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SummitoftheFuture

The Pact for the Future was Adopted – What do Feminists Want Next? 

“Through the actions we take today, we resolve to set ourselves on that path, striving for a world that is safe, peaceful, just, equal, inclusive, sustainable and prosperous, a world in which well-being, security and dignity and a healthy planet are assured for all humanity.” – Pact for the Future

Large blue 3D letters spell Future on a city sidewalk. The display is in front of a stone monument, and sunlight casts shadows on the ground.
Image credit: WILPF
  • 7 min
WILPF International Secretariat
15 November 2024

What was the Summit of the Future? 

World events, including rampant impunity for violations of international law, an escalating climate emergency, and rising inequality, have brought multilateral institutions to the forefront of discussions again. In 2021, at a time of great disillusionment with the multilateral system and amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Secretary-General initiated a process called Our Common Agenda, with the aim of reflecting on the first 75 years of the United Nations and looking forward to the decades ahead. As part of this process, the UN General Assembly agreed to hold a Summit for the Future in September 2024. 

As an organisation that has had a long relationship with international organisations—starting with the advocacy of our WILPF foremothers for the League of Nations—WILPF has continued to work tirelessly to try to strengthen the mechanisms for states to resolve differences peacefully, be held accountable for violations and for human rights to be advanced and protected. We engaged with the different opportunities presented by the Summit of the Future process (SOTF), even as we continued to critique these multilateral spaces and recognise the ways in which they have in some cases been created to shape and maintain imperial, capitalist, patriarchal, and militaristic systems.  

Many of our hopes for what could manifest in the Summit and the Pact, in terms of concrete actions and sorely-needed commitments on demilitarisation and disarmament, did not ultimately come to fruition. There have also been questions about the value of starting new processes when existing frameworks—such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—are severely falling short in terms of implementation. All of this compels us to ask, where are new conversations and reinvigoration needed, and what is blocking change?  

The Pact itself did not sufficiently address these questions. But in parallel, there has been a resurgence of discussion, critique, and engagement with questions about the role of the UN. There have been sharp critiques of the UN Security Council’s failures, and, in the context of Palestine, UN agencies such as UNRWA have come under public attack. Despite the Pact being adopted, the reflections on these institutions and systems should not cease. The world desperately needs a functioning multilateral system. 

This blog looks back at some of the ways in which WILPF engaged with the SOTF process and looks forward to next steps. 

How did WILPF contribute to the process?  

WILPF made several submissions to the SOTF, including contributions to the New Agenda for Peace policy brief that preceded and led to the drafting of the Pact. Some of these submissions and analyses are linked below. They covered a range of key demands, including, but not limited to: 

  • Urgent and complete disarmament and demilitarisation, which includes the abolition of nuclear weapons, banning of autonomous weapons systems, divesting from weapons and war, reduction of military spending, and an end to the arms trade, foreign military bases, the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, of armed drones, and more. 
  • Consultations for restructuring the multilateral system to uphold the UN Charter and its stated purpose to end war, ensure peace, and address all dispute resolution through dialogue, including by restructuring the decision-making processes in the UN, particularly the Security Council, including considerations of its abolition or fundamental reform. 
  • Recognition of the systemic nature of patriarchal and racist power-dynamics as causal in inequalities and a commitment to the eradication of all forms of gender-based violence through fundamental, structural change in our systems of governance, including through better integration of gender throughout peacebuilding discussions and across different peace and security forums, in line with the WPS agenda. 
  • Recognition of the vital importance of social reproduction and the role gender relations have in creating conditions for peaceful and just transformation.  
  • The undertaking of demilitarisation as an essential component of ecological justice and the decoupling of development from the concept of economic growth, recentring development around communal well-being, global justice, and ecological regeneration. 

Our submissions and analyses include: 

In addition, WILPF engaged extensively with the subsequent rounds of negotiations on the Pact for the Future through the Women’s Major Group on Sustainable Development. Through the Women’s Major Group, we provided comments and markups on the different drafts of the Pact, emphasising the points that we raised in our initial submissions and analyses. 

At the UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, which took place in May 2024 a few months before the Summit, WILPF International President Sylvie Ndongmo delivered a statement focused on key civil society recommendations on Chapter 2 of the Pact for the Future, lifting the key demands outlined above.  

YouTube video

In Person at the Summit and Action Days 

WILPF sent a delegation of members to the Summit of the Future and the preceding Action Days, which took place in New York in September 2024. WILPF was represented at the SOTF by International President Sylvie Ndongmo, alongside members from South Africa, the United States, and Togo, and two staff from the International Secretariat.  

The Summit of the Future Action Days on 20 and 21 September reflected a growing trend in UN spaces of holding multistakeholder events separate from the intergovernmental processes. The Action Days provided some opportunities for civil society organisations, regional bodies, academia, as well as other actors such as the private sector, to participate in events about the themes of the Summit. One of the priority themes was peace and security, and there was also a focus on financing, sustainable development, and future generations. Despite the space for civil society organisations, WILPF has been critical of multi-stakeholder approaches in our advocacy in recent years, for the ways in which it is contributing to corporate capture in the UN, and the limited influence that civil society can truly have over these processes and spaces.  

Despite limited space for participation at the Summit itself, WILPF still had a presence and attended the sessions. The sessions can be watched back on UN Web TV and the Security Council Report from December 2024 provides additional coverage. 

What’s next? 

2025 marks several key anniversaries on gender and peace issues at the UN, including the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. We will use these opportunities to critique the cherry picking, lack of political will, and depoliticised approaches taken by many actors in their work on WPS and gender justice. 2025 also marks the 80th anniversary of the first testing and use of nuclear weapons by the United States, which led to global horror and the ongoing threat of destruction. Our work for nuclear abolition and an end to the war machine is as urgent as ever. 

Although the Pact made some strides in terms of advancing discussions on Security Council reform, as seen above, ultimately it did not bring about a consensus about the key issue of the veto. Therefore, this aspect of Security Council reform and restructuring remains on the table and is a key topic of advocacy given how deeply that institution’s failures have been exposed, including, but not limited to, the genocide in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

One outcome of the Pact is that the Secretary-General will soon produce a report about the impact of military expenditure on sustainable development, which was one of WILPF’s demands in the process.

Update as of March 2025: WILPF has made a submission to this report, conveying our feminist perspectives on military spending and on development. 

Beyond the Pact, WILPF still holds, and is working towards, a truly feminist vision of a multilateral system. We envision a multilateral system that takes on oppressive systems and inequalities; a multilateral system that is enabled to act on threats to human security and prevent violence. We envision a multilateral system which is disentangled from imperial and colonial power dynamics and inequalities, which centers the wellbeing of all people. This vision might sometimes appear distant, but it is both necessary and possible. 

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WILPF International Secretariat

WILPF International Secretariat, with offices in Geneva and New York, liaises with the International Board and the National Sections and Groups for the implementation of WILPF International Programme, resolutions and policies as adopted by the International Congress. Under the direction of the Secretary-General, the Secretariat also provides support in areas of advocacy, communications, and financial operations.

Matt Mahmoudi

Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Berit Aasen

Europe Alternate Regional Representative

Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.

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Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

A woman in a blue, black, and white dress smiles radiantly in front of a leafy green background.

Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

PRESIDENT

Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

WILPF Afghanistan

In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

IPB Congress Barcelona

WILPF Germany (+Young WILPF network), WILPF Spain and MENA Regional Representative

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Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.