Yvon Dandurand

Tomorrow is the first day of the high-level debate at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, under the main theme Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all. Today, ahead of the high-level week, the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, the President of the European Council, António Costa, the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the President of Kenya, William Ruto, convene the Partners for Multilateralism, International Law, Peace and Prosperity Summit.

The P4M initiative is an open platform for partners worldwide who are ready to defend common principles and work toward practical solutions. It is a network for dialogue, coalition-building and practical cooperation. It will support the work of the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms, help build bridges across regions, and contribute to advancing the reform and modernization of these institutions.

This long-awaited institutional renewal initiative is crucially important. The Declaration of the Partners for Multilateralism (P4M) Summit expresses a joint commitment to multilateralism, international law, peace and prosperity and a hope to turn shared commitments into concrete action.[1] International cooperation in most areas, including in law enforcement and criminal justice, is in a sorry state. It is reassuring to see that Canada and its partners are not happy to simply deplore the weakening of the rule of law and the international legal order but also recognize the need for urgent action.

The Declaration states that “The real choice is not between preserving the international order established after the Second World War or abandoning it. It is between renewing multilateral co-operation in a changing world or allowing polarisation and power politics to define the next era.”

[1] www.consilium.europa.eu/cs/press/press-releases/2026/09/21/declaration-of-the-partners-for-multilateralism-p4m-summit-21-september-2026/

Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst on Unsplash.