The Secretary-General told the United Nations General Assembly on Friday that the world is "brimming with conflict, impunity, inequality, and unpredictability" and urged Member States to recommit to the UN Charter and to urgent institutional reforms.

"Today, I do so for the final time, and let me assure you that I will make every day of 2026 count," the Secretary-General said at the start of his address, and later framed the international situation bluntly: "The context is chaos." He urged that "no ifs, no ands, no buts" be applied to adherence to the Charter and said reform must reflect a changing world.

The speech combined calls for immediate humanitarian action with longer-term institutional changes. The Secretary-General welcomed the "start of phase 2 of the ceasefire announced by the U.S." in Gaza and said humanitarian aid must flow unimpeded while insisting any durable solution must clear the way to an irreversible two-state outcome in line with international law.

He also announced several concrete initiatives the UN will pursue this year, including launching "the independent scientific panel on artificial intelligence to provide impartial evidence-based assessment of AI opportunities, risks, and impacts," putting forward recommendations from a high-level expert group on measures that go "beyond GDP," and beginning assessments of possible mergers of UNDP with UNOPS and of UN Women with UNFPA to improve efficiency.

On financing, the Secretary-General warned that "the world is falling short by over 4,000,000,000,000 US dollars a year" for developing countries to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and urged scaling up finance, addressing the debt crisis and reforming the international financial architecture. He warned that budgets matter only if "every member state pays its contributions in full and on time," and suggested member states consider overhauling financial rules to prevent a budget breakdown.

The address also highlighted rapid technological and economic shifts. "The top 1% holds 43% of global financial assets," he said, and noted the richest 500 individuals added about $2.2 trillion to their fortunes in the past year, arguing that concentrated wealth can distort public debate and institutions. He warned that artificial intelligence and its algorithms are "too consequential to be controlled only by a few companies" and called for guardrails, accountability and shared standards.

He framed three guiding principles for UN action: strict adherence to the UN Charter; relentless pursuit of peace and justice grounded in international law and human rights; and building unity in an age of division through inclusion, education and social protection. He noted recent institutional progress — including gender parity at senior UN levels — and pledged to expand engagement with young people, persons with disabilities and indigenous peoples.

He concluded with a call to sustain faith in the institution: "United Nations is a living promise ... Let's keep that promise. Let's never give up." The Secretary-General said several of the initiatives he announced will launch in the coming weeks and months, and he urged Member States to provide the political and financial support needed to implement them.

The address did not lay out binding new mandates; instead it mixed policy prescriptions, programmatic steps and appeals for member-state cooperation and funding.