MEE, 21 September 2025
The UN General
Assembly convening next week will reveal whether it can meaningfully
confront Israel's assault on Gaza or slide into irrelevance and moral
failure
Protesters
gather outside United Nations headquarters in New York to demand action
on Gaza, 26 August 2025 (Mark J Sullivan/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters)
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.
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As the
body representing the broadest expression of humanity's collective
will, the assembly must step out of the council's shadow and act
decisively to preserve the dignity, credibility and authority of the UN.
You gather for this year's General Assembly not only as
representatives of your nations but as guardians of humanity's
collective conscience. Today, the world stands at a dangerous
crossroads.
The founding principles of the United Nations - human dignity,
sovereign equality and collective security - are under unprecedented
assault.
The UN's founding Charter begins with a solemn declaration:
"We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding
generations from the scourge of war, to reaffirm faith in fundamental
human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, and in the
equal rights of nations large and small."
Today, that pledge is being broken.
Moral collapse
The catastrophe in Gaza is a moral collapse, unfolding in full view
of the world. At the same time, a troubling shift in global attitudes is
normalising the language and logic of war.
The recent decision to rename the US
Department of Defense as the Department of War is not a simple
administrative change, but strips away the pretence of defence to
glorify aggression.
A troubling shift in global attitudes is normalising the language and logic of war
History shows where this path leads. Before the Second World War, many major powers openly glorified war: Germany's Reichskriegsministerium, Italy's Ministero della Guerra, Japan's Rikugun-sho and France's Ministere de la Guerre.
After 1945, the international community deliberately rejected this
mentality, instilling a stated commitment to defence rather than war
into the foundations of the postwar order. To reverse that consensus now
risks dismantling a fragile framework and replacing it with a
law-of-the-jungle world.
That same militaristic turn is emboldening and legitimising Israel's relentless assaults - from Gaza and the West Bank to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran and now Qatar.
Almost all these actions have taken place with direct or indirect US
approval, carrying the grave risk of a wider regional conflagration that
could destabilise the entire international system.
This is not just another crisis. It is a test of the principles on
which the United Nations was founded - for world leaders, for the
institution itself and for humanity as a whole.
A failing system
The UN was conceived as a neutral and independent platform, free from
manipulation by individual powers or alliances. Its legitimacy rests on
three principles: the sovereign equality of nations, the universality
of human dignity and the collective responsibility to maintain peace and
security.
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Yet, today these principles are under direct threat. The US, as host country, has denied visas to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation, obstructing their
participation in the General Assembly. This constitutes a violation of
the UN Headquarters Agreement of 1947, which guarantees unimpeded access
for all member states.
Meanwhile, repeated Security Council vetoes have left the UN
paralysed, enabling the selective enforcement of international law and
deepening perceptions of institutional bias.
History warns us of the consequences when international institutions
fail their founding missions. The League of Nations collapsed because it
did not act decisively when faced with aggression in Manchuria (1931),
Abyssinia (1935) and Czechoslovakia (1938). Condemnations without
consequences and appeasement without accountability invited catastrophe,
and within a decade, the world was plunged into another devastating
war.
The UN was created precisely to avoid that fate. It was built to
ensure collective security, guarantee equal participation and serve as
the guardian of universal values - not as an instrument of geopolitics.
If it fails to act decisively on Gaza, it risks sharing the League's fate of irrelevance and eventual demise.
Decisive action
Despite these failures, history also offers hope.
In 1988, when the US denied Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat a visa to address the General Assembly in New York, the UN acted with courage and principle.
It relocated the session to Geneva, where Arafat delivered his speech
on 13 December that year. That bold decision reaffirmed the UN's
institutional independence and its refusal to be held hostage by
host-country politics.
Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of Israel's genocide in Gaza
That same spirit of resolve is needed today.
If Palestinian
representatives are denied access once more, the assembly should
relocate its proceedings to Geneva or another neutral venue to guarantee
inclusivity and fairness.
At the same time, decisive steps must be taken to protect civilians in Gaza and restore credibility to the international system.
This requires convening an Emergency Special Session under the
Uniting for Peace framework to bypass Security Council paralysis;
establishing a UN-supervised humanitarian corridor to secure the flow of
food, medicine and clean water; ensuring protection for humanitarian
convoys, medical facilities and civilian initiatives at sea, including
flotillas such as the Sumud mission; and supporting independent
investigations into grave breaches of humanitarian law, so that
accountability through the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and other mechanisms is not delayed indefinitely.
As these efforts proceed, I note the election of Annalena Baerbock
as President of the 80th General Assembly. The challenges before her
are formidable, and with them comes a responsibility to demonstrate
principled leadership. I extend my best wishes for her success in
meeting this test at a moment when history demands nothing less.
History will judge us not by our declarations but by our actions - and by our silence.
The humanitarian tragedy in Gaza and the erosion of international
norms represent an existential challenge to our collective humanity. If
the UN fails to act decisively, it will exacerbate the suffering and
hasten the breakdown of the global order it was established to protect.
Esteemed leaders, I appeal to you with deep moral urgency: Gaza
cannot wait. Humanity cannot wait. History will not forgive delay.
With hope and determination,
Ahmet Davutoglu
Former Prime Minister of Turkey
