GLOBAL: AMNESTY’S SECRETARY GENERAL URGES WORLD LEADERS TO SEIZE HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY AT UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

UNGA79 runs from 10 September to the end of December 2024, including the Summit of the Future on 22 and 23 September, where world leaders will gather to address critical challenges and gaps in global governance exposed by recent global shocks

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard will be in New York for the opening of the high-level General Debate of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and participating in the Summit of The Future. She will be available for interviews in New York City from 20 to 24 September, and can respond to developments during UNGA, as well as the ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine. Her opinion piece on the Summit of the Future, “We must act globally to safeguard the future of humanity,” was recently published in Newsweek.

“This year’s General Assembly and the Summit of the Future are being presented as a historic opportunity for world leaders to plot a course to a safer, fairer and greener world. To meet this ambitious goal, firm commitments and bold thinking are required. As they gather in New York, leaders must ask themselves whether this will be yet another meeting where they simply talk about greater co-operation and consensus, or whether they will show the imagination and conviction to actually forge it. With multiple crises around the world, a growing climate emergency, and a breaking down of the multilateral order, there is a very small window for leaders to acknowledge these issues and take collective action to fix them for the common good of humanity. If they miss this opportunity, I shudder to think of the consequences. Our collective future is at stake,” said Agnès Callamard.

“For Amnesty International, there is only one acceptable pathway to the future: that which is paved with universal and indivisible human rights. And there is only one acceptable destination: the sustainable equal dignity of all persons as rightsholders.”

Agnès Callamard will be hosting several meetings, including with State representatives and human rights defenders. She will be speaking at events on “UNMuting” civil society at intergovernmental level, on the importance of fomenting inclusive and participatory governance, and on the need for global tax reform and a rights-based economy that can deliver a sustainable future. She is available to discuss these and other priority issues, including the consolidation of authoritarian practices in countries like Tunisia and Venezuela; the need for stricter regulation of new technologies that pose a threat to human rights; the lacklustre global response to the climate crisis and worsening environmental devastation; and the relentless war on women, from assaults on abortion rights to the systemic oppression and discrimination in Afghanistan and Iran.

For Amnesty International, there is only one acceptable pathway to the future: that which is paved with universal and indivisible human rights.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard

Background

UNGA79 runs from 10 September to the end of December 2024, including the Summit of the Future on 22 and 23 September, where world leaders will gather to address critical challenges and gaps in global governance exposed by recent global shocks. This Summit aims to reaffirm commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Charter, while enhancing cooperation and laying the foundations for a reinvigorated multilateral system through negotiation of an action-oriented Pact for the Future.

Dr Agnès Callamard is Secretary General at Amnesty International. She leads the organization’s human rights work and is its chief spokesperson. She has been a prominent figure in the human rights world for decades. In 2016, she was appointed as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary killings. Along with her UN work, she was also the Director of Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University in New York. Previous to that, she was Executive Director of the freedom of expression organization Article 19.