UN General Assembly
2025

There is another perspective, a current perspective, one that leads us to believe that the main objective of current wars seems to be the systematic practice of extermination. The end has never, never justified the means. We must banish that old precept that war is the continuation of politics by other means. All war is criminal, irrespective of where it occurs, irrespective of the God invoked to justify it, and it will always deserve our most visceral condemnation. It is true that every nation has the right to its own territory and government. It's true that they have the right to establish a level of self-determination that allows a nation to coexist with other peoples. And the value of the United Nations is precisely to ensure that these principles are realised in a peaceful and civilised manner. No state that claims to be democratic and to live under the rule of international law can, even under the legitimate right to defend itself against terrorism, exercise barbarity against any civilian population, least of all against especially vulnerable and defenceless persons.