As we enter the new year, the world stands at a crossroads. Chaos and uncertainty surround us. Division. Violence. Climate breakdown. And systemic violations of international law. A retreat from the very principles that bind us together as a human family. 

People everywhere are asking: Are leaders even listening? Are they ready to act.

As we turn the page on a turbulent year, one fact speaks louder than words:

Global military spending has soared to 2.7 trillion dollars, growing by almost 10 percent.

That is 13 times more than all development aid, equivalent to the entire gross domestic product of Africa. All, while conflict rages at levels unseen since World War II.

On this new year, let’s resolve to get our priorities straight.

A safer world begins by investing more in fighting poverty and less in fighting wars. Peace must prevail.

It’s clear the world has the resources to lift lives, heal the planet, and secure a future of peace and justice.

In 2026, I call on leaders everywhere: Get serious. Choose people and planet over pain.

And I urge everyone who hears this message: Play your part.

Our future depends on our collective courage to act.

This new year, let’s rise together:

For justice. For humanity. For peace. 

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As epidemic and pandemic threats rise, and humanitarian crises multiply, there is no time to waste. To help communities and governments prevent and respond to future pandemics, countries worked with the World Health Organization to develop the Pandemic Agreement. The Agreement aims to ensure people everywhere have equitable access to vaccines, treatments, equipment, information and care in a pandemic. 

Across every village, city and health center, it’s time to boost investment in community-based systems for detection, surveillance, communication and containment.

When communities are protected, we are all protected. 

Let’s help all communities build a strong foundation for both prevention and recovery. 

Let’s stop epidemics in their tracks. 

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In 1960, the General Assembly spoke with clarity and courage: colonialism must end — fully and without delay. 

Forty-three Asian and African nations co-sponsored the Declaration (on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples) —including all 17 territories that gained independence and joined the United Nations that same year.  

It was a turning point — the largest expansion of membership in our history, a moment of unity that lit a path for millions. The Declaration became a compass for freedom.  

Guided by the Charter, the United Nations helped more than 60 territories — home to over 80 million people — pursue self-determination and emerge as independent states.  

Today’s membership of 193 Member States is, in large part, the legacy of that process. 

But let’s tell it like it is: that legacy is unfinished.  

Seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories remain.  And beyond that, the vestiges of colonialism persist — not only on maps, but in the architecture of global power.  

Institutions built in another era still reflect the inequalities of that era.   

The Security Council, the international financial system, and other pillars of global governance bear the imprint of a world that no longer exists — a world of empires, not of equals. This imbalance undermines trust. It stifles progress.   

It denies the very principles on which our Organization was founded:  equality, sovereignty and the right of all peoples to shape their own destiny.  

Eighty years ago, the United Nations was created to save succeeding generations from war, to uphold human rights, and to advance progress in larger freedom. 

Today, on this first International Day against Colonialism, let us renew that promise — not only by ending colonialism in its traditional forms, but by dismantling its remnants wherever they endure.  

Let us act with clarity and conviction to build a world where power is shared, not hoarded; where institutions serve all, not the few; and where freedom is not a privilege, but a universal right.   

(United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ New Year message delivered in New York on 29 December 2025, and excerpts of his message on the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness in New York on 27 December 2025, and remarks to the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the 65th Anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples as delivered by Elizabeth Spehar, assistant secretary-general for peacebuilding support, in New York on 18 December 2025.)