, as violence against civilians in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran persists, multilateralism's effectiveness is being critically undermined by the veto powers of permanent Security Council members. This paralysis leaves a trail of unchecked war crimes and human rights violations without remedy or accountability. The resurgence of realist state-centricity and the intensification of age-old power struggles have led some NGOs to refer to this paralysis as a ‘multilateral crisis’ where actors are questioning whether diplomacy can still deliver tangible results.
The failure, however, lies not just in the architecture of multilateralism, but in the political will of states that inhabit it. National interest has repeatedly been placed above collective responsibility, corroding the system from within. Multilateralism is not a static concept. It is one that has evolved in response to the pressures of its time, and the International Day's founding resolution explicitly recognises this, calling for the framework to be strengthened rather than abandoned. Reconstruction is not only necessary; it is urgent and essential for peace.
To respond to multilateralism's current failures by discarding it would be to replace an imperfect system with no system at all. The International Day is therefore more than a moment of appreciation for multilateral principles. It is a reminder of what is at stake, and a call to recommit to reform. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated in July 2025: "competition between states is a geopolitical reality. But cooperation – anchored in shared interests and the greater good – is the sustainable pathway to peace."
Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ), supports multilateralism as a founding principle of the international system and recognises it must be adhered to for sustainable peace to be achieved. The persistence of conflicts today is a call for the restrengthening of action-oriented multilateralism, creating a cohesive body strong enough to oppose the dangerous rise of self-interested, unilateral states. GICJ iterates that multilateralism must be the starting point to protect the victims of ongoing war crimes in regions such as Ukraine and Gaza. Consequently, it must be a Multilateralism that is dynamic. It must be dynamic enough to adapt to the complexity of the growing tensions of the current international system, and vitally, to prioritise the protection of vulnerable citizens who bear the brunt of violence. GICJ therefore calls for the scope and inclusion of multilateral negotiations to be broadened to include indigenous groups in decision making arenas. Multilateralism can only truly be inclusive when this is achieved.
Bibliography:
United Nations. (2026, January 29). UN / Guterres 2026 priorities presser [Video]. UNifeed. https://media.un.org/unifeed/en/asset/d353/d3530426
European Parliament. (n.d.). VII. Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). In The principal international arms control conventions. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/workingpapers/poli/w23/cwc_en.htm
Bristol, N. (2023, May 17). Smallpox eradication: A model for global cooperation. Center for Strategic and International Studies. https://www.csis.org/analysis/smallpox-eradication-model-global-cooperation
European Parliament. (n.d.). VII. Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). In The principal international arms control conventions. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/workingpapers/poli/w23/cwc_en.htm
