In view of our common humanity: international solidarity and international cooperation in an interdependent world

In View of Our Common Humanity, Shyami Puvimanasinghe presents reflections on international solidarity and international cooperation in an interdependent world. She suggests that solidarity and cooperation at all levels, and most notably at the global level, assume renewed significance in the face of contemporary global realities that engulf and threaten humanity. These include the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and its profoundly disruptive impacts; and the multiple crises to people, planet as well as other species, including climate change, natural disasters and environmental degradation which threaten our common home. Puvimanasinghe argues that solidarity provides an impetus for collective responses to interconnected challenges in a globalized world. Puvimanasinghe addresses the duty of states to cooperate as mandated in several legal obligations in the areas of peace, human rights, development as well as the environment. In a world facing both a multitude of interconnected challenges and a dire decline in multilateralism, she argues that the pandemic poses a profound reminder of the need for international cooperation and solidarity. She calls on the international community to come together including to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the human Right to Development of all individuals and peoples. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on how the gaps between solidarity and cooperation in principle and practice could be closed, including through new forms of more inclusive, networked, and revitalized multilateralism in the interests of our common humanity.