Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ

Thursday, 29 January 2026

[As Prepared for Delivery]

Good morning, and welcome to the General Assembly.

 

Let me start by thanking you for being here. I know it is not always easy for civil society to come to the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, to navigate the layers of security, procedure, and formality. This is especially so now, with ¡®snow hills¡¯ on the sidewalks¡­

 

But your presence matters, literally, because the very first words of our Charter are ¡°We the Peoples.¡±
Not ¡°We the Delegates.¡±

This is not a club for the few; it is a house for the many.

 

And if this year of near-constant crisis has taught us anything, it is this: to keep multilateralism alive and strong, we must lean on like-minded allies and partners across all layers of this system.

We need you. The Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ needs you. Particularly now.

 

You see the headlines. You see the statements. You see the pace at which the ground seems to shift beneath us.

 

Sometimes we look at the state of the world and think: can this be true? Is this really happening?

 

I remember four years ago, having to explain to my young daughters what it meant that 100,000 troops had amassed on the European continent¡­ something that ¨C at only 40 years old ¨C had seemed unimaginable to me.

 

Now I feel like every other week we are explaining something which we thought was written in stone.

Such as the fact that you cannot simply take other countries land¡­

Or that there is a reason why every country, no matter how big or small, has a seat at the table.

 

But we cannot give up¡­ these are our times.

 

Yes, optimism has been in short supply this year. But we can be principled without being na?ve; we can be realistic without becoming resigned.

 

That means standing up for the international order and our United Nations, while reforming where we must, as the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ is doing through the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 Initiative, by taking a hard look at our finances, mandates, and structures.

 

And it means holding fast to our principles; to standing up for what we believe and what the world needs.

And as I said, we cannot do this alone¡­ the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ needs you.

 

Before I go over some of the mandated events this year, for which I invite you to be engaged, I want to talk about the subject I¡¯m sure is on many of your minds: the selection of the next Secretary-General.

 

We all know this is no normal, administrative exercise; it is a choice with profound implications for the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, for the wider multilateral system ¨C including each of you, and for the world.

 

It is a choice that will send a powerful message about who we are and what we stand for; about whether the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ truly reflects the people it serves, half of whom are women and girls.

 

I¡¯m very aware that civil society is closely following this process and eager to contribute, so let me be very clear: civil society organizations will participate in the interactive dialogues with Secretary-General candidates, scheduled for the week of 20 April.

 

While precise modalities for the dialogues will be released later in the process ¨C and will depend on the number of nominations ¨C there will be dedicated space for CSOs, as well as time for questions and interaction with the candidates.

 

And I strongly encourage you to put forward questions for the candidates, because we need that conversation, particularly now given the geopolitical times and the pressure on the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ.

 

We must ensure that the process is inclusive, yes, but also that the process itself is used as a tool to underline the diversity, experiences, and contributions of the United Nations and multilateral community.

 

So, we must use the selection process as a real conversation¡­ not only amongst and with the candidates¡­ but as a means to discuss the priorities, principles and practices we wish to work for within the United Nations for the 21^st century.

 

 

The world must know who or what they are signing on for.

 

I welcome your suggestions today on how to better engage with candidates, and how to make this process more inclusive and more engaging.

 

Of course, the Secretary-General selection is not our only focus.

 

This session will also advance work on a number of mandated meetings and signature events ¨C and we have printed these for you, just as we did for Member States two weeks ago.

 

Allow me to highlight a few:

 

In May, we will hold the International Migration Review Forum, which will include an informal multi-stakeholder hearing on 4 May 2026, with the summary presented by a civil society representative at the opening of the IMRF plenary on 7 May.

 

In the spring, we will convene multi-stakeholder interactive hearings on both HIV/AIDS, as well as pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, ahead of their respective High-Level Meetings.

 

And throughout the spring we will convene a series of discussions on the Pact for the Future, with at least one of these serving as a dedicated stock-taking of Pact implementation, with a clear and visible platform for civil society to feed into the process.

 

There are, as mentioned, many more meetings, and you will find these in the paper distributed ¨C I hope that you will be actively engaged in these processes.

 

 

Dear colleagues,

 

Two weeks ago, I delivered the annual ¡®priorities speech¡¯ to Member States.

 

I opened by saying the world needs the United Nations… and the United Nations needs the world.

That means all of the world, including you.

 

We can reform budgets and streamline mandates. But if the heart of this institution ¨C ¡°We the Peoples¡± ¨C loses its meaning, then none of it endures.

 

I called on Member States to form a coalition, an alliance, to stand by the Charter and to step up for multilateralism.

 

I extend that call to you.

 

We need champions everywhere: civil society, business, media, and political leadership ¨C all those who believe in international law, in a rules-based international order, and in our Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ¨C to stand together and hold the line.

 

We need civil society to help defend the Charter and the principles it stands for: human rights, sustainable development, and peace and security.

 

Now more than ever, we need your leadership to counter the political headwinds, to push back against those who would undermine this institution, and to help preserve and strengthen what has been built, painstakingly, over the past 80 years.

 

With that, I look forward to your questions and suggestions.