Human rights are on the ropes and being pummeled hard. This represents a direct threat to all of the hard-won mechanisms and systems established over the last 80 years to protect and advance human rights.
But as the recently adopted Pact for the Future reminds us, human rights are, in fact, a source of solutions. The Pact provides a playbook on how we can win the fight for human rights on several fronts.
First — human rights through peace and peace through human rights.
Conflicts inflict human rights violations on a massive scale. In Sudan, bloodshed, displacement and famine are engulfing the country. The warring parties must take immediate action to protect civilians, uphold human rights, cease hostilities and forge peace. And domestic and international human rights monitoring and investigation mechanisms should be permitted to document what is happening on the ground.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), we see a deadly whirlwind of violence and horrifying human rights abuses, amplified by the recent M23 offensive, supported by the Rwandan Defense Forces. As more cities fall, the risk of a regional war rises.
It’s time to silence the guns. It’s time for diplomacy and dialogue. The recent joint summit in Tanzania offered a way forward with a renewed call for an immediate ceasefire. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC must be respected. The Congolese people deserve peace.
In the Sahel, I call for a renewed regional dialogue to protect citizens from terrorism and systemic violations of human rights, and to create the conditions for sustainable development.
In Myanmar, the situation has grown far worse in the four years since the military seized power and arbitrarily detained members of the democratically elected government. We need greater cooperation to bring an end to the hostilities and forge a path towards an inclusive democratic transition and a return to civilian rule, allowing for the safe return of the Rohingya refugees.
And in Haiti, we are seeing massive human rights violations — including more than a million people displaced, and children facing a horrific increase in sexual violence and recruitment into gangs.
A durable solution requires a political process — led and owned by the Haitian people — that restores democratic institutions through elections.
Second — the Pact for the Future advances human rights through development.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and human rights are fundamentally intertwined. They represent real human needs — health, food, water, education, decent work and social protection.
With less than one-fifth of the Goals on track, the Pact calls for a massive acceleration through an SDG Stimulus, reforming the global financial architecture, and taking meaningful action for countries drowning in debt. This must include focused action to conquer the most widespread human rights abuse in history — inequality for women and girls.
The Pact calls for investing in battling all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls, and ensuring their meaningful participation and leadership across all walks of life.
And along with the Declaration on Future Generations, the Pact calls for supporting the rights and futures of young people through decent work, removing barriers for youth participation, and enhancing training.
And the Global Digital Compact calls on nations to champion young innovators, nurture entrepreneurial spirit, and equip the next generation with digital literacy and skills.
Third — the Pact for the Future recognizes that the rule of law and human rights go hand-in-hand.
Fourth — human rights through climate action.
Last year was the hottest on record — capping the hottest decade on record. Rising heat, melting glaciers and hotter oceans are a recipe for disaster. Floods, droughts, deadly storms, hunger, mass displacement — our war on nature is also a war on human rights.
We must choose a different path. I salute the many Member States who legally recognize the right to a healthy environment — and I call on all countries to do the same.
Governments must keep their promise to produce new, economy-wide national climate action plans this year, well ahead of COP30 in Brazil. Those plans must limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees — including by accelerating the global energy transition.
And fifth — human rights through stronger, better governance of technology.
As fast-moving technologies expand into every aspect of our lives, I am deeply concerned about human rights being undermined. At its best, social media is a meeting ground for people to exchange ideas and spark respectful debate. But it can also be an arena of fiery combat and blatant ignorance.
A place where the poisons of misinformation, disinformation, racism, misogyny and hate speech are not only tolerated — but often encouraged.
Verbal violence online can easily spill into physical violence in real life.
Recent rollbacks on social media fact-checking and content moderation are re-opening the floodgates to more hate, more threats, and more violence. Make no mistake. These rollbacks will lead to less free speech, not more, as people become increasingly fearful to engage on these platforms.
Meanwhile, the great promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is matched by limitless peril to undermine human autonomy, human identity, human control — and yes, human rights.
In the face of these threats, the Global Digital Compact brings the world together to ensure that human rights are not sacrificed on the altar of technology. This includes working with digital companies and policymakers to extend human rights to every corner of cyberspace — including a new focus on information integrity across digital platforms.
The Global Principles for Information Integrity I launched last year will support and inform this work as we push for a more humane information ecosystem.
The Global Digital Compact also includes the first universal agreement on the governance of AI that brings every country to the table and commitments on capacity-building, so all countries and people benefit from AI’s potential.
By investing in affordable internet, digital literacy, and infrastructure.
By helping developing countries use AI to grow small businesses, improve public services, and connect communities to new markets.
And by placing human rights at the center of AI-driven systems.
The Pact’s decisions to create an Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and an ongoing Global Dialogue that ensure all countries have a voice in shaping its future are important steps forward. We must implement them.
We can help end the suffocation of human rights by breathing life into the Pact for the Future and the work of this Council.
Let’s do that together. We don’t have a moment to lose.