By Tiamiyu Prudence Arobani
New York, Feb. 18, 2026
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed sadness over the death of Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Jackson, a giant of the civil rights movement in the United States and a longtime champion of human rights, equality and justice around the world, passed away on Tuesday aged 84.
“Reverend Jackson lent his powerful voice to the UN’s work against racism, against apartheid and for human rights”, said Stéphane Dujarric, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, in New York.
The Secretary-General extended his deepest condolences to his family, his loved ones, his friends, as well as the Government and the people of the U.S.
In a visit to the United Nations in March 2018, Jackson spoke at an event marking the contributions of people of African Descent worldwide and said racial idolatry “manifests itself in so many ways, even in our politics”.
Speaking to UN News, the civil rights leader had said that there “must be a massive global coalition of conscience” to eliminate racial discrimination.
“We’ve globalized capital, we’ve globalized technology”.
“We must now globalize human rights: workers’ rights; women’s rights; children’s rights; and environmental security,” he said.
“We must globalize all the values that make life ‘life,’ for everybody.”
