UN gathers in New York as Guterres issues challenge to world leaders

Facing a swirl of conflicts and crises across a fragmented world, leaders attending this week’s annual UN gathering are being challenged: Work together – not only on front-burner issues, but on modernising the international institutions born after World War II so they can tackle the threats and problems of the future.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued the challenge a year ago after 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 United Nations and many other global bodies – and start fixing the ageing global architecture to meet the rapidly changing world.

The UN chief told reporters last week 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 guard rails.

The two-day summit started on Sunday, two days before the high-level meeting of world leaders begins at the sprawling UN compound in New York City.

The General Assembly approved the summit’s main outcome document – a 42-page “Pact of the Future” – on Sunday morning with a bang of the gavel by Assembly President Philemon Yang signifying consensus, after the body voted 143-7 with 15 abstentions against considering Russian-proposed amendments to significantly water it down.