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Maksim Buryanov — SDG 16 Youth Ambassador in Russia

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Maksim is a student at the Institute of Law and Administration of Moscow City University. Since 2017, he has been a researcher of global processes and risks, an expert in the field of digitalization, sustainable development and human rights. He is a three-time winner of the international competition «Legal Culture the Basis of Harmonious Development of Individuals and Society».

Since 2019 Maksim has been part of the Global Shapers community of the World Economic Forum, coordinator of the scientific and educational project and the international initiative «Global Digital Human Rights for the 4IR». Maksim is also a founder of the Global Law Forum’s project «Network community focused on achieving sustainable development». The Global Law Forum is a scientific and educational community aimed at forming approaches to global sustainable development.

– What do you think is the absolute priority in order for us to recover most effectively from the crisis of the pandemic?

– We need to learn a lesson from this pandemic and not to build walls in the global affairs. What is needed are a global decentralized governance and cooperation in the face of the catastrophic challenges of the 21st century, as well as setting new super-tasks for the sustainable development of civilization:

  1. the formation of global education integrated with science to reproduce knowledge of modern socio-techno-natural relations and maximize human capital;
  2. global health care and a global system of social services instead of a costly and inadequate digital arms race;
  3. updating international legal obligations of states in the area of fundamental human rights adopting a Declaration (and Convention) of Global Digital Human Rights to address planetary (including existential digital) challenges. As an SDG Youth Ambassador, together with Global Shapers and the Global Law Forum, I am working hard to develop and adopt a new human rights declaration that will open the gateway to a global law of sustainable development.

– What would you advise the UN Secretary-General to do to address the global challenges?

– I would advise Mr. Antonio Guterres to organize and lead a systematic effort to shape the future of global law as a normative system for realizing human rights and overcoming global challenges, including digital ones. I believe that this work should begin with the creation of a global legal education integrated with science.  A significant transformation of international law, as well as its integration with the legal systems of states, should be the basis for the future global management of social and technological-natural processes for sustainable development. The reorientation of law toward the maximum realization of each person’s rights (including access to social goods, including education and health care) will help to renounce violence and inequality, increase the effectiveness of international institutions, and overcome socio-economic, anthropogenic and ecological challenges.