Guest Post by
The final version of the pact excludes a proposal that would have granted the secretary-general emergency powers to respond to “global shocks,” but some critics said the pact still represents a thinly veiled U.N. power grab.
Hailed as a “blueprint for the future,” the United Nations (U.N.) last week passed the Pact for the Future — a set of 11 policy briefs and “56 pledges to action seeking to protect the needs and interests of present and future generations amid the climate change crisis and conflict currently gripping the globe.”
The pact is the product of nine months of negotiation among U.N. nation-states and other stakeholders, including civil society and non-governmental organizations. It includes a “Global Digital Compact” and “Declaration on Future Generations,” alongside policy proposals on “Information Integrity on Digital Platforms” and “Transforming Education.”
“We are here to bring multilateralism back from the brink,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Summit of the Future, held during the 79th U.N. General Assembly in New York.
