Mr. Guterres launched the report at a meeting of the General Assembly on Friday, prefacing his remarks with a scathing overview of the parlous state of a world he described as being under enormous stress, and warning that the world risks a future of “serious instability and climate chaos”. “From the climate crisis to our suicidal war on nature and the collapse of biodiversity, our global response is too little, too late”, declared the Secretary-General. “Unchecked inequality is undermining social cohesion, creating fragilities that affect us all. Technology is moving ahead without guard rails to protect us from its unforeseen consequences.” The UN chief went on to describe the extensive consultations that fed into its development, a listening exercise that led the UN to the conclusion that enhanced multilateralism is seen as the way to deal with the world’s crises (see text box, below). Breakdown or breakthrough? Two contrasting futures are laid out in the report: one of breakdown and perpetual crisis, and another in which there is a breakthrough, to a greener, safer future. The doomsday scenario describes a world in which COVID-19 is endlessly mutating, because rich countries hoard vaccines, and health systems are overwhelmed. In that future, the planet becomes uninhabitable due to rising temperatures and extreme weather events, and a million species are on the brink of extinction. This is coupled by a continuous erosion of human rights, a massive loss of jobs and income, and growing protests and unrest, which are met by violent repression. Or, we could go the other way, sharing vaccines equitably, and sparking a sustainable recovery in which the global economy is retooled to be more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive. By decarbonizing the economy, global temperature rises would be limited, countries heavily affected by climate change would be supported, and ecosystems would be preserved for future generations, the report says. This approach would herald a new era for multilateralism, in which countries work together to solve global problems; the international system works fast to protect everyone in emergencies; and the UN is universally recognized as a trusted platform for collaboration. Goals and solutions The importance of protecting vulnerable groups is recognized in commitments to gender equality and leaving no-one behind, which include reinforcing social protections and promoting gender parity. Ensuring a more sustainable global economy is identified as a goal, with support for the poorest, and a fairer international trading system.  Climate action gets a special mention, with commitments to the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, and net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and end to fossil fuel subsidies, a transformation of food systems, and a package of support for developing countries.  And, noting the ongoing health crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report calls for a $50 billion vaccination plan, to at least double vaccine production, ensuring that they reach at least 70 per cent of the global population in the first half of 2022. Summit of the Future In order to achieve these aims, the Secretary-General recommends a Summit of the Future, which would “forge a new global consensus on what our future should look like, and how we can secure it”. The Summit would address the perennial issues of peace and security, setting out a “New Agenda for Peace”, with more investment for peacebuilding, support for regional conflict prevention, a reduction of strategic risks such as nuclear weapons and cyberwarfare - and a dialogue on outer space to ensure that it is used peacefully and sustainably. The application of human rights online would also be covered at the Summit, in a Global Digital Compact, to ensure that new technologies are a force for good. Other tracks would include; the peaceful and sustainable use of outer space, and the management of future shocks and crises. 
The Summit, said Mr. Guterres, should take account of today’s more complex context for global governance…our goal should be a more inclusive and networked multilateralism, to navigate this complex landscape and deliver effective solutions.  On top of the Summit of the Future, the report proposes biennial high-level meetings at the level of Heads of States and Government, between the G20, ECOSOC, the heads of International Financial Institutions, and the UN Secretary-General, aimed at creating a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient global economy.  The report also calls for better partnerships between governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector, and civil society; and an emergency platform to better prepare for global crises, with stronger global health security. One example is the creation of a Futures Lab, which would work with partners including governments, academia, civil society, and the private sector, to issue regular reports on megatrends and catastrophic risks.  In addition, measures on education, skills training and lifelong learning are proposed, including a Transforming Education Summit planned for 2022, to address the learning crisis and expand opportunities and hope for the world’s 1.8 billion young people, and a a Global Social Summit, to be organized in 2025, which would coordinate international efforts to create peaceful, secure societies based on human rights and dignity for all. These meetings would coordinate efforts to bring about inclusive and sustainable policies that enable countries to offer basic services and social protection to their citizens. “Governments should never again face a choice between serving their people or servicing their debt”, said Mr. Guterres. UN upgrade     One of those institutions is, of course, the UN itself, which, says the report, is due an upgrade, with a more participatory and consultative approach, gender parity by 2028, the re-establishment of the Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board, and a policy that puts people at the centre of the UN System, taking into account age, gender and diversity. Other UN-related proposals concern the improved participation of youth in the political process and efforts to cut youth unemployment. The reports recommends the appointment of a Special Envoy for Future Generations, to give weight to the interests of those who will be born over the coming century, and a new UN Youth Office to strengthen engagement with young people across the work of the Organization.  As the UN embarks on the Decade of Action – 10 years to make real progress to deliver the promise of a sustainable, fairer future by 2030 – there is an opportunity to reshape the world for the better, with multilateralism at the heart of the process.  However, as the “breakdown scenario” shows, failure to work effectively together risks significant, irreversible damage to the planet and even, life itself: In his speech to the General Assembly, Mr. Guterres underlined that Our Common Agenda is driven by solidarity, “the principle of working together, recognizing that we are bound to each other and that no community or country, however powerful, can solve its challenges alone.” Our Common Agenda: the context The fact that the 75th anniversary came during a global health emergency, highlights the importance of multilateral thinking: 2020 saw the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which came amid growing concern over the climate crisis, another urgent issue that does not respect national borders. In early 2020, 1.5 million people took part in a year-long global UN initiative to listen to people’s priorities, and expectations of how international cooperation can impact the future. They shared their hopes and fears, calling for a more transparent, inclusive UN, and identifying climate change and environmental issues as the number one long-term global challenge. Our Common Agenda builds on the findings from that initiative – as well as input from thought leaders, eminent groups such as The Elders, diplomats and other partners – offering suggestions and solutions, ideas for action, and looking ahead to the next 25 years of the UN.  The report calls for the core values of the UN to be reaffirmed, whilst acknowledging that the foundations of the Organization, need to be reshaped to better reflect today’s world. It also recognized the urgent need for action: the climate crisis poses an existential crisis to all human life, and can only be solved if the international community works effective together, across borders, to end accelerated heating of the planet caused by human activity, and adapt to the damage it has already caused.  

As millions of school children return to school across the European Region where the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is dominant, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office call for schools to stay open and made safer by adopting measures to minimise transmission of the virus. These measures include offering teachers and other school staff the COVID-19 vaccine as part of the target population groups in national vaccination plans, while ensuring vaccination of vulnerable populations. In addition, children aged 12 years and above who have underlying medical conditions that significantly increases their risk for put that at greater risk of severe COVID-19 disease must be vaccinated; improvements to the school environment through better classroom ventilation, smaller class sizes where possible, physical distancing and regular testing of children and staff, are other important actions.   “The pandemic has caused the most catastrophic disruption to education in history. It is therefore vital that classroom-based learning continues uninterrupted across the European Region. This is of paramount importance for children’s education, mental health and social skills, for schools to help equip our children to be happy and productive members of society”, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe explains. “It will be some time before we can put the pandemic behind us but educating children safely in a physical school setting must remain our primary objective, so we don't rob them of the opportunities they so deserve. We encourage all countries to keep schools open and urge all schools to put in place measures to minimize the risk of COVID-19 and the spread of different variants.” Scaling up vaccination to protect from the Delta variant The highly transmissible  SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant has added an additional layer of concern and complication to this year’s school opening season. The high incidence of COVID-19 in the community make transmission in schools much more likely. Therefore, we must all commit to reduce the transmission of the virus. Data clearly shows that receiving a full COVID-19 vaccination series significantly reduces the risk of severe disease and death. Therefore, when called to take the vaccine please do so and make sure you complete the full vaccine dose series. “Vaccination is our best line of defence against the virus, and for the pandemic to end we must rapidly scale up vaccinations fairly in all countries, including supporting vaccine production and sharing of doses, to protect the most vulnerable, everywhere. We must also continue to follow the public health and social measures we know work, including testing, sequencing, tracing, isolation and quarantine,” Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge said. Making schools safer is a whole-of-society responsibility Milena Maric is a high school mathematics teacher from Belgrade, Serbia, who has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. She said, “For almost two years, the words ‘COVID-19’ and ‘online schooling’ have marked our lives. When the pandemic started, the school system in Serbia adapted rapidly. “But the students lacked continuity, socializing, collaborative work, the sharing of ideas in real time, communication without technology. I know that the only way out of this situation is if we keep respecting measures to prevent the transmission of the virus and if we vaccinate all educators.”  Philippe Cori, Deputy Regional Director, from UNICEF Europe and Central Asia said, “The pandemic is not over. We all have a part to play to ensure that schools remain open across the Region. Children and youth cannot risk having another year of disrupted learning. Vaccination and protective measures together will help prevent a return to the darkest days of the pandemic when people had to endure lockdowns and children had to experience disruption of learning. “Children have been the silent victims of the pandemic, and the most marginalized have been amongst the hardest hit. Prior to COVID-19, the Region’s most vulnerable children were already out-of-school, or in school, but not learning at the same level as their classmates. “A school is so much more than a building. It's a place of learning, safety and play at the heart of our communities. When they are closed, children, miss out on learning, being with their friends and may be exposed to violence in the home. The pandemic worsened an already unacceptable situation - we must ensure that schools reopen, and they stay open safely.” Expert recommendations To help keep schools open and safe, WHO, UNICEF and UNESCO have endorsed a set of eight expert recommendations developed by the WHO European Technical Advisory group for schooling during COVID-19.  For use by the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region they are: Schools to be among the last places to close and first to re-open. Put in place a testing strategy. Ensure effective risk-mitigation measures. Protect children’s mental and social well-being. Protect the most vulnerable and marginalized children. Improve the school environment. Involve children & adolescents in decision-making. Implement a vaccination strategy designed to keep children in school. Notes to editor The WHO European Region Technical Advisory Group (TAG) is an independent group of experts established by the WHO Regional Director for Europe. For further information, please contact: WHO/Europe Sarah Tyler, eupress@who.int
Ian Woolverton, eupress@who.int
Bhanu Bhatnagar, bbhatnagar@who.int UNICEF Shima Islam, ssislam@unicef.org About us The World Health Organization (WHO) is the authority responsible for public health within the United Nations system. The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) is one of WHO’s six regional offices around the world. We serve the WHO European Region, which comprises 53 countries, covering a vast geographical region from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. WHO/Europe staff are public health, scientific and technical experts, based in the main office in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 3 technical centres and in country offices in 30 Member States. UNICEF's Europe & Central asia Regional Office works with and for disadvantaged children and adolescents in 21 countries and territories across Europe and Central Asia. Our ambition is to get the entire region working together - as one - on behalf of its most vulnerable children. We implement programmes and conduct advocacy on child poverty, child protection, education, health, immunization and children with disabilities.   

Seeking to unlock the potential of young people and provide them with a space, where they will feel free to share their opinions and discuss the most important things, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the Republic of Belarus has been organizing its youth summer camp called “Learn. Act. Share” for the fifth year in a row. Every year this summer camp gathers 18 initiative young people from throughout Belarus in order to inform them about the problem, which is not given enough consideration and still can affect a person of any gender, age or nationality, that is the problem of trafficking in human beings.  With the aid of lectures and workshops provided by experts from UN agencies, non-governmental associations and private companies young camp participants obtain a comprehensive understanding of the problem as they view it from a different angle and via related topics such as migration, gender equality, sustainable development, information security, etc. The aim of the initiative is not only to inform about the problem but also to inspire young people to take action in order to prevent it and share the obtained knowledge.  Over a period of five days the participants learned to develop projects, promote them online and create their own social video. These knowledge and skills enabled them to come up with the ideas and work out the detailed implementation plans for five projects aimed at countering hate speech, raising awareness of the problem of human trafficking and methods of its prevention, and informing about safe international travel. The camp has already inspired its 70 alumni to learn, act and share knowledge as during the past few years they have conducted events for over 4300 peers.  2021 alumni are full of enthusiasm to contribute to this joint work. “Here I met a lot of interesting and well-informed people and my eyes blazed! Now I am anxious to implement what we plotted out together with my colleagues.  As the new academic year starts we will try to deliver on all our projects so that our activities here would not gone to waste,” - camp participant Yana Astashonok shares her plans. Learn. Act. Share summer camp is conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the Republic of Belarus under the IOM-X global campaign and coincides with the World Day against Trafficking in Persons.  The initiative is supported by the US Agency for International Development USAID together with the partners: UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS, WHO offices in the Republic of Belarus, UN Department of Global Communications, partners from NGOs and private companies EPAM, LigaturaBel and NOTAKITCHEN.      

The United Nations Country Team in Belarus (UNCT) has been following with great concern reports of detentions of civil society representatives and searches in the offices of a wide range of civil society organizations, charity projects and private apartments of individual activists undertaken on 14 July 2021.

As recently noted by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a statement at the 47th session of the Human Rights Council, the situation in Belarus “continues to deteriorate, with severe restrictions on civic space, including the rights to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association; raids against civil society and independent media; and the judicial persecution of human rights activists and journalists”.

The UNCT calls on the Belarusian authorities to safeguard legal rights of organizations and individuals under investigation and to enable civil society organizations and individual activists to conduct their activities free from harassment and intimidation, in line with the obligations of Belarus under human rights law.

Some organizations searched today are members of the national Sustainable Development Council and its Partnership Group for Sustainable Development, playing an important role in provision of essential services and assistance to vulnerable populations. The UNCT is concerned that such actions negatively affect cooperation and the spirit of equal partnership between the state and civil society, which is necessary for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Agenda 2030.

The UNCT believes that partnerships between different segments of society are key to achieving the SDGs. Creating and protecting a free and enabling environment for civil society, working with civil society organizations, developing their capacity and using their expertise and knowledge while maintaining open and respectful dialogue on all issues is the basis for national progress in the area of sustainable development. Only development that is human-centered and respectful of the rights of all stakeholders, organizations and individuals alike, can be sustainable.  The UN stands ready to facilitate dialogue between all partners with the view of continuing the engagement and restoring cooperation on key development priorities of Belarus.