UN chief calls for stronger action to prevent mass atrocities amid rising global conflicts
United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that rising global conflicts, impunity and emerging technologies are increasing the risk of mass atrocities, urging the international community to act “before warning signs become mass graves.”
“We see widespread violations of international law and a growing sense of impunity,” Guterres said in remarks to the UN General Assembly on the Responsibility to Protect, delivered by his chef de cabinet, Earle Courtenay Rattray.
“The Responsibility to Protect commitment is more vital than ever,” he said.
In 2025, the world faced more than 120 conflicts that have become “more protracted, more complex, and more interconnected,” said Guterres.
The UN chief warned that technology is heightening the danger, with sophisticated and increasingly autonomous new weaponry, including drones, able to inflict massive harm on populations, and online hate speech, misinformation and disinformation are spread and amplified in an instant, reports Xinhua news agency.
“Too often, early warning signs are ignored. And responses are often too little, too late,” he said.
Noting that 21 years ago, world leaders made a milestone commitment to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, Guterres said each state has a primary responsibility to protect its own people. And when national authorities fail to do so, UN member states have committed to taking collective, timely and decisive action in line with the UN Charter, he said.
“While prevention begins at home, it can be supported collectively,” he said.
The UN secretary-general noted that the report being discussed, the 18th since the Responsibility to Protect commitment was made, takes stock of two decades of progress, and makes specific calls to strengthen the Responsibility to Protect norm for this new era of instability and geopolitical risk.
Stressing that the Responsibility to Protect goes to the heart of the mission at the United Nations, Guterres encouraged UN member states to join and implement relevant international legal instruments, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
“Let’s ensure that atrocity prevention and protecting populations becomes a permanent and universal practice everywhere,” he said.