Event information

Humanity is at a tipping point. The climate and nature crisis, pandemics, nuclear weapons, and the emerging risks of AI present escalating threats that put all humanity at risk.

As leaders gather in New York for the UN Summit of the Future at UNGA 2024, it is time to change direction. We need decision-makers who understand the urgency of the existential threats we face, and can demonstrate the courage and determination to overcome them. The Elders believe that with bold, long-view leadership our best future can still lie ahead of us.

On the eve of the UN Summit of the Future, The Elders and distinguished guests invite you to a series of solutions-oriented, intergenerational dialogues on addressing the greatest existential threats facing humanity.

Speakers include:

Mary Robinson
Chair of The Elders; First woman President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Juan Manuel Santos
Former President of Colombia; a Nobel Peace Laureate who led complex peace negotiations, ending over 50 years of intractable civil war.

Helen Clark
Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and head of the UN Development Programme; Co-Chair of the WHO Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response; an advocate for multilateralism and nuclear disarmament.

Elbegdorj Tsakhia
Former President and Prime Minister of Mongolia who led his country’s transition to democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union. An international campaigner on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, climate change and democracy.

Hina Jilani
Pioneering lawyer and pro-democracy campaigner; a leading activist in Pakistan's women's movement and international champion of human rights.

aja monet
Grammy-nominated surrealist blues poet.

Emma Pike
Program Manager at Lex International; nuclear disarmament expert, activist, and peace educator.

Fatou Wurie
Founder, Youterus Health and Harvard Doctoral Candidate.

Flávia Bellaguarda
Executive Director of LACLIMA.

Izumi Nakamitsu
United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

Jaan Tallinn
Founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa; Co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and the Future of Life Institute.

Max Tegmark
President, Future of Life Institute; Physicist, Professor and AI researcher at MIT.

Meredith Whittaker 
President of Signal and the current Chief Advisor of the AI Now Institute.

Nudhara Yusuf
AI Governance Expert, Global Governance Innovation Network

Shakuntala Santhiran
International broadcast journalist, professional moderator and MC