While spotlighting United Nations efforts to promote peace, pursue development and confront emerging challenges over the past 80 years, the new President of the General Assembly nevertheless urged that the organ’s upcoming session seek to address the unmet expectations surrounding the Organization under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All”.
“A widening trust deficit is testing confidence in international institutions and collective action,” observed Khalilur Rahman (Bangladesh), President of the General Assembly at its eighty-first session, as he opened its first meeting. He underscored that Member States must not merely defend the UN — though “there are good reasons to do that” — but also must work to strengthen it. It is not enough, he added, to invoke the trust on which multilateralism rests; rather, it is necessary to “earn it every day”.
Putting Prevention, Political Solutions First
Pledging to “work tirelessly to revive trust in this institution”, he said that doing so requires both delivery and reform. “We must prove, through concrete results, that this institution effectively serves the 8 billion people in whose name we act,” he urged. He then outlined six priorities for the eighty-first session, the first being to strengthen peace and security. Noting the 200,000 Bangladeshis who have served in UN peacekeeping, he said that he will champion “a people-centred approach to peace that puts prevention and political solutions first”.
Other areas for action include accelerating sustainable development and climate action — “the gap between ambition and delivery is far too wide”, he stressed — as well as advancing and protecting human rights. “For me, this commitment is personal,” he said, recalling his Government’s work related to the over 1.2 million forcibly displaced Rohingya whom his country has sheltered. The experience of displaced people everywhere demonstrates that human rights must not only be measured by commitments made in New York — “but by the dignity and protection afforded to people in their daily lives and by our action to sustainably resolve these issues”, he said.
Digital Divides, United Nations Reform among Priorities
Rounding out the list, he also pointed to the need to bridge “persistent” digital divides and build systems to govern emerging technology that protect human rights and public trust. “And, underpinning all of these priorities, we must restore trust in multilateralism itself,” he said, pledging to continue supporting the UN80 Initiative, calling on every Member State to pay its assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions, and stating that he will work to ensure that the process of selecting the next Secretary-General remains fair, inclusive and transparent.
“Trust cannot simply be requested — it must be earned,” he reiterated, emphasizing that this will be achieved through “the decisions we take, the commitments we honour and, above all, the results we deliver for the people we serve”. He therefore invited those present to join in making the Assembly’s eighty-first session one that will be remembered for “having turned the tide” and carrying the UN into its ninth decade with renewed confidence, purpose and resolve.
He concluded: “Because when the world asks whether we still believe in this Organization — the one and only that we have — our answer must be, now and always: UN, yes! L’ONU, oui!”
International Law Flouted as Multilateral System Strains
Secretary-General António Guterres underscored: “Rebuilding trust in the multilateral system is the defining challenge of our time.” That system is “more important than ever”, he said, in a world facing conflict, division, potential nuclear escalation, persistent poverty and inequality, worsening climate change and emerging technology that holds both promise and peril.
Further, he spotlighted “sluggish” progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals amid near-record displacement and intensifying human suffering met with slashed aid funding. And, despite all these challenges, the institutions of the multilateral system are “straining to meet the moment”, he said, as international law is flouted with impunity and geopolitical mistrust continues to block effective solutions.
“But, as I join you in this opening of a General Assembly session for the last time as Secretary-General, I have enormous hope thanks to the work that happens here,” he emphasized. Stating that “our direction is clear” — in this, he pointed to the Pact for the Future and the UN80 Initiative — he urged those present to “meet the moment”. He concluded: “Let’s live up to the great promise of this Organization and, through solidarity, deliver the solutions our world needs.”
In other business, the Assembly took note of a letter from the Secretary-General informing the organ of Member States in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the United Nations (document A/81/360). It also appointed the Bahamas, Belgium, Benin, China, Jamaica, the Russian Federation, Vanuatu, Uganda and the United States to its Credentials Committee.