TRANSCRIPT
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned world leaders that inequality and uncertainty are creating an unsustainable world where a growing number of countries believe they can act with impunity.
"Today, a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to get out of jail free card. They can trample international law. They can violate the United Nations Charter. They can turn a blind eye to international human rights conventions or the decisions of international courts. They can thumb their nose at international humanitarian law. They can invade another country, lay waste to all societies, or utterly disregard the welfare of their own people, and nothing will happen."
The Secretary-General spoke before presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other top leaders of all 193 UN member countries coming together for their annual gathering at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
“I stand before you in this whirlwind, convinced of two overriding truths. First, the state of our world is unsustainable. We can't go on like this. And second, the challenges we face are solvable. But that requires us to make sure the mechanisms of international problem-solving actually solve problems.”
Addressing world leader, United States President Joe Biden said that Russia's war in Ukraine has failed and that a diplomatic solution between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah was still a possibility.
"I know, I know many look at the world today and see difficulties and react with despair. But I do not. I won't. As leaders, we don't have the luxury. I recognize the challenges from Ukraine, to Gaza, to Sudan and beyond. War, hunger, terrorism, brutality, record displacement of people, a climate crisis, democracy at risk, strangers in our societies, the promise of artificial intelligence, and its significant risk. The list goes on. But maybe because all I've seen and all we have done together over the decades, I have hope. I know there is a way forward."
Mr Biden says progress toward peace in the Middle East would put the world in a stronger position to deal with the ongoing threat posed by Iran.
He also emphasised the importance of alliances in dealing with the challenges facing countries today.
"There'll always be forces to pull our countries apart and the world apart. Aggression, extremism, chaos and cynicism, a desire to retreat from the world and go it alone. Our task, our test is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart."]]
The address before world leaders at the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York marks his final speech to the body as US president.
Also speaking at the General Assembly, was Turkiye's President Tayyip Erdogan who says the values of the United Nations' system and the Western world are dying in Gaza as the conflict continues there.
"Not only are children dying in Gaza but also the United Nations’ system. The truth is dying, the values that the West claims to defend are dying, the hopes of humanity to live in a more just world are dying one by one.”
As the war with Israel in Gaza and Lebanon rages threatening regional security, Russia's war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending anytime soon.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke before the UN expressing hope that UN Charter rules will end the conflict.
"One day in this hall, it will surely be said that Russia's war against Ukraine has ended. Not frozen, not paused, not forgotten, truly ended. And this will happen not because someone got tired of the war. Not because someone traded something with Putin. Russia's war against Ukraine will end because the U.N. charter will work."
The UN Charter, signed on the 26th of June 1945, serves as the cornerstone document of the United Nations.
It sets forth the rights and responsibilities of member states and sets up the UN’s principle bodies and procedures.
The Charter’s main objectives include the upholding of international peace and security, the cultivation of amicable relations among nations, and the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination.
The 79th UN General Assembly will continue until the end of the month with several more world leaders set to speak.
