New York, 22 september 2024 (TATOLI) – Today, The World leaders adopted a Pact for the Future that includes a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations.
The Pact covers a broad range of themes including peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations, and the transformation of global governance.
The centrepiece of the Summit of the Future is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine the multilateral system and steer humanity on a new course to meet existing commitments and solve long-term challenges.
In his opening statement at the Summit of the Future the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres said that the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations open pathways to new possibilities and opportunities.
“On peace and security, they promise a breakthrough on reforms to make the Security Council more reflective of today’s world, addressing the historic under-representation of Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America,” Guterres said on sunday.
He stressed that the Pact laid the foundations for a more agile Peacebuilding Commission, and for a fundamental review of peace operations to make them fit for the conditions they face: “They represent the first agreed multilateral support for nuclear disarmament in more than a decade.”
“They recognize the changing nature of conflict, and commit to steps to prevent an arms race in outer space and to govern the use of lethal autonomous weapons,” the UN Secretary General.
The Pact includes measures to mount an immediate and coordinated response to complex global shocks.
Meanwhile, on sustainable development, Guterres said that these agreements represent major progress towards groundbreaking reforms of the international financial architecture.
They will help to make its institutions more representative of today’s world, capable of mounting a stronger response to today’s challenges, and able to provide an effective global safety net for developing countries at a time when many of them are suffocating in debt and unable to make progress on the SDGs.
“The Pact for the Future is about turbocharging the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, accelerating a just transition away from fossil fuels, and securing a peaceful and livable future for everyone on our planet,” explained the UN Chief. “It includes a groundbreaking commitment by governments to listen to young people and include them in decision-making, at the national and global levels. And it commits to stronger partnerships with civil society, the private sector, local and regional authorities and more.”
The Global Digital Compact is based on the principle that technology should benefit everyone. It includes the first truly universal agreement on the international governance of Artificial Intelligence.
Guterres said the the Pact commits governments to establishing an independent international Scientific Panel on AI and initiating a global dialogue on its governance within the United Nations.
“The Global Digital Compact represents the first collective effort to reach agreed interoperability standards – essential for consistent measurement. And it supports networks and partnerships to build capacity on AI in developing countries,” he added.
The Declaration on Future Generations echoes the call of the United Nations Charter to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, committing governments for the first time to taking the interests of our descendants into account in decisions we take today.
Respect for human rights, cultural diversity and gender equality are woven into all three agreements.
In the face of a surge in misogyny and a rollback of women’s reproductive rights, governments have explicitly committed to removing the legal, social and economic barriers that prevent women and girls from fulfilling their potential in every sphere.
Journalist: Hortencio Sanchez
Editor: Filomeno Martins
