Guterres opens final year at UN by condemning law violations, ultra-wealthy influence

The address opens Guterres’s last year at the helm of the U.N. as the organization faces mounting financial pressure from unpaid dues and a succession of high-profile challenges to the post-World War II international legal order — including actions by both Russia and the United States that Guterres named from the General Assembly podium.

UNITED NATIONS — United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the 193-member General Assembly on Thursday that the world faces “brazen violations of international law” and a “morally indefensible” concentration of wealth in the hands of the richest 1%, delivering a sweeping indictment of global power at the outset of his final year heading the organization.

Guterres, whose second five-year term ends Dec. 31, said member nations are confronting “a world marked by self-defeating geopolitical divides, brazen violations of international law, and wholesale cuts in development and humanitarian aid.”

The address opens his last year at the U.N. helm as the organization faces mounting financial pressure from unpaid dues and a succession of high-profile challenges to the post-World War II international legal order — including actions by both Russia and the United States that Guterres named from the General Assembly podium.

Named violations

Guterres has repeatedly criticized Russia for violating the U.N. Charter, which requires every member state to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all other nations, by invading Ukraine in February 2022.

He also criticized the United States for its military operation in Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro and for deadly attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that Washington says are carrying drugs.

“When leaders run roughshod over international law — when they pick and choose which rules to follow — they are not only undermining global order, they are setting a perilous precedent,” Guterres said.

He said people around the world are watching the erosion of international law and the consequences of impunity, pointing to “the illegal use and threat of force; attacks on civilians, humanitarian workers and U.N. personnel; unconstitutional changes of government; the trampling of human rights; the silencing of dissent; the plundering of resources.”

Unpaid dues

Guterres also rebuked countries that have not paid their U.N. dues on time — a pointed reference to the Trump administration, which did not pay its mandatory contributions to U.N. budgets in 2025.

Wealth concentration

The secretary-general warned that the world’s richest 1% now hold 43% of global financial assets, a figure he called a direct threat to democratic governance.

“Increasingly, we see a world where the ultra-wealthiest and the companies they control are calling the shots like never before — wielding outsized influence over economies, information and even the rules that govern us all,” Guterres said.

Pledge to continue

Despite the catalog of challenges, Guterres said the U.N. and its partners would not abandon the push for multilateral cooperation.

“Some seek to put international cooperation on deathwatch,” he said. “I can assure you: We will not give up.”