As António Guterres approaches the end of his decade as United Nations Secretary-General, the organisation faces a question more consequential than who will occupy its highest office: what will that office stand for?
In less than 100 days of his tenure, amid wars, geopolitical fragmentation, polarisation, discrimination and resurgent antisemitism, the choice of his successor must become an opportunity to restore the UN’s moral purpose.
The United Nations emerged from the devastation of the Second World War and the horror of the Holocaust. Its founders understood the catastrophic consequences of aggression, dehumanisation and international failure.
The Charter’s commitment to human dignity, equal rights and peace was a promise that the world would build institutions capable of resisting those forces, rather than merely recording their consequences.
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