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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/21/un-chief-antonio-guterres-to-seek-world-leaders-backing-for-vision-of-the-future>
"The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, will try to persuade world
leaders to extend their horizons beyond current wars by adopting a pact that he
hopes will set a path for a new system of global governance that can prevent
similar crises in the future.
Global leaders will gather in New York next week for the UN Summit of the
Future, the centrepiece of this year’s launch of the annual United Nations
general assembly.
Guterres had outlined an ambitious agenda covering artificial intelligence,
groundbreaking UN security council reform, outer space, peace operations,
climate change and financing development, but critics say that outline has not
so much shrunk as become ever-less specific.
The toll of grinding negotiations and the need for consensus have underlined
the divisions that have immobilised the UN for a decade, leading to a
watered-down document called “pact for the future” due to be announced at a
summit. Talks about the final draft, its five chapters and 58 actions must end
on Saturday.
For more than a year Guterres had hoped that by confronting world leaders with
the scale of the future challenges they collectively face, they could be
persuaded to set aside some of those divisions about the present.
Guy Ryder, the UN undersecretary for policy who is at the helm of the process,
insists the pact “can render the UN and the multilateral system more effective,
participatory and networked”, but at briefings he struggled to convince
reporters this was not another UN mission statement that will gather dust
similar to the 2015 sustainable development goals summit or the Nelson Mandela
peace summit in 2018.
At a press conference Guterres called for the current generation of
peacebuilders to address challenges not visible when the UN was invented as a
much smaller body 80 years ago.
“International challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them. We
see out-of-control geopolitical divisions and runaway conflicts – not least in
Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and beyond. Runaway climate change. Runaway inequalities
and debt. Runaway development of new technologies like artificial intelligence
– without guidance or guardrails. And our institutions simply can’t keep up,”
he said.
“Crises are interacting and feeding off each other – for example, as digital
technologies spread climate disinformation that deepens distrust and fuels
polarisation. Global institutions and frameworks are today totally inadequate
to deal with these complex and even existential challenges.
“It is no great surprise. Those institutions were born in a bygone era for a
bygone world.”
Few disagree with his analysis, but many question whether the pact provides new
solutions, as opposed to aspirations."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
