January 2013: The UN Task Team for the Post-2015 Development Agenda (UNTT), along with five UN agencies, have released a new thematic think piece, titled “Global governance and governance of the global commons in the global partnership for development beyond 2015.”

The contributors to the paper are the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS), the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

The paper explores how the post-2015 development framework can promote a more coherent, effective, and accountable global governance regime for the realization of sustainable development and human rights.

Looking at ways to make global economic governance more inclusive, and global environmental governance less fragmented, the paper stresses the need for partnership among all relevant stakeholders for a cross-cutting, international policy-making framework. This framework should integrate and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development, while increasing political engagement with them at all levels of governance.

The paper also addresses governance and stewardship of the global commons, and the need for a coherent global framework to integrate existing laws covering these international areas. Though there are many international treaties and conventions relating to the global commons, the frameworks are fractured, and not comprehensive enough to include modern conservation principles or assessments. The think piece recommends a UN global governance regime to ensure the preservation of the global commons for future generations.

This paper is one of nine new “think pieces” published by the UNTT’s working group on the global partnership for development beyond 2015. The papers will be synthesized in a report to be published in March 2013. [Publication: Global governance and governance of the global commons in the global partnership for development beyond 2015] [UNTT Think Pieces] [UNTT Resources]