A universal policy promoting smaller and more equitable families is the most effective way to protect our future – ten to twenty times more effective than other policy reforms.

• It would effectively mitigate the climate crisis, and ensure a smaller population of more resilient people who can still thrive in the degraded ecology of the future.
• It would effectively reduce overcrowding, and the impact of pandemics like Covid-19 and the spread of new diseases.
• It would effectively reduce economic and other inequities that threaten to tear apart the fabric of society.

The Secretary General of the United Nations must take the lead here, and make informal statements that will help change the way we all plan families. He can choose not to put population growth and the economic bubble it creates above human rights and the right to a Fair Start in life, which is the first and most important human right. If he does not change course, he is choosing to exploit and endanger future children, rather than support a system in which we collectively invest more in each child by changing and improving the conditions in which they are born. He gave his own two kids a privileged start in life relative to the poor children of the world, but it does not have to be that way.

As Secretary General he is obligated to speak the truth of human rights to the powers of the world, his silence on this issue threatens his legitimacy, and it will lead to the people rising over him to ensure the better future we all deserve.

TAKE ACTION: Engage the Secretary General directly to do what human rights require, and to support a Fair Start in life for all kids: 1) Email Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, at [email protected], 2) contact the United Nations at 212-963-4475, or 3) engage the Secretary General in person to demand action.