The world needs truth, U.N. chief says at Cambridge

LONDON (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres received a degree from the University of Cambridge on Wednesday, warning that the world risked falling into a spiral of crises unless it put critical thinking and truth back to the centre of global discourse.

Cambridge conferred a honorary degree of Doctor of Law on Guterres, recognising his work and the work of the United Nations, founded in 1945 as a way bring peace after the horrors of World War Two. “We face a crisis in the values on which the United Nations was founded 76 years ago: trust, solidarity, truth,” Guterres told Cambridge academics and students.

Guterres, 72, said inequality was breathtaking: billionaires competing in outer space while millions struggled to survive on earth, with poverty rising and human rights under fire. “Trust between people and institutions is fraying. Conspiracy theories and disinformation are fueling social divisions and polarization,” he said. “We must make lying wrong again.”

Humanity, he said, needed truth, critical thinking, facts and institutions such as Cambridge which he said were dedicated to learning, rather than profit, and to pushing the boundaries of human understanding.