Facing a swirl of conflicts and crises across a fragmented world, leaders attending this week’s annual UN gathering are being challenged: Work together – not only on front-burner issues, but on modernising the international institutions born after World War II so they can tackle the threats and problems of the future.
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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued the challenge a year ago after sounding a global alarm about the survival of humanity and the planet: Come to a “Summit of the Future” and make a new commitment to multilateralism – the foundation of the United Nations and many other global bodies – and start fixing the ageing global architecture to meet the rapidly changing world.
The UN chief told reporters last week that the summit “was born out of a cold, hard fact: international challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them”. He pointed to “out-of-control geopolitical divisions” and “runaway” conflicts, climate change, inequalities, debt, and new technologies like artificial intelligence which have no guard rails.
The two-day summit started on Sunday, two days before the high-level meeting of world leaders begins at the sprawling UN compound in New York City.
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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 Philemon Yang signifying consensus, after the body voted 143-7 with 15 abstentions against considering Russian-proposed amendments to significantly water it down.