UN adopts 'Pact for the Future' during summit in New York

Pact approved despite last-minute objections from some countries, including Russia

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during the UN General Assembly. AP

The UN on Sunday adopted a “Pact for the Future” aimed at addressing 21st-century challenges including conflict, climate change and human rights.

The two-day Summit of the Future is taking place directly before the high-level meeting of world leaders begins at the sprawling UN compound in New York City.

The pact said that the world is in a period of transformation. “We are confronted by rising catastrophic and existential risks, many caused by the choices we make,” it said. “Fellow human beings are enduring terrible suffering. If we do not change course, we risk tipping into a future of persistent crisis and breakdown.”

The document addresses sustainable development, peace and security, new and emerging technology, young people and future generations, and transforming global government.

“We believe there is a path to a brighter future for all of humanity,” the document said. “The choice is ours.”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued a challenge a year ago, 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 world body – and start fixing the ageing global architecture to meet the rapidly changing world.

Last week, he said 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 guardrails.

The pact was approved despite objections from some countries, including Russia and Venezuela, which criticised the lack of negotiations on the pact and said its contents favoured western countries.

“This cannot be called multilateralism,” the Russian delegation told the General Assembly. “The [UN] Charter was sacrificed to the interest of a certain group of countries and their interests. … Can we build a future with such a foundation?”