UN chief warns world leaders of ‘an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering’

With global peace and progress under siege, the United Nations chief challenged world leaders Tuesday to choose a future where the rule of law triumphs over raw power and where nations come together rather than scramble for self-interests.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.N.’s founders faced the same questions 80 years ago, but he told today’s world leaders at the opening of their annual gathering at the General Assembly that the choice of peace or war, law or lawlessness, cooperation or conflict, is “more urgent, more intertwined, more unforgiving.”

“We have entered in an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering,” he said in his annual “state of the World” speech. “The pillars of peace and progress are buckling under the weight of impunity, inequality and indifference.”

But despite all the internal and external challenges facing the U.N., he and General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock pleaded with its members not to give up. “If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.

Guterres said the leaders’ first obligation is to choose peace, and without naming any countries, he urged all parties -- including those in the Assembly chamber – to stop supporting Sudan’s warring parties.