António Guterres Quotes

The @UN appeal for a global ceasefire appeal continues to resonate across the world. I'm deeply grateful to all @UN Messengers of Peace, #GlobalGoals Advocates, and the more than one million people who have made their voice heard in support of peace.

A generation since the Genocide, we must never forget what happened – and ensure future generations always remember.

Israel’s military operations have spread mass destruction and killed civilians on a scale unprecedented during my time as secretary-general.

I am deeply grateful for the solidarity of Ukraine’s neighbours and other host countries, who have taken in more than 2.8 million refugees in the past two weeks. The vast majority of those making the treacherous journey are women and children who are increasingly vulnerable. For predators and human traffickers, war is not a tragedy. It is an opportunity. And women and children are the targets. They need safety and support every step of the way. I will continue to highlight the desperate plight of the people of Ukraine as I am doing again today. Yet there is another dimension of this conflict that gets obscured. This war goes far beyond Ukraine. It is also an assault on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries. While war rains over Ukraine, a sword of Damocles hangs over the global economy – especially in the developing world. Even before the conflict, developing countries were struggling to recover from the pandemic – with record inflation, rising interest rates and looming debt burdens. Their ability to respond has been erased by exponential increases in the cost of financing. Now their breadbasket is being bombed. Russia and Ukraine represent more than half of the world’s supply of sunflower oil and about 30 percent of the world’s wheat. Ukraine alone provides more than half of the World Food Programme’s wheat supply.

Today, Ukraine is an epicenter of unbearable heartache and pain. I witnessed that very vividly today around Kyiv: the senseless loss of life, the massive destruction, the unacceptable violations of human rights and the laws of war. It is vital that the International Criminal Court and other UN mechanisms conduct their work so that there can be real accountability.

COVID19 has deepened existing inequalities & vulnerabilities for women & girls. On Saturday's #WorldPopulationDay and every day, we must protect the rights of women and girls, end gender-based violence and safeguard sexual and reproductive health care.

As the world fights #COVID19, we are also fighting an epidemic of harmful falsehoods & lies. I'm announcing a new @UN Communications Response initiative to spread facts & science, countering the scourge of misinformation - a poison putting more lives at risk.

This war is unwinnable. Sooner or later, it will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table. That is inevitable. The only question is: How many more lives must be lost? How many more bombs must fall? How many Mariupols must be destroyed? How many Ukrainians and Russians will be killed before everyone realizes that this war has no winners — only losers? How many more people will have to die in Ukraine, and how many people around the world will have to face hunger for this to stop? Continuing the war in Ukraine is morally unacceptable, politically indefensible and militarily nonsensical. What I said from this podium almost one month ago should be even more evident today. By any measure — by even the shrewdest calculation — it is time to stop the fighting now and give peace a chance. It is time to end this absurd war.

As we mark the 75th anniversary of the @UN Charter, we must reimagine the way nations cooperate. We need an effective multilateralism with scale, ambition and teeth.

I want Palestinians in Gaza to know: You are not alone. People around the world are outraged by the horrors we are all witnessing in real-time. I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough. Who have had enough. And who still believe that human dignity and decency must define us as a global community.