Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed home the original UN Charter, 80 years after it was adopted.

Speaking at a ceremony Monday (23 Jun), the Secretary-General said that the Charter is “more than parchment and ink; it is a promise — of peace, dignity and cooperation among nations.”

Guterres also said, “as we open this exhibition that celebrates our earliest days, we are reminded that the Charter was only the beginning. The ideals it enshrined had to be put into action — by people, by process, and sometimes, by something as simple as a wooden box.”

“Eighty years is a blink of an eye in history. And yet, until the United Nations, humanity never had a single place where every government and all peoples could unite to fix the world and build something better,” the Secretary-General said.

He continued, “The UN is a living miracle — and the women and men of the United Nations bring this miracle to life every day and everywhere: Forging peace. Tackling poverty, hunger, and disease. Advancing human rights. Delivering lifesaving aid. And striving to make our organization stronger.”

As our world faces age-old challenges, and newer threats like the climate crisis and runaway technology, we have the tools and the norms