Newsman: World leaders adopted a Pact for the Future that includes a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations. This Pact is the culmination of an inclusive, years-long process to adapt international cooperation to the realities of today and the challenges of tomorrow.
The “Summit of the Future” held during the 79th session at United Nations General Assembly to accelerate progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Summit of the Future the first of its kind, negotiated the “Pact of the Future” an action-oriented document aimed to bolster global cooperation and adapt to current challenges effectively for the benefit of all and for future generations.
The highly anticipated “Summit of the Future” underscores the urgent need for enhanced international cooperation to address pressing challenges such as climate change, poverty and inequality, while also tackling the impacts of ongoing conflicts and global health crises.
The General Assembly approved the summit’s main outcome document — a 42-page “Pact of the Future” — on Sunday morning with a bang of the gavel by Assembly President Philémon Yang signifying consensus, after the body voted 143-7 with 15 abstentions against considering Russian-proposed amendments to significantly water it down.
The pact is a blueprint to address global challenges from conflicts and climate change to artificial intelligence and reforming the U.N. and global institutions. Its impact will depend on its implementation by the assembly’s 193 member nations.
The Pact itself covers five key pillars: Financing for Development and the SDGs, Peace and Security, Science and Technology, Youth and Future Generations, and Transforming Global Governance. This includes a range of reforms and recommendations that cover the major topics and tests of our time from rethinking the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council to overhauling our international financial system. The Pact lays out human rights–based principles and parameters for global cooperation across new frontiers in both cyber and outer space. The Pact also addresses more resources to achieve the SDGs and address the global debt crisis, which has long held back developing economies.
The two-day summit started Sunday; two days before the high-level meeting of world leaders begins at the U.N. headquarter in New York City.
Heads of State and Government are currently gathered in New York UN Headquarters to address the critical challenges and gaps in global governance exposed by recent global shocks.
During the 79th UNGA, the High-Level Meeting on Sea-Level Rise will convene global leaders, experts, and stakeholders to address the urgent and escalating threat of rising sea levels. This meeting focuses on building common understanding, mobilizing political leadership, and promoting multispectral and multi-stakeholder collaboration and international cooperation towards the objective of “addressing the threats posed by sea-level rise”.
The summit of the future, the most wide-ranging international agreement in many years covering entirely new areas as well as issues on which agreement has not been possible in decades; the Pact aims above all to ensure that international institutions can deliver in the face of a world that has changed dramatically since they were created.
“The Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations open the door to new opportunities and untapped possibilities,” said the Secretary-General during his remarks at the opening of the Summit of the Future.
The President of the General Assembly noted that the Pact would “lay the foundations for a sustainable, just, and peaceful global order – for all peoples and nations.”
The Pact covers a broad range of issues including peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations, and the transformation of global governance. Key deliverables in the Pact include:
In the area of peace and security
The most progressive and concrete commitment to Security Council reform since the 1960s, with plans to improve the effectiveness and representativeness of the Council, including by redressing the historical under-representation of Africa as a priority.
The first multilateral recommitment to nuclear disarmament in more than a decade with a clear commitment to the goal of totally eliminating nuclear weapons.
Agreement to strengthen international frameworks that govern outer space, including a clear commitment to prevent an arms race in outer space and the need to ensure all countries can benefit from the safe and sustainable exploration of outer space.
Steps to avoid the weaponization and misuse of new technologies, such as lethal autonomous weapons and affirmation that the laws of war should apply to many of these new technologies.
On sustainable development, climate and financing for development.
The entire Pact is designed to turbo-charge implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The most detailed agreement ever at the United Nations on the need for reform of the international financial architecture so that it better represents and serves developing countries, including:
Giving developing countries a greater say in how decisions are taken at international financial institutions;
Mobilizing more financing from multilateral development banks to help developing countries meet their development needs;
Reviewing the sovereign debt architecture to ensure that developing countries can borrow sustainably to invest in their future, with the IMF, UN, G20 and other key players working together;
Strengthening the global financial safety net to protect the poorest in the event of financial and economic shocks, through concrete actions by the IMF and Member States;
and accelerating measures to address the challenge of climate change, including through delivering more finance to help countries adapt to climate change and invest in renewable energy.
Improving how we measure human progress, going beyond GDP to capturing human and planetary wellbeing and sustainability.
A commitment to consider ways to introduce a global minimum level of taxation on high-net-worth individuals.
On climate change, confirmation of the need to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
On digital cooperation
The Global Digital Compact, annexed to the Pact, is the first comprehensive global framework for digital cooperation and AI governance.
At the heart of the Compact is a commitment to design, use and govern technology for the benefit of all. This includes commitments by world leaders to:
Connect all people, schools and hospitals to the Internet;
Anchor digital cooperation in human rights and international law;
Make the online space safe for all, especially children, through actions by governments, tech companies and social media;
Govern Artificial Intelligence, with a roadmap that includes an International Scientific Panel and a Global Policy Dialogue on AI;
Make data more open and accessible, with agreements on open-source data, models, and standards;
This is also the first global commitment to data governance, placing it on the UN agenda and requiring countries to take concrete actions by 2030.
Youth and future generations
The first ever Declaration on Future Generations, with concrete steps to take account of future generations in our decision-making, including a possible envoy for future generations.
A commitment to more meaningful opportunities for young people to participate in the decisions that shape their lives, especially at the global level.
Human rights and gender
A strengthening of our work on human rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women.
A clear call on the need to protect human rights defenders.
Strong signals on the importance of engagement of other stakeholders in global governance, including local and regional governments, civil society, private sector and others.
There are provisions across the Pact and its annexes for follow-up action, to ensure that the commitments made are implemented.
The Summit brought together over 4000 individuals from Heads of State and Government, observers, IGOs, UN System, civil society and non-governmental organizations. In a broader push to increase the engagement of diverse actors. attracted more than 7,000 individuals representing all segments of society.
