“The hypocritical G20”

The G20 meeting in Hamburg is meant to address some of the most pressing global problems but many of the heads of state present at this year’s summit have a very poor record of defending human rights in their own countries, Christian Grefe writes in a commentary for Zeit Online. Germany must use its G20 presidency to openly discuss these contradictions and ensure that the United Nations, as the most important forum, does not suffer at the hands of a few dominant G20 countries, he argues.  The active participation of civil society is also needed to increase pressure on governments to put issues that concern their citizens on the table, he argues. “Without public pressure from citizens and their participation in UN, the Paris Climate Agreement would not have been made in 2015 and nor would the global Agenda 2030 with its sustainable development goals,” Grefe says.

Read the commentary in German here.

Find CLEW’s full background on the Hamburg summit in the dossier G20 2017 - Climate and energy at the Hamburg summit.