In 2000, it came as the eight Millennial Development Goals. In 2015, it was rebranded to become the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030. In 2024, it reemerged as the Pact for the Future, with the promised achievement of world peace through global governance now delayed to 2050.

For those already concerned about the global governance, wealth redistribution, and centralized power nexus the United Nations poses through its pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals, this Pact and its Annexes should sound like a freight train picking up speed.

The Pact for the Future, as the U.N. defines it, is “the most wide-ranging international agreement in decades, designed to make the international system more effective, inclusive and fit for 21st-century challenges.” It leans heavily on the 2021 “Our Common Agenda” report from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, which outlined the organization’s perceived need for increased global governance following the COVID-19 pandemic in order to accelerate the implementation of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

The Pact for the Future includes two annexes: Annex I, the “Global Digital Compact,” and Annex II, the “Declaration on Future Generations.” Annex I seeks to secure “an inclusive, open, sustainable, fair, safe and secure digital future for all” by implementing specific goals centered on connecting all individuals to the internet, ensuring that internet use is equitable and respects the rights of all users, and governing the use of artificial intelligence across nations.

Annex II is “a first-of-its-kind commitment to long-term thinking and intergenerational responsibility.” It serves as a restatement of the intention for the global pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals and includes enumerated Guiding Principles, Commitments, and Actions describing what must be done from a conceptual perspective to achieve these goals.

As a combined document, “[t]he Pact and its annexes set out a clear and ambitious path to modernize global governance, accelerate progress on sustainable development, and strengthen international cooperation.” It specifically addresses five realms of cooperation: Sustainable development and financing for development; International peace and security; Science, technology and innovation, and digital cooperation; Youth and future generations; and transforming global governance.

The Pact was formally adopted in 2024, with implementation milestones extending through 2026, 2027, and 2028. On September 22, nearly 130 world leaders have gathered in New York for the high-level General Debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly. The debate will continue through September 26 and conclude September 28, accompanied by high-level meetings addressing many of the same issues advanced through the Pact — including artificial intelligence, sustainable development, global financing, international security, and United Nations reform.

Americans should understand that these meetings are not merely ceremonial speeches among diplomats. They help advance the international frameworks, financing mechanisms, digital systems, and policy commitments through which the Pact for the Future and the Sustainable Development Goals are carried into national and local institutions — including schools.

Because the Pact and its Annexes seek to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, it has expanded its purview to specifically include data and the digital realm. One specific goal is to increase national data collection systems, citing that “quality data is critical for tracking, targeting and accelerating progress across the Sustainable Development Goals as well as responding effectively to crises.” Its target goal seeks a 50% increase in data collection “disaggregated by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and geographical location and other characteristics relevant in national contexts (all SDGs).”

The Pact also calls for the increased sharing of this data between nations “to advance progress across the Sustainable Development Goals.” While these data-collection goals are expected to be achieved by implementing internet “equity” across all nations, the Pact specifically addresses that all schools and hospitals must be connected to the internet to support these data-collection purposes. This will ensure that every school-aged child and every hospital patient — essentially, all individuals of society — will be part of this total digital data collection system.

Data collection of individuals is already known to be used for the European Union’s Destination Earth project, which seeks to create a global real-time monitoring system of all people, entities, and even objects connected to the Internet of Things for high-level decision makers to access, view, and control. Though the project is officially attributed to the European Union, their close partnership with the United Nations no doubt allows for shared access and control. Advancements in 6G, along with the widespread construction of data centers and artificial intelligence, will only expand and accelerate the Destination Earth project, leaving individual privacy and autonomy to become a thing of the past.

Since its inception, the United Nations has been used as a tool to promote global governance at the sacrifice of national sovereignty, all through the rhetoric of chasing world peace. But reality speaks for itself. Is the world a safer, more peaceful place? Are people healthier, happier, and prosperous? And if not, will giving the U.N. increased authority, financing, and data suddenly achieve these objectives?

Perhaps it’s time to return to the foreign policy of which George Washington spoke during his farewell address of 1796: “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”

Rhonda Thomas is the founder and president of Truth In Education, a Christian nonprofit that exposes harmful ideologies and Marxist globalist agendas in America’s schools.