The U.N. General Assembly approved a new "Pact for the Future” for meeting this century's challenges – and keeping the world body relevant.
What's new: The pact approved by the 193-nation assembly on Sunday – just seven nations, including Iran and Russia, opposed it – outlines 56 broad actions, including an explicit call to phase out fossil fuels.
Other key areas are sustainable development and financing; peace and security; science, technology, innovation and digital cooperation; youth and future generations; and global governance.
The U.N. hopes the pact will help sustain its relevance globally despite its gridlock between the major powers that wield a veto on the Security Council and its failures to halt wars raging on several continents or to hold accountable nations and armed groups that violate the U.N. Charter.
What's next: The pact came on the opening day of the two-day Summit of the Future, which continues on Monday. Leaders will be asked to follow through by phasing out fossil fuel burning, reinvigorating nuclear disarmament, and taking steps to “redress the historical injustice against Africa,” which has no permanent seat, and better represent Asia-Pacific and Latin American countries.
It also “represents the first agreed multilateral support for nuclear disarmament in more than a decade,” Guterres said, and it commits “to steps to prevent an arms race in outer space and to govern the use of lethal autonomous weapons.”
resolving conflicts stretching from Africa to Europe to the Middle East, overhauling the global financial system, and reforming the U.N. Security Council's frozen power structure from the end of World War II.
The pact calls on nations to “redress the historical injustice against Africa” on the 15-nation council, which give five permanent, veto-wielding seats to China, France, Russia, the United Kindom and the United States.
What's important: Though it is non-binding, the agreement was reached through nine months of inter-governmental negotiations, which means nations' capitals have more of a stake in seeing it through. It represents a bid to overcome some of the seemingly insurmountable divisions among its 193 member nations.
"We are here to bring multilateralism back from the brink," said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. "I called for this summit because our world is heading off the rails – and we need tough decisions to get back on track."
Who's involved: Russia tried to derail the pact by amending it, but all 54 African nations opposed the move. Only Belarus, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Sudan and Syria sided with Moscow.
Assembly President Philémon Yang, a Cameroonian politician, then took the vote and banged his gavel to signify that the pact was approved by consensus.
Ugandan Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, speaking for the Group of 77 and China, which represents the main U.N. bloc of developing countries, agreed with Guterres that "this pact should not become another futile exercise."
What's happening now: Nabbanja emphasized that countries "must garner political will and commitment across all levels of global leadership to pragmatically address current issues and lay a foundation for solutions for our future global progress and challenges."
But he said the G-77 regrets the pact "falls short in recognizing the actions needed to close this gap, including for developed countries to fulfil their obligations" to provide poorer countries with financing, technology and other resources.
