On 26 June 1945, fifty nations signed the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco. Eighty years later, to the day, the Organization counts 193 Member States and remains the only universal framework where all peoples speak to one another. Beyond commemoration, this anniversary calls for an examination of conscience.
With 56 active armed conflicts, the world has not seen so many since 1945, and distrust of international institutions is growing. The architecture born of the Second World War struggles to answer the crises of the twenty-first century: climate disruption, the debt of developing countries, digital divides, regional wars.
To this diagnosis, President Macky Sall responds with a constant message: the Charter remains the compass. Its principles retain their full force, whether the sovereign equality of States, the peaceful settlement of disputes or the dignity of the human person. The mechanisms, for their part, have aged, and it is the practices that must change.
The architecture of 1945 therefore calls for a renewal that preserves its foundations. This is the line President Macky Sall set out in March 2026 in his platform "Renewing multilateralism for a better world". The text proposes a method: a more representative Security Council, stronger preventive diplomacy, reformed development financing, an Organization closer to the peoples it serves. It is presented in his vision.
In 2026, Member States will choose the next Secretary-General of the United Nations, whose mandate begins on 1 January 2027. The generation making that choice bears a particular responsibility: to entrust the Organization to leadership able to reconcile it with its founding promise, "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war".
President Macky Sall approaches this milestone with gravity and confidence. A former Head of State and a former Chairperson of the African Union, he has also led mediation in several crises, where he learned the value of compromise and the price of peace. His record has prepared him for the task. Eighty years after San Francisco, he commits to remaining faithful to the spirit of the Charter while giving the United Nations the means of its century.