Summit of the Future Adopts Agreements to Transform Global Governance

By | September 26, 2024

NEW YORK, September 27 (C-Fam) World leaders adopted three agreements to “turbocharge” UN reforms, global digital governance, and climate action at the UN Summit of the Future this week.

“We are here to bring multilateralism back from the brink”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced dramatically at the adoption of the agreements. “I called for this summit because our world is heading off the rails.” Guterres said that the United Nations system was “unable to respond” to global challenges and was badly in need of reforms.

The three agreements he pushed countries to adopt establish new bureaucratic processes to govern artificial intelligence and information technology, including through censorship, and they open the door to giving the UN Secretary General enhanced global emergency powers in the case of economic crisis, war, or natural disasters.

The agreement on technology, the Global Digital Compact, is being billed as the first ever comprehensive international agreement on information technology and artificial intelligence. It commits Governments to establishing an “international scientific panel” within the United Nations organization to govern artificial intelligence globally.

The digital compact also commits countries to build technologies and data systems that are “interoperable” across borders and technology platforms. This is a key part of the UN Secretary General’s vision of a “United Nations 2.0.” The purpose of having interoperability is to build a sprawling global digital bureaucracy and infrastructure, requiring digital IDs for all individuals to access public services and healthcare, and providing real-time feedback and evaluation of policies and programs.

The agreement further sets out to squash “misinformation” and “disinformation” through a range of censorship mechanisms at all levels of information production, dissemination, and consumption. For example, the agreement commits countries to “international cooperation to address the challenge of misinformation and disinformation and hate speech online.” It requires “data and metadata standards designed to prevent and address bias, discrimination or human rights violations.” And it calls for “digital media and information literacy curricula to ensure that all users have the skills and knowledge to safely and critically interact with content and with information providers.”

One of the most controversial sections of the agreement known as the Pact for the Future was the section on “global shocks.” The UN Secretary General asked countries to give him emergency powers for an “immediate and coordinated response to complex global shocks” in case of financial downturns, climate emergencies, pandemics and wars. The General Assembly did not give the Secretary General any clear mandate in this regard. However, the Pact for the Future opens the door to such a possibility. It recognizes a role for the Secretary-General’s to “convene Member States, promote the coordination of the whole multilateral system and engage with relevant stakeholders in response to crises” and it asks the Secretary-General to “consider approaches to strengthen the United Nations system response to complex global shocks.”

The only note of discord during adoption was sounded by Argentina and Russia. Foreign Minister Diana Mondino of Argentina dissociated her nation from the agreement overall saying that it would slow down the reforms of the Millei government. The Russian Federation tried to add language to the agreement prohibiting “interference in the internal affairs of states.” The General Assembly overwhelmingly decided not to consider Russia’s amendment at all.

There wasn’t much time for world leaders to officially explain the bureaucratic agreements they had just adopted. One after another presidents, prime ministers and monarchs had their microphones automatically shut off by a digital timer before they could finish their remarks.

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