BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The official launch of the Group of Friends of Global Governance at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York this week marks a significant moment for the international community. It reflects an emerging consensus: The world can no longer postpone the long-overdue conversation about how global governance should be reshaped to meet the demands of a changing era.
The Global Governance Initiative (GGI) stems from a fundamental question. When a Western-centered order concentrates power and influence within a narrow circle while leaving most countries underrepresented and underserved, how can the world correct this imbalance and move toward a fairer, more inclusive and more functional system?
The post-World War II governance architecture once helped stabilize the global order. Eight decades on, however, its deficiencies are impossible to ignore. The system suffers from three structural flaws: inadequate representation for the Global South, weakened authority, and a growing gap between global challenges and institutional effectiveness.
This imbalance is all the more striking as the Global South has become the main driver of global economic growth, contributing up to 80 percent of it and representing the majority of the world's population. Yet current institutions still give these countries only a fraction of the voice they deserve. Decision-making often occurs behind closed doors, producing outcomes that reflect the interests of a minority rather than the global majority. The structural inequities embedded in the system have long constrained the Global South's ability to speak and be heard.
The GGI aims to improve this. It stresses sovereign equality and genuine multilateralism. Every country, regardless of size or power, should have the right to participate equally in global governance, help shape its decisions, and share in its benefits. This is essential to democratizing international relations and strengthening the voice of Global South nations.
As noted by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon early this month at the 2025 Imperial Springs International Forum, the GGI emphasizes multilateralism and equality, which aligns with the UN's reform agenda to expand participation, amplify the voices of developing countries and ensure that no one is left behind.
In recent years, some countries have promoted a so-called "rules-based order," yet their practice reveals a very different logic: one in which their political agenda at home is above international law whenever convenient. The dissonance is stark in areas ranging from climate action to human rights and global economic governance. They tend to demand great commitments from others while quietly shirking their own, and sit in judgment of other countries' human rights records while rejecting external scrutiny themselves. These double standards not only weaken trust, but also erode the foundations of multilateral cooperation.
It is against this backdrop that the GGI stresses the need to return to the bedrock of the international system: the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter. They must be upheld unwaveringly. In emerging areas, international rules should be formulated on the basis of extensive consensus. International law and rules must be applied equally and uniformly, without any double standards or imposition. The authority and solemnity of international law must be upheld.
Defending the authority and integrity of international law is a shared responsibility, but major countries bear a particular obligation to lead by example. Only by championing true multilateralism and a more just rules-based system can they help steer global governance toward greater equity, credibility and common security.
Ultimately, global governance must be judged by whether it improves people's lives. A people-centered approach, one of the GGI's core commitments, demands that institutions respond to the urgent, concrete concerns of ordinary communities worldwide, from public health and food security to digital access, climate resilience and equitable development.
For global governance to regain credibility, it must also deliver real and measurable outcomes. The world has grown tired of ambitious pledges by the West that are never realized. A results-oriented approach, another key principle of the GGI, demands narrowing the persistent "implementation gap" in climate finance, development commitments and institutional reform.
In a time of uncertainty and fragmentation, the GGI points the way toward a more just, inclusive and trustworthy global order, one shaped by the many, not the few. ■
