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Article shared by Anis Salem Click here for the article Excerpts: “The P5 will never give up their veto power,” said Daniel Warner, the former deputy to the director of the Geneva Graduate Institute, in Switzerland. “Never!” " Still, Warner said the Pact for the Future cannot be successful without strict adherence and respect for the international laws and treaties that deal with the “heart of the matter” which is peace and security, which is included in the pact. “You can’t talk about the future unless you have a reasonable and precise summary of what’s going on now,” he said. “How can you have countries sign a pact when the Geneva Convention, otherwise known as the laws of war, are being violated all the time” and “there’s no punishment?”  Richard Gowan, the UN director of the Crisis Group said the summit will have no immediate impact. “It’s not okay that those wars are continuing, but it’s okay that the summit is not about the wars,” Gowan said. “If member states had tried, or...

We can still improve children’s well-being — if we act now

  Shared by Anis Salem

The UN is currently without a relief chief, which is starting to affect its presence at events like UNGA. The humanitarian side event before the summit focused on familiar talking points, such as deteriorating aid access and the need for funding. The UN's special rapporteur on the right to food has declared that famine has spread throughout Gaza, but the global humanitarian system's mechanism to confirm famine declarations has not. Sudan is another crisis that is being discussed, with a high-level ministerial event scheduled to raise support for humanitarian response. Click here for the article in The New Humanitarian Excerpts: On the absence of a relief chief:  "You’ve lost this key figurehead who can make the case and push in these high-level rooms," said one humanitarian leader. On Gaza - "An analysis released ahead of high-level week underscored the magnitude of Israel’s aid blockades – 83% of food aid doesn’t make it to Gaza, which is facing famine. The pr...

Article shared by Lou Mendez "It’s almost cyclical that this happens every 2-3 decades. Just get rid of the Veto power and the UN will work better." Lou

  "Large Nature Model: Coral" is an immersive artwork that uses AI to showcase the beauty and fragility of coral reefs.

Article shared by Kul Gautam "Elizabeth Cousens of the UN Foundation offers a balanced assessment of the Summit of the Future" Kul

World leaders are at UN Headquarters and have just adopted the Pact for the Future by consensus - with a small group of just seven countries holding out, having failed to pass a last-minute amendment.

The UN's Summit of the Future is scheduled to begin on Friday, but what was hoped to be one of its main output documents, the Pact for the Future, was blocked on Thursday by Russia and a coalition of autocratic governments who opposed language protecting human rights, gender equality and partnerships with civil society.

Dear Peter Singer, Re your very thoughtful commentary on the Summit of the Future, I tend to agree with your observation that:

‘Today’s global order is not working for everyone, in fact, I would go further and say, it’s not working for anyone,’ U.N. Secretary General l Antonio Guterres said earlier this year, setting the tone for the General Assembly meeting kicking off Tuesday.

The upcoming Summit of the Future aims to create a Pact for the Future to revive lagging progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The author argues that gender equality must be central to this pact, as it's crucial for addressing poverty, climate change, and security issues. "Without concrete steps to accelerate progress toward gender equality, the pact will fail to achieve its aims." "Mainstreaming gender equality is critical to achieving the accelerated impact the world desperately needs."   Ellen Sirleaf the underrepresentation of women in government leadership globally and emphasizes the positive outcomes of increased women's representation: "When women have a seat at the negotiating table, peace agreements are 35% more likely to last 15 years." "When given the opportunity to participate in public life, women can boost gross domestic product by  "The Summit of the Future is a critical moment for the global community t...