Summit of Future hammers out consensus for upgrading UN to tackle challenges

The Summit of the Future opened at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York on Sunday, with the adoption of a Pact for the Future, as well as its annexes, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations, which cover a broad range of themes including peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations and the transformation of global governance. The Pact for the Future is the UN's master plan for tackling challenges that lie ahead for humanity, with 56 "actions" covering everything from peacekeeping to the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence. The pact underlines the "increasingly complex challenges" to world peace, notably the threat of nuclear war, with the document reiterating the UN's core tenets.

The pact promises to accelerate efforts to attain the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim for the eradication of extreme poverty by 2030, an intensified battle against hunger, promotion of gender equality and education. Most of the objectives were set in 2005, but are far from being realized. Against that backdrop, and with poor countries particularly mobilized for change, the pact especially calls for "reform of the international financial architecture." "We stand at a crossroads of global transformation, facing unprecedented challenges that demand urgent, collective action," Philemon Yang, president the 79th UN General Assembly, said at the opening segment of the two-day summit.

"The commitments embodied in the pact and its annexes reflect the collective will of member states and must guide our actions and encourage us to promote international peace and security, invigorate implementation of the sustainable development goals, foster just and inclusive societies, and ensure that technologies always serve the common good of humankind. We must move forward together in a spirit of solidarity and multilateral cooperation," he said.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at the meeting that the world today is undergoing both transformation and upheaval, and a decisive first step must be taken to renew and reform international cooperation.

"We have taken the first step and now it is our shared responsibility to follow that path. It will require not just agreement but action. I urge action to end the wars that divide the world by prioritizing dialogue and negotiation and to reform the composition and working methods of the Security Council," Guterres said.

In 2020, the United Nations turned 75 and marked the occasion by starting a global conversation about hopes and fears for the future. This was the beginning of a process that would eventually lead, four years later, to the convening of the Summit of the Future, a major event this September, just before the annual high-level debate of the General Assembly.

More than 130 heads of state and government attended the Summit of the Future, which is taking place on Sunday and Monday, just ahead of the annual debate in the UN General Assembly.

Summit of Future hammers out consensus for upgrading UN to tackle challenges

Summit of Future hammers out consensus for upgrading UN to tackle challenges

Summit of Future hammers out consensus for upgrading UN to tackle challenges

Summit of Future hammers out consensus for upgrading UN to tackle challenges

Summit of Future hammers out consensus for upgrading UN to tackle challenges

A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.

The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.

The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.

Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.

Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.

At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.

"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.

Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.

"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.

These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.

"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.

At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.

Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China