On a cool autumn day in Could 2007, a exceptional gathering passed off at Ulusaba, the non-public recreation reserve in South Africa owned by Sir Richard Branson.
Assembled round a desk within the reserve’s nice room was a gaggle of former world leaders and elder statespeople. They included Jimmy Carter, the previous American president; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Mary Robinson, the previous president of Eire and former United Nations excessive commissioner for human rights; and Graça Machel, Mozambique’s first minister of training and a global advocate for girls’s and kids’s rights. They have been awaiting the arrival of Machel’s husband, Nelson Mandela, the previous president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Kofi Annan, the previous secretary-general of the UN, joined the assembly by way of video-link.
The event was the inaugural gathering of the Elders, an initiative led by Mandela to carry collectively a small variety of leaders “working objectively and with none vested private curiosity within the end result” to behave as “trustworthy brokers” in battle decision, coming collectively “to contribute knowledge, impartial management and ethical braveness to sort out among the world’s most severe issues”.
I used to be at that assembly when Mandela arrived. Phrase had unfold of his coming. A crowd of native villagers, and each member of employees of the lodge, had gathered on the gate to greet him, his arrival heralded by the sound of ululations and praise-songs. As he made his manner slowly into the room, the gathering rose as one in a spherical of spontaneous and extended applause – his newly discovered entourage of cooks, maids and drivers, joyfully ignoring privateness or protocol, crowding in behind him to listen to him converse: the daddy of the nation along with his kids.
Addressing the gathering, the Elders, he mentioned, had the chance to be “an actual function mannequin” for the world, main, guiding, creating their very own initiatives and supporting others, talking “freely and boldly”, and “working each publicly and behind the scenes on no matter actions wanted to be taken”.
It was barely surreal, but additionally heartening, to be current at an occasion peopled with so many world leaders in such a relaxed gathering. Within the night, the Elders and a circle of advisers – together with a Peruvian economist and a Chinese language environmentalist – dined on a terrace, wrapped in borrowed ponchos and fleeces towards the nippiness autumnal climate, listening to briefings from visiting analysts and consultants on topics starting from Darfur to nuclear proliferation. If solely all world issues might be resolved in such a genial ambiance …
They’re completely impartial, they don’t have any vested pursuits, they aren’t working for workplace, they aren’t paid, they don’t have any powers or sanctions at their disposal.
That was 18 years in the past. Except you pay shut consideration to world affairs, worldwide conferences on local weather, nuclear proliferation and pandemic preparedness, chances are you’ll not have heard of the Elders. Whereas there are any variety of organisations and establishments, from the UN down, by way of NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and peace and environmental teams, devoted to fixing the world’s myriad issues, the Elders are distinctive.
They’re completely impartial, they don’t have any vested pursuits, they aren’t working for workplace, they aren’t paid, they don’t have any powers or sanctions at their disposal. Their authority comes from their expertise, their knowledge, their integrity and status as “trustworthy brokers” and their community of relationships constructed up through the years.
Advocacy – bringing consideration to humanitarian crises that may in any other case go unnoticed – is a part of what they do, however a lot of their exercise is completed out of the highlight in battle decision and influencing world leaders, in non-public conferences with presidents, prime ministers and heads of state, drawing on their capability to open doorways that may in any other case be closed. Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and Myanmar are simply among the nations Elders have visited in latest instances.
It’s seldom the case that every one the Elders are gathered collectively in a single place, however this July a handful of the group gathered for a gathering in Morocco, held over three days at Branson’s lodge, the Kasbah Tamadot, within the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. The gathering was non-public, with no outdoors observers, and carried out underneath the Chatham Home rule – the precept of confidentiality utilized in conferences to encourage open dialogue. I used to be the one journalist current.
Every morning, the group gathered in a big tented house within the grounds of the property, with Moroccan carpets on the ground and large ornamental lamps hanging from the rafters. The temper was casual. There was no convention desk; moderately, the group of Elders and a handful of employees and advisers, together with a South American ambassador to Washington and London, a world-renowned economist and consultants in multilateral management and strategic communications, have been organized on comfy chairs and sofas, notepads and laptops on knees, with waiters ferrying water and occasional to facet tables.
The Elders met in July on the Kasbah Tamadot lodge in Morocco.
The conversations ranged over Gaza, Ukraine, the setting, the rise of AI, the collapse of the worldwide order, the waning affect of the UN, how finest to revive belief in authorities and establishments within the face of the rising tide of populism, analysing the causes of battle – together with the battle for sources, notably water and minerals, extraction of minerals, the weapons trade and socio-economic circumstances – all the higher to grasp stop them, and what function the Elders ought to finest be enjoying in an more and more multi-polar world with a surfeit of battle and as one participant put it, “a deficit of knowledge”. No drawback, then …
Unbiased knowledge
The genesis of the Elders goes again to 1999 and a dialog between Branson and his good friend, the musician Peter Gabriel, about how the custom in indigenous cultures of tribal elders, serving because the repository of knowledge, judgment and long-term pondering, may be utilized within the “world village”.
Whereas there have been any variety of organisations devoted to fixing the world’s myriad issues, there was no single group that was completely impartial, deriving its authority not from political, financial, army or spiritual energy however from knowledge and expertise. What may such a gaggle obtain?
In 2001, over lunch at Branson’s London residence, he and Gabriel gently proposed the concept to Nelson Mandela. His response was guarded – not least, he instructed them, as a result of the UN may look askance at a self-elected physique presuming to step on its territory. However a working group was set as much as discover the concept and the way finest to assemble 12 individuals – the quantity had been determined by an unstated consensus – that may equitably signify gender, ethnicity and cultural pluralism.
The identify introduced itself.
Richard Branson (proper) and musician Peter Gabriel proposed the concept of the Elders to Nelson Mandela in 2001.Credit score: Getty Photographs
Within the years since then, the organisation has grown to embody a employees, researchers and advisers. From the very starting, the Elders have been an impartial entity, funded by a collective of donors together with Branson’s Virgin Unite basis, one in all various impartial non-profit organisations arrange by Branson over the previous 20 years.
Unsurprisingly, given the typical age of the Elders, membership turnover has been excessive. Over time there have been 22 Elders from 22 totally different nations; of the unique dozen chosen by Mandela, solely three are nonetheless lively. Graça Machel; Mary Robinson, the primary girl president of Eire; and Gro Harlem Brundtland, the primary girl prime minister of Norway. 9 members have been Nobel Prize laureates.
The current chairman of the group is Juan Manuel Santos, who as president of Colombia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for negotiating the peace cope with FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group, and ending the bitter civil battle that had raged for greater than 50 years and killed a minimum of 220,000 individuals.
Among the many different members are Ernesto Zedillo, the previous president of Mexico; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the previous president of Liberia and a Nobel Peace laureate; Denis Mukwege, a worldwide campaigner on conflict-related sexual violence and one other Nobel Peace laureate; Helen Clark, the previous prime minister of New Zealand; Zeid Ra’advert Al Hussein, the previous UN excessive commissioner for human rights; Elbegdorj Tsakhia, the previous president and prime minister of Mongolia; and Hina Jilani, a human rights activist from Pakistan. New members are elected by the group themselves. The selection should be unanimous. They’re at the moment in deliberations over a twelfth member after Ban Ki-Moon, the previous head of the UN, just lately stepped down from his function as deputy chair to turn out to be an Elder emeritus.
“They’ve this sense of legacy that they want to take a look at any new candidate by way of the identical eyes that Mandela regarded on the unique members,” says Alistair Fernie, the chief govt of the group, speaking between periods. He’s a former UN diplomat, who led British authorities help programmes in Africa, Afghanistan and the Center East and was the UK director chargeable for World Financial institution coverage.
“What they search for at the start is ethical integrity – the sort of individual Mandela would have accepted of. We’ve tried exhausting to get gender steadiness. There at the moment are six ladies and 5 males. We search for a mixture of individuals. Seven of the current Elders are former presidents and prime ministers however there’s a spread of various backgrounds and experiences.”
“They’re neither of the ‘Left’ nor the ‘Proper’,” Fernie says. “However they share a set of values and core beliefs about the way in which the world is, the issues dealing with the world, and the necessity for multilateral co-operation of various nations working collectively to assist resolve world challenges.”
Watching the ‘Doomsday Clock’
When Mandela launched the Elders in 2007, he singled out a spread of challenges for the group: battle decision, for one, but additionally at the moment, AIDS, malaria and diminishing pure sources. World issues have solely multiplied since then, however the present technique focuses on three existential threats particularly: the local weather and nature disaster, pandemics and nuclear weapons.
In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to midnight – the closest it has been to world disaster.Credit score: Getty Photographs
In keeping with the Geneva Academy of Worldwide Humanitarian Regulation and Human Rights, there are greater than 110 armed conflicts all over the world, better than at any time for the reason that Second World Warfare. Among the many totally different organisations that the Elders are partnered with is the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which research the existential risk posed by nuclear proliferation, local weather change and disruptive applied sciences, and is indicated by the Doomsday Clock.
In January, Santos was in Washington, becoming a member of the Bulletin’s Science and Safety Board, for the announcement that the time of the Clock is now set at 89 seconds to midnight – the closest it has ever been to world disaster. “A transfer of even a single second,” the Bulletin warns, “needs to be taken as a sign of utmost hazard and an unmistakable warning that each second of delay in reversing course will increase the likelihood of worldwide catastrophe.”
“The world may be very totally different from the world of Nelson Mandela 18 years in the past,” says Santos. “We dwell in a world which is so turbulent, the place the respect for worldwide regulation, even for worldwide humanitarian regulation, is vanishing, the variety of conflicts has elevated immeasurably, and on the similar time the wars have been degraded by way of respect for human rights and civil society.
“And that’s the place the Elders, who don’t have any armies, no budgets – our solely asset is our expertise, the little ethical authority that we’ve – are very a lot wanted. That’s the problem we face now: what’s the only manner for us to make use of that authority and the status the group has, on this very tough second.”
Santos was speaking over dinner, on a terrace looking to the Atlas Mountains, swathed in night clouds. A quietly spoken, self-effacing man with a wry sense of humour, he was approached to affix the Elders in 2019, shortly after leaving workplace as president of Colombia. “I used to be 67. I keep in mind saying, ‘Properly I’m not that outdated.’ It was defined that the idea of Elders in Nelson Mandela’s thoughts was that in South Africa, the elders are the clever women and men, not the oldest. I mentioned, ‘OK, in that case I settle for.’ ” He grew to become chairman of the Elders final 12 months, taking up from Mary Robinson.
Whereas president, Santos negotiated the peace treaty with FARC by making use of the precept of transitional justice, emphasising the popularity and safety of victims’ rights, together with fact, justice and reparations. “We had been preventing a really soiled battle, with no respect for human rights, and I modified that fully. Respect humanitarian regulation, respect human rights, even of your adversaries – I name them adversaries and never enemies.
“The previous commander of the military taught me that, don’t deal with the FARC as your enemies however as your adversaries. I mentioned, what’s the distinction? He mentioned there’s an awesome distinction: enemies you eradicate, adversaries you meet, and in the event you meet them in a great way, with a humane angle, you possibly can dwell with them for the remainder of your life.
“Deal with them as human beings – they’ve moms, fathers, little kids. That was a game-changer. It gave the military large legitimacy. As an alternative of killing the FARC after they have been wounded, they took them to hospital. And the commanders with whom I signed the peace treaty instructed me afterwards, that basically modified the angle of the guerrillas, not seeing the military as devils however as human beings additionally. That generated an setting that helped very a lot in direction of peace.”
The peace settlement was a lot criticised in Colombia, however Santos believes that was inevitable. “We are saying fairly often the Elders usually are not a gaggle fascinated with successful wars however in stopping or stopping wars. And generally, to cease a battle, it’s important to be a bit versatile. Some individuals assume we gave an excessive amount of to the guerrillas, and others say we have been too harsh with the guerrillas. In my expertise, the golden rule in lots of resolutions of a battle is that you might want to set up the place you draw the road between peace and justice.
“How a lot are you, a rustic, keen to sacrifice in an effort to have peace? And irrespective of the place you draw the road, you’ll all the time have individuals saying they need extra justice, and others saying they need extra peace. That’s why most peace agreements are simply criticised, and at the start they’re unpopular. However as time goes by, individuals realise that it’s higher to dwell in peace than to dwell in battle. Justice is a precept that ought to all the time be current, however to what diploma is the query.”
Amplification or negotiation?
As a gaggle with restricted sources – and a restricted variety of Elders – a lot of the dialogue that I witnessed in Morocco centered on the place they are often only in concentrating their efforts. To what diploma ought to the Elders be an advocacy group, by way of a mixture of public statements and dealing behind the scenes to affect totally different agendas, and to what diploma ought to they be concentrating on non-public diplomacy in battle decision?
Alistair Fernie provides two examples of the Elders’ advocacy function. In 2022, within the wake of COVID-19, the Elders made it a part of their technique to turn out to be actively concerned within the preparation for a greater framework for worldwide co-operation to cope with the following pandemic. Elders, Fernie says, have been engaged in “behind the scenes” diplomacy to assist negotiators from totally different events discover a method to an settlement. “It was touch-and-go,” he says. However in Could this 12 months, the WHO lastly adopted the Pandemic Settlement for the prevention, preparedness and response to future pandemics.
“Ultimately, the US didn’t take part in that settlement after the Trump administration mentioned it was going to withdraw from the WHO,” Fernie says, “however an settlement has been reached. In order that’s an actual tangible achievement. Serving to a pandemic treaty is just not in itself going to cease one other pandemic, nevertheless it may make us higher ready to answer it. It’s an space the place so clearly the world is a really small place and none of us are secure till everybody’s secure.”
He cites local weather change as one other instance. Elders pushed for a number of years, Fernie says, for “a loss and harm” element to the COP (Convention of the Events) local weather summit negotiations, a fund for small nations whose financial system and in some instances – the Pacific island of Tuvalu, for instance – very existence is threatened by local weather change. That proposal was lastly adopted at COP28, held in Dubai in 2023.
The Elders have pushed to fund nations threatened by local weather change, together with Tuvalu.Credit score: Corbis by way of Getty Photographs
An surprising speaking level at that convention was the testy change in a video assembly between Mary Robinson, representing the Elders, and the COP president, Sultan Al Jaber, who can also be chief govt of the Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm, through which the then 80-year-old Robinson stood as much as Sultan Al Jaber, telling him he was improper about local weather science and fossil fuels.
Answering questions in a while whether or not she will get annoyed with nations speaking massive after which rowing again on commitments, Robinson mentioned the Elders have been ready to name out such behaviour, as a result of they’re impartial, have ethical authority, “and must do it. The UN doesn’t do it. No one else does it and so we do it throughout the board. No one is immune from that.”
The Elders have a accountability to talk out, Fernie says. “Humility is a crucial a part of the Elders. They don’t have energy or declare to have energy, they usually don’t need energy, to allow them to say issues that may trigger offence if they often assume it’s the fitting factor to do. And it’s undoubtedly the case that Elders’ views assault some vested pursuits, so after all we’re going to get criticised by those that don’t like what we are saying.
“Nelson Mandela predicted that in 2007, that you’ll be criticised. However he additionally mentioned you received’t be in search of elected workplace or monetary acquire, so you’ll have the braveness to simply stick with it saying what you’re feeling must be mentioned.”
‘We do it as a result of it’s appropriate’
The query of personal diplomacy is extra delicate. The Elders have a tendency to not speak of their successes, saying that to take action may compromise their entry, though they cite one instance of a profitable intervention from the early days of the group, in 2008, when civil battle broke out in Kenya, largely alongside ethnic traces, following the disputed outcomes of an election.
Varied makes an attempt at mediation between the 2 warring factions had failed, till Kofi Annan, together with Desmond Tutu and Graça Machel, intervened, and over the course of conferences with the rival leaders in a recreation reserve, as one observer places it, “principally knocked their heads collectively” till an settlement was reached to stop preventing and type a coalition authorities.
‘We don’t brag about what we do, and we must always not brag about it. We do it as a result of it’s appropriate.’
Elders chair Juan Manuel Santos
However such battle negotiations involving the Elders have extra often taken place away from the glare of public consideration. These missions, Santos says, rely on belief and confidentiality – and belief, as he places it, is “all the things”. And if the Elders have been to start out speaking in regards to the discussions which have taken place, and taking credit score for any successes, that belief could be eroded.
Loading
“We have now a coverage of personal diplomacy and public advocacy. Generally you might want to have visibility, however non-public diplomacy requires discretion. You don’t have to be delivering public statements,” says Santos. “We don’t brag about what we do, and we must always not brag about it. We do it as a result of it’s appropriate, however you don’t need to brag about doing one thing that’s appropriate. In as we speak’s world, hatred and jealousy and unhealthy emotions are being fed by social media. For those who begin bragging about issues, it’s counterproductive.”
To imagine that merely sitting down on the desk with a pacesetter will result in the top of battle could be naive. Negotiations could not all the time produce speedy outcomes, however clever counsel may come to fruition at a later time.
An Elders adviser gave me an instance of accompanying one Elder engaged in simply such a negotiation with the chief of a rustic. “They’d sought a gathering with that chief, and have been declaring the implications of what he was planning on doing, in a manner he hadn’t understood or thought-about earlier than. That’s exhausting to quantify and say the tanks stopped of their tracks, however there’s actual worth in that that will emerge in the long run.”
Santos says: “The phrase ‘belief’ is essential, and the way in which you earn belief is by not taking sides. Additionally, in my expertise, the flexibility to pay attention, to grasp the the reason why one facet or the opposite are defending or attacking, the roots of the battle, in an effort to attempt to handle either side to agree on some sort of widespread denominator.
“But when the neighbours in an asymmetrical battle usually are not supporting a peace course of, the peace course of will most definitely fail. If they’re supporting it, the potential of peace is way greater. For those who evaluate conflicts to volcanoes, there are some which can be lively, some which can be exploding and a few which can be comparatively dormant.”
The exploding ones are apparent. Among the many extra dormant are Ethiopia, Libya, the Sahel area and Haiti looming as failed states. The query is, the place ought to the Elders be concentrating their consideration?
There are some conflicts that are too advanced and intractable for a self-selected group, irrespective of how honourable their intentions, to make any distinction, significantly when caught within the dilemma between honouring the rules on which they have been based and remaining silent within the hope of gaining entry.
In 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Santos and Ki-Moon met with President Volodymyr Zelensky to affirm their help for a peaceable decision to the battle rooted in justice and worldwide regulation.
In 2015, six Elders had met Putin in Moscow to debate a spread of geopolitical points together with Ukraine. However following Russia’s invasion, Putin has refused a gathering after the Elders publicly known as for a particular tribunal for Russia’s crime of aggression.
Jimmy Carter (centre) and Kofi Annan (proper) met with Vladimir Putin in 2015 in Moscow. Putin has refused to fulfill with the Elders since his invasion of Ukraine.Credit score: Getty Photographs
“No chief likes that,” Santos says. “That is the everlasting dilemma we’ve – sticking to our rules and making them identified publicly, versus the non-public diplomacy of attempting to resolve the issue.
“We have now been attempting to see how we can assist in bringing the 2 events collectively to start out some sort of negotiation. Many individuals and plenty of nations have been concerned in attempting to do the identical, so our margin of manoeuvres is moderately restricted, however our stand is: the earlier we cease the battle, the higher.
“But when the time comes and we’ve some entry, we might speak to Putin with no drawback by any means. In any negotiation, either side have to grasp that you simply don’t make peace with your mates. You make mates along with your enemies.”
The mogul within the combine
Aside from because the facilitator and a good friend, Richard Branson has made some extent to not contain himself within the working or governance of the Elders, whereas on the similar time providing assist and sources wherever it’s wanted.
Even earlier than the launch of the organisation, in 2003, as America was making ready to invade Iraq, Branson, by way of the mediation of his good friend the late King Hussein of Jordan, instructed Mandela that Saddam Hussein was keen to depart Iraq for Libya along with his household, to assist keep away from the necessity for battle, however needed two Elders to fly out with him “so I can maintain my head excessive”.
Mandela agreed to fly to Iraq if Kofi Annan, who was then secretary-general of the UN, and Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, agreed to the plan. They did. However earlier than Mandela might get to Baghdad, America invaded.
“It could have come to nothing anyway,” Branson instructed me on the Elders’ inaugural assembly in 2007. “Nevertheless it was an instance of universally revered Elders, working outdoors the traditional political course of, who might doubtlessly have made a distinction.”
Such frustrations and “what ifs” are half and parcel of the Elders’ work. “It’s had some nice successes,” Branson says now, sitting within the massive tent in Morocco throughout a lunch break. “However like all organisation, it may be simpler going ahead.”
Loading
All through the conferences, Branson sat quietly, listening intently to the discussions and scribbling in his pocket book, solely sometimes interjecting with a thought or a suggestion. That morning he had advised that, given the variety of points confronting the Elders, maybe it might be useful to recruit various youthful representatives who might each broaden the scope of the group’s work and take among the weight off the present members.
“One of many issues with the Elders is that they’re aged,” Branson says. “We’ve received Elders who’re 86 years outdated, so there are solely so many visits they’ll do.” Annan, he factors out, died in 2018 on the age of 80, following a visit to Zimbabwe for the Elders. “But when we are able to get a gaggle of youthful ambassadors, perhaps not as well-known, perhaps ex-foreign secretaries, who might go to Palestine or the Congo, which desperately wants visits, and as a substitute of getting to search for three or 4 Elders to go on these journeys, have one Elder and three ambassadors.” It was an concept they have been contemplating.
The subsequent assembly of the Elders is scheduled for October. However members of the group can be on the UN Common Meeting in New York this month – at which all of their mixed powers of affect and diplomacy can be dropped at bear.
‘That is one thing for the reason that time of Mandela that we’re very clear about: that we must always all the time say what we predict is appropriate.’
Elders chair Juan Manuel Santos
Because the gathering in Morocco drew to an in depth, Santos deliberated on what the long run may maintain – and what the group may proceed to attain. “The largest impediment now,” he says, “is we’ve a set of values and rules that we imagine in, and the world has been affected by a devaluation of these values and rules.
“What we predict is our main power, which is our ethical authority, is just not as appreciated all over the world. As a result of even many leaders are much less delicate to criticism by individuals with ethical authority.
“It is rather unhappy, however we’re very clear that we are going to by no means surrender our values and rules. That is one thing for the reason that time of Mandela that we’re very clear about: that we must always all the time say what we predict is appropriate. And maybe the world will pay attention.”
That is an edited model of a narrative that initially appeared in The Telegraph (UK).
To learn extra from Good Weekend journal, go to our web page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
