UN adopts pact promising to build 'brighter future' for humanity 

A mural for the Street Art for Mankind event outside the United Nations Headquarters, Sept. 21, 2024. A vote on a draft resolution is taken during the Summit of the Future, Sept. 22, 2024 at U.N. headquarters.

The United Nations on Sunday adopted a "Pact for the Future" aimed at addressing sprawling 21st-century challenges ranging from conflict to climate change and human rights, despite last-minute objections from a group of countries led by Russia. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who organized the "Summit of the Future," had billed it as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to reshape human history by rekindling international cooperation. As an opening act for the annual high-level week of the U.N. General Assembly, which begins Tuesday, dozens of heads of state and government gathered for the signing of the text. In the adopted version, leaders pledged to bolster the multilateral system to "keep pace with a changing world" and to "protect the needs and interests of current and future generations" facing "persistent crisis." "We believe there is a path to a brighter future for all of humanity," the document says.