In tackling 21st century challenges ranging from climate change and artificial intelligence to escalating conflicts and increasing inequality and poverty, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79) on Sunday, September 22, approved a blueprint to bring the world’s increasingly divided nations together with emphasis on the need to take decisive actions and not just talk.
The two-day summit tagged, “Summit of the Future” was called by the U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, who commended the leaders and diplomats for taking a step towards creating a better future. The 42-page “Pact for the Future” was adopted at the opening of the two-day, a document that challenges leaders of the 193 UN member nations to turn promises into real actions that make a difference in the lives of the world’s more than 8 billion people.
According to the UNGA High-level week 2024 publication on the UN official website, the summit aims to reaffirm commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Charter while enhancing cooperation and laying the foundations for a reinvigorated multilateral system.
The pact includes 56 actions on issues including eradicating poverty, mitigating climate change, achieving gender equality, promoting peace and protecting civilians, and reinvigorating the multilateral system to “seize the opportunities of today and tomorrow.”
According to Guterres, “We have opened the door. It is now up to all of us to step through it. Because this is not just about understanding each other – it’s also about taking action. Today, I challenge you to take action.”
Guterres stated, “We are here to bring multilateralism back from the brink. Now it is our common destiny to walk through it. That demands not just agreement, but action.”
The UN Secretary-General Guterres singled out some key provisions in the Pact of the Future and two accompanying annexes, a Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations.
The pact commits world leaders to reform the 15-member Security Council, to make it more reflective of today’s world and “redress the historical injustice against Africa,” which has no permanent seat, and to address the under-representation of the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America.
It also “represents the first agreed multilateral support for nuclear disarmament in more than a decade,” Guterres said, and it commits “to steps to prevent an arms race in outer space and to govern the use of lethal autonomous weapons.”
The Global Digital Compact “includes the first truly universal agreement on the international governance of artificial intelligence,” the U.N. chief said.
The compact commits leaders to establish an Independent International Scientific Panel in the United Nations to promote scientific understanding of AI, and its risks and opportunities. It also commits the U.N. to initiate a global dialogue on AI governance with all key players.
The pact’s actions also include measures “to mount an immediate and coordinated response to complex shocks” including pandemics, Guterres said. And it includes “a groundbreaking commitment by governments to listen to young people and include them in decision-making.”
