Next week, the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly will convene in New York, bringing together world leaders and custodians of our shared humanity.
As a former colleague who once stood among you in those halls, corridors and forums in pursuit of peace and a stable world order, I address you today with an urgent and heartfelt appeal.
In Gaza, more than two million people are enduring a catastrophe that defies humanity: tens of thousands have been killed – most of them women and children – and hospitals, schools and shelters reduced to rubble. Meanwhile, food, medicine and water are being deliberately denied.
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry has now found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The situation there is not only a humanitarian catastrophe but a moral reckoning for the UN, and your actions now will decide its very legitimacy and survival.
This reckoning comes at a time when the UN Security Council itself is paralysed, trapped by the principle-free rivalry among the P5 countries (the five permanent members). That paralysis has made the mission of the General Assembly more crucial than ever.
Read more: A call to world leaders: the UN must act urgently on Gaza or risk collapse
