António Guterres (UN Secretary-General) at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)'s 80th anniversary of its inaugural session

I now have the honor to invite the Secretary General of the United Nations to take the call, please.

Your Majesty, Mr. President and distinguished judges, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Moments of crisis are moments of choice. They reveal who we are and what we stand for. Today we come together in the quiet dignity of a city that is synonymous with justice and international law. But it is easy to forget the world of 80 years ago. Europe and far beyond lay in ruins. The Hague itself was scared and shaken. And yet in the dark and difficult moment, world leaders made a defining choice, a choice to reject a future ruled by coercion and violence, and to embrace a future rooted in the United Nations Charter and international law. A choice to build a court founded on one overriding conviction. The force of law must always prevail over the law of force. In doing so, they did more than create the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. They laid down a cornerstone of a more peaceful world. Excellencies. President Assembly General Paul, Lord delacience inaugural decovenzon. absolute absolute lies. Justice. manifest la confidence independence. the far lacourf sal and sing the pores. I modernization sto de trava a croisson fiacite is a resilience sa ensembledu person de la cour et the song reef reef je prime my profound gratitude. the guarantee sovereign obligation. Excellencies, we must be unequivocal. The court's decisions, including provisional measures, are binding on the parties to a case. Respect for those decisions is not optional. It is a charter obligation. Yet today violations of international law are unfolding before our eyes. Military operations trample the basic rules that govern conflict. Humanitarian obligations are ignored. The rules of international law that protect the United Nations itself are violated. The institutions created to provide justice, this one and others, are increasingly questioned and challenged. And this erosion is not happening at the margins of the international system. It is happening at its core, including by states entrusted with unique responsibilities for the maintenance of international peace and security. When the law of force replaces the force of law, instability becomes contagious. Conflicts spill across borders. Economic shocks reverberate around the world, and the most vulnerable always suffer first and suffer most. Excellencies, today we face our own moment of crisis and our own moment of choice, a choice between a future governed by the rule of law or a future driven by raw power. The choice is clear. It is precisely because the international system is under such strain that adherence to international law matters more than ever. Without that foundation, the risk of chaos will grow, as history has shown. International law gives states certainty of a common language and the predictability of a common framework to resolve differences peacefully. To weaken it is to erode the foundations of global stability. To strengthen it is to invest in a world governed by justice, not fear. Let us choose to strengthen it. Let us recommit to the peaceful settlement of disputes, to respect the judgments of the court, and follow through on the court's advisory opinions, and to uphold the purposes and principles of the charter that bind us together as a community of nations. In this moment of crisis, that is the only right choice. Let us have the courage to make it, and I thank you.

I thank the Secretary General for his words.