The panel tackled the issue of the Digital Black Box and offered preliminary ideas on enhancing CSO participation in the UN and IOs. The goal was to pave the way for a more transparent, inclusive, and effective engagement in the digital age. The session focused on the challenges posed by the 'Black Box' trap of digital platforms of UN and International Organisations, which instead of fostering engagement, are currently hindering the involvement of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). Is it a technological challenge due to insufficient financial and technical resources necessary for enhancing UN transparency and openness? Or is it the lack of a clear policy mandate and a clear code of conduct on what constitutes CSO engagement and participation?

Raymond Saner (2024) “The WTO, Climate Change and Sustainable Development” (accepted for publication to be published as IJSD 2024 V27 N3)

The author contributes to the trade & environment debate that so far excluded theoretical concepts such as the principle of mutual supportiveness of international agreements, the insights of public goods theory, and a positive trade & environment agenda.

Based on the inclusion of these new concepts, an enlarged frame of trade, environment, and development is proposed which forms the basis for a reinterpretation of standard WTO articles making a more inclusive approach possible to stop climate change. For instance, the Local Content Requirement is discussed as a means to support citizens of developing countries to generate their renewable energy sources combined with a reinterpretation of Intellectual Property Rights to make the transfer of technology possible of renewable energy in the less developed parts of the world.

By putting governments and WHO under critical lens as for current positions to counteract climate change-tied health & environment deterioration, this article condemns the ongoing exclusion of civil society (CSOs e NGOs) from far-reaching relevant decisions. Under these circumstances, solutions to secure factual cohesion with civil society organisations are envisaged. As the Author maintains ‘…

The Health & Environment nexus requires a real multi-stakeholder approach, not some unnamed heads of government that claim to represent the peoples of the world. The only sustainable approach is that of separate constituencies/stakeholders who develop solutions within their stakeholder group, and once they have formulated their own position, then to reach out to the other stakeholders. It does not make sense to have Civil Society be amalgamated into a government position nor be controlled and absorbed by an International Organisation…

Raymond Saner, (2020) “Negotiating independence. Switzerland in 1647–48: Johann Rudolf Wettstein, mayor of the state (canton) of Basel City and negotiator for the Swiss Confederation”; Négociations 2020/1 (n° 33), pages 7 à 23 Éditions , De Boeck Supérieur.

This article recounts a historical negotiation success during the Westphalia negotiations in the 17th Century. Mr. Rudolf Wettstein, the then Mayor of Basel City, was able to single-handedly obtain exemptions for the Swiss cantons from being accountable to courts of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations (HRGE), amounting to a declaration of independence. As a first step, the author describes the historical context of the negotiations and subsequently the nego- tiation process involving multi-actor international negotiations during the peace negotiations at Westphalia which consisted of multi-actor internal negotiations within the Swiss Confederation and external multi-party negotiations with the leading powers who participated in the Westphalia negotiation process.