A CRISIS OF TRUST AT THE UNITED NATIONS

OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED NATIONS

To: His Excellency Dr. Khalilur Rahman

President of the Eighty-First Session of the United Nations General Assembly

His Excellency António Guterres

Secretary-General of the United Nations

Copied to: All Heads of State and Government

Subject: “We the Peoples” and the Urgent Renewal of the United Nations

22 September 2026

Your Excellencies,

A specter is haunting the world—the specter of a humanity more interconnected than at any other moment in history, yet increasingly unable to act together in the face of dangers that threaten us all.

Wars are multiplying. Nuclear weapons are being modernized. Artificial intelligence is advancing faster than the institutions required to govern it. The planet is warming. Seas are rising. Pandemics remain possible. Inequality is deepening. Sovereign debt is suffocating vulnerable societies. Trust is collapsing within nations, between nations, and between citizens and the institutions that claim to act in their name.

Meanwhile, 8.3 billion human beings watch, work, struggle, hope, fear, pray and ask a simple but consequential question: Is anybody governing the world we share?

The Charter of the United Nations does not begin with “We the Governments,” “We the Great Powers,” “We the Corporations,” “We the Markets,” or “We the Military Alliances.” It begins with the most democratic and morally consequential words in international public life:

“We the Peoples of the United Nations.”

Those words must be restored to the centre of the United Nations.

The peoples of the world are not abstractions. They are children in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Russia Sudan, Iran, Lebanon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who did not begin the wars destroying their futures. They are island communities watching the sea advance towards their homes. They are young Africans entering adulthood in economies that cannot provide sufficient opportunities. They are displaced families carrying what remains of their lives across borders. They are farmers confronting drought, workers displaced by technology, communities threatened by disease, and future generations who cannot yet speak in the councils where their inheritance is being consumed.

The United Nations General Assembly is meeting under the theme: “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.” It is a worthy agenda. It may also be one of the most urgent agendas placed before the international community in our time.

The formal programme reflects several dimensions of our shared predicament. The General Debate brings the leaders and representatives of the nations of the world into one chamber. The Assembly is commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Right to Development. It is addressing the existential dangers posed by sea-level rise. It is considering pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. It will commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action against racism.

Each subject concerns the dignity, security and flourishing of human beings. Together, they speak to the unfinished work of building a just international order.

But beneath the formal agenda lies another agenda—the real political agenda of our troubled world.

That agenda includes the widening conflict in the Middle East; the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine; United States, Israel and Iran; the destruction in Gaza and the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian question; the catastrophe in Sudan; conflict and displacement in the Democratic Republic of Congo and across parts of Africa; nuclear proliferation; the militarization of space; the fragility of global food and energy systems; climate change; uncontrolled technological competition; and the emerging struggle over who will govern artificial intelligence.

It includes the growing confrontation among the United States, China and Russia; the reorganization of the world into competing strategic, economic and technological blocs; the search by middle powers for autonomy; and the effort by smaller states to avoid becoming instruments or battlegrounds of great-power rivalry.

It also includes the future of the United Nations itself.

Can the United Nations remain the common political space of humanity when the most powerful governments increasingly prefer bilateral bargaining, military leverage, sanctions, temporary coalitions and spheres of influence? Can an institution created in 1945 remain legitimate when its most powerful organ continues to reflect the distribution of power at the end of the Second World War? Can the United Nations ask the peoples of Africa, Latin America, South Asia and other underrepresented regions to trust arrangements in which they have little influence over the most consequential decisions?

The common space is being depleted before our eyes.

It is depleted when powerful states invoke international law against their adversaries but dilute, reinterpret or obstruct it when allies are responsible.

It is depleted when the permanent five of the UN Security Council can use their veto to block decisive Security Council action concerning in wars and matters in which they have vested interests. It is depleted when civilians are told that international humanitarian law is universal, but experience its protection as conditional upon geography, alliance and strategic interest.

It is depleted when the suffering of some peoples dominates international attention while other catastrophes—such as Sudan—struggle to command sustained diplomatic action.

It is depleted when governments promise climate finance to vulnerable countries but fail to deliver it fully, predictably and on time. Small-island states contributed almost nothing to the forces causing sea-level rise, yet they may lose territory, heritage and sovereignty because of decisions made elsewhere.

It was depleted during the COVID-19 pandemic when wealthy countries secured vast supplies of vaccines while poorer societies waited. The world spoke of solidarity, but access was frequently determined by purchasing power, manufacturing capacity and geopolitical leverage.

It is depleted when Africa, a continent of 54 states and more than 1.5 billion people, has no permanent representation on the Security Council. It is depleted when decisions affecting the future of humanity are negotiated among a small number of governments and corporations possessing advanced technologies, capital, data and military power.

It is depleted when artificial intelligence systems capable of transforming employment, war, education, politics and human relationships are developed principally through competition among corporations and nations, while most of humanity remains outside the rooms where their direction is determined.

It is depleted when states endorse declarations in New York but return home to behave as though the commitments were ceremonial.

These contradictions are creating several crises of trust at once.

There is a crisis of trust among great powers, each fearing that restraint will advantage its competitors. There is a crisis between the Global North and Global South, rooted in colonial history, economic inequality, debt, climate injustice and the selective application of international law. There is a crisis between governments and citizens, who hear promises at international summits while experiencing insecurity, exclusion and declining opportunity in daily life.

There is also a crisis of trust between present and future generations. We acknowledge dangers whose full consequences will be inherited by our children, yet continue to prioritize immediate national, corporate and political advantage.

The tragedy is that humanity has never been more interconnected materially while becoming more fragmented politically and morally.

Yet the weakening of the United Nations does not make it irrelevant. It makes its renewal more urgent.

There is no other institution where nearly all sovereign states can meet under one roof. There is no other global chamber in which a small island state possesses the same formal vote as a superpower. There is no alternative universal institution through which humanity can establish common norms, organize humanitarian action, coordinate responses to pandemics, protect refugees, support peacekeeping, advance human rights and negotiate collective responses to planetary dangers.

The United Nations often fails. But a world without it would not be a world liberated from bureaucracy. It would more likely be a world governed increasingly by military strength, technological superiority, financial coercion and competing empires.

The choice is therefore not between the existing United Nations and an immediately available perfect institution. The choice is between renewing our shared political space and allowing it to be replaced by an international disorder in which power becomes the principal source of legitimacy.

Your stated agenda can be achieved. But it will require more than speeches, declarations and diplomatic ceremonies. It requires an eight-point covenant between peoples, nations and institutions.

First, restore trust through truth, consistency and equal principles.

Trust cannot be proclaimed into existence. It must be earned.

The United Nations and its member states must apply the Charter and international humanitarian law consistently—to allies and adversaries, large states and small ones. Allegations of grave violations must be investigated independently. Governments must explain their actions honestly. When mistakes are made, they must be acknowledged. When commitments are broken, responsibility must be identified.

Every use of the Security Council veto should require a public explanation before the General Assembly. No state should be permitted to obstruct collective action silently or without political accountability. Permanent members should commit themselves not to use the veto in situations involving genocide, crimes against humanity or other mass atrocities.

The world cannot rebuild trust while maintaining one standard for the powerful and another for the powerless.

Second, create the capacity to anticipate and manage transformation.

The United Nations must become better at seeing what is coming. It cannot continue to convene humanity only after catastrophe has arrived.

Permanent and scientifically independent capacities are needed to assess frontier artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, cyber conflict, pandemics, ecological tipping points, demographic change, migration, debt distress and systemic economic risk.

Such capacities must include scientists, philosophers, faith leaders, young people, indigenous communities and representatives from the Global South. The governance of intelligence cannot be left solely to those who possess the largest computers, corporations, armies or financial resources.

Artificial intelligence must expand rather than replace human intelligence and agency. It must democratize capability, strengthen relationships, advance truth and serve human dignity. Humanity must govern powerful intelligence before powerful intelligence becomes ungovernable.

Third, transform declarations into measurable delivery.

A United Nations that delivers must be judged by changes in human lives, not by the number of meetings held or documents adopted.

Every major commitment should identify what must be done, who is responsible, how it will be financed, when it must be completed and what consequences will follow if promises are broken. Progress should be reported publicly in language ordinary citizens can understand.

Delivery means that humanitarian assistance reaches civilians before famine begins. It means that mediators act before political conflict becomes war. It means that peacekeepers protect communities. It means that climate finance reaches those facing the greatest danger. It means that pandemic warnings lead to preparedness before hospitals collapse.

The measure of the United Nations must be the dignity it protects, the suffering it prevents and the hope it makes possible.

Fourth, reform the Security Council.

An institution cannot restore trust while avoiding the structure most responsible for its paralysis.

Africa must receive meaningful permanent representation. Latin America and other underrepresented regions must have a stronger voice. India and other major contributors to global life cannot indefinitely remain outside arrangements reflecting the realities of contemporary power.

If abolishing the veto is presently impossible, its use must at least be restrained. A veto should automatically trigger an emergency debate in the General Assembly. States using it should be required to account publicly for the human consequences. Options such as requiring more than one permanent member to block collective action should be seriously considered.

The purpose is not to pretend that power does not exist. It is to prevent power from becoming answerable only to itself.

Fifth, give smaller states and peoples meaningful agency.

A United Nations “for all” cannot consist of powerful states making decisions while smaller states are invited to deliver speeches.

Regional organizations, including the African Union, should receive stronger roles in conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding. Developing countries must be equipped with technical and intellectual capacity to negotiate agreements on artificial intelligence, taxation, climate, trade, biotechnology and global finance.

Formal sovereign equality is inadequate when states enter negotiations with profoundly unequal access to knowledge, technology and capital.

And governments themselves must not be treated as the only legitimate voices. Civil society, youth, women, displaced communities and indigenous peoples must have structured avenues through which they can influence decisions affecting their lives.

“We the Peoples” must become an operating principle, not merely the opening phrase of the Charter.

Sixth, provide predictable and accountable financing.

The United Nations cannot fulfil universal responsibilities through uncertain contributions, delayed payments, repeated emergency appeals, a bloated bureaucracy, and multiple agencies that do not demonstrate clear results.

Member states must honor their assessed contributions fully and on time. Humanitarian, peacebuilding, pandemic-preparedness and climate-adaptation funds require predictable multiyear financing. The international community should examine carefully governed levies associated with activities that generate cross-border consequences or global benefits.

Financing must be accompanied by rigorous auditing, transparency and institutional discipline. More resources without accountability will not restore trust. But expectations without adequate resources guarantee failure.

Seventh, choose courageous and independent leadership.

The selection of the next Secretary-General will be an immediate test of the promise to restore trust.

The process should not be controlled principally through private bargaining among the five permanent members of the Security Council. Candidates should appear in public hearings, present their visions, disclose relevant interests and answer questions from states and representatives of the peoples of the world.

Geography and gender matter in an institution that claims to represent humanity. But integrity, competence, independence, moral courage and the capacity to tell truth to power must be decisive.

The Secretary-General must not become the secretary of the great powers. The office must remain a custodian of the Charter and a voice for peoples whose suffering rarely determines the calculations of states.

Eighth, recover the moral purpose of the United Nations.

Structures matter. Financing matters. Representation matters. But no institution can be renewed without recovering the moral purpose for which it exists.

The United Nations was born after world war, genocide and the revelation of what human beings could do to one another when power escaped moral restraint. Its founders did not believe they had eliminated evil, rivalry or ambition. They recognized that the survival of humanity required a place where power could encounter law, dialogue and shared responsibility.

Sovereignty must therefore be understood not only as control over territory, but also as responsibility—to citizens, neighbors, humanity, future generations and the living Earth.

Peace cannot be reduced to the temporary absence of war. Development cannot be reduced to economic growth. Security cannot be purchased only through weapons. Technology cannot be treated as progress merely because it is powerful. Leadership cannot be measured simply by the capacity to command, dominate or survive politically.

Humanity needs leadership capable of pausing before acting, seeking truth beyond propaganda, healing wounds that otherwise reproduce conflict, and placing knowledge and power in the service of shared flourishing.

Your Excellencies, the greatest obstacle is not lack of knowledge. Most of these reforms have been discussed for decades. The obstacle is that those who benefit most from the present order possess the greatest power to prevent its transformation.

But history teaches that institutions which refuse timely reform eventually face disorderly change, and frequently their own demise.

The United Nations does not belong to its bureaucracy. It does not belong to the five permanent members of the Security Council. It does not belong to governments alone. It belongs, morally and historically, to the peoples in whose name the Charter was proclaimed.

We, the 8.3 billion people alive today, share one fragile planetary home. We possess different histories, faiths, cultures and political systems. We will not agree on everything. We do not need uniformity. But we require a common space in which disagreement does not become annihilation, power does not extinguish justice, and competition does not destroy the conditions of life itself.

“Restoring trust” requires truth and consistency.

“Managing transformation” requires foresight, inclusion and restraint.

“A United Nations that delivers for all” requires representation, resources, accountability and results visible in the lives of ordinary people.

The question before this General Assembly is therefore larger than what resolutions will be adopted or what words leaders will speak.

Will the nations of the world—especially the most powerful—accept sufficient restraint today so that humanity may have a shared tomorrow?

Will “We the Peoples” remain an unfulfilled promise written at the beginning of the Charter, or will it finally become the authentic organizing principle of a renewed United Nations?

History is listening.

The peoples of the world are waiting.

Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa

Citizen of Rwanda

Resident of the United States

Global Citizen