Multiple wars, extreme inequality, a looming climate collapse, and new technologies capable of transforming our very existence have brought humanity to a crossroads. We have no time left for complacency or defeatism—only a shared responsibility to salvage the world that we owe to future generations.
Inaction and inadequate efforts to address these threats have left us in a world of turmoil. Its tensions and uncertainties are generating widespread anxiety, leaving people angrier, more disillusioned and more divided.
What “better” time then for the U.N.’s Summit of the Future? Taking place this month, it claims to be a “once-in-a-generation opportunity … to mend eroded trust and demonstrate that international cooperation can effectively achieve agreed goals and tackle emerging threats and opportunities.”
The symbol of the United Nations is displayed outside the Secretariat Building, at the United Nations headquarters.
John Minchillo/AP Images
When humanity last faced a comparable multitude of challenges in the 1940s, world leaders rallied to plant the seeds for a system they hoped would safeguard future generations from hate, fear, and want. The U.N.’s nascent General Assembly adopted the Genocide and Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—a global architecture that, although imperfect, enshrined universal protection for human rights.
Seventy-six years later we face another once-in-a-generation moment. World leaders will gather again to design an ostensibly better future. But the latest draft of the Pact that they’ll endorse at the Summit raises serious doubts about their ability to deliver on that promise.
First and foremost, it shows that leaders remain effectively unable or unwilling to respond to the catastrophic plight of the millions impacted by the conflicts in Gaza, Myanmar, Sudan, and Ukraine. The current draft is lacking on commitments to strengthen international justice and its proposals to address the veto use that frequently paralyzes the U.N. Security Council.
The draft does include important commitments and interesting proposals, such as extending Security Council membership to an African state, reforming the global financial system, and calling for new indicators to measure sustainable development progress more comprehensively than narrow metrics such as GDP. It also makes a concerted effort to revive the ailing multilateral system that is so key to global stability.
However, it fails to offer an integrated and compelling vision of our future and often reiterates commitments that states have willfully ignored and repeatedly violated. For instance, its modest vow to “strengthen efforts” to uphold fundamental freedoms is almost laughable given the dire state of human rights protections around the world.
While reiterating the importance of swift and effective action to address climate change, environmental degradation, and biodiversity loss, the Pact fails to address several major barriers to this. In addition, although the draft references the decision from COP28 to “transition away from fossil fuels,” it’s even weaker than that agreement, which was already undermined by an array of get-out clauses. The Pact should be bold and forward-looking, not a rehash of an existing, watered-down agreement.
Over the last decade, the U.N. has intentionally erected barriers to prevent civil society engagements in U.N. proceedings. The draft Pact won’t alter this state of affairs, offering only a tepid commitment for more cooperation. If it pays mere lip service to the very stakeholders pushing for a bolder vision and more effective solutions, the U.N. risks squandering this historic opportunity to right the course of the world.
Like many other NGOs, Amnesty International has encountered obstacles while working to make its voice heard in the leadup to the Summit. We welcomed the opportunity to submit a range of recommendations to place people at the heart of the Pact, but strongly regret that many civil society organizations consulted on the draft will be shut out when world leaders negotiate the final agreement.
Yet we will never stop striving for a better world. With humanity facing challenges that were unforeseeable in the 1940s, Amnesty International has established a 2048 Commission to design a 21st century global governance system rooted in human rights. Our Commission will advise on the makeup, resourcing, and operation of such a system—ensuring it is fully equipped to uphold universal human rights in this era of rapid and unpredictable change.
For we and human rights defenders the world over know the time for action is now. From Fridays for Future and the Amazonian girls risking their lives to defend the rainforest, to those bravely resisting Iran’s war on women, and the millions demanding an end to the carnage in Gaza, people young and old are resisting localized and globalized attacks on human rights. They are our greatest resource in the struggle to protect and uphold all the rights of all people.
As the Summit of the Future unfolds, member states must uphold their U.N. Charter pledge to be accountable to “the peoples of the world” and start laying the foundations of a sustainable, human rights-based future.
Agnès Callamard is secretary general at Amnesty International.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
