--- title: President Obama's Final United Nations Speech: Transcript description: President Barack Obama on Tuesday delivered his final address to the United Nations General Assembly. Read his full remarks canonical: https://time.com/4501910/president-obama-united-nations-speech-transcript/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-20T20:31:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:43:23.771Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Barack Obama's Final Speech to the United Nations og:description: "Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself." og:url: https://time.com/4501910/president-obama-united-nations-speech-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0ab912f360afafb/6988a6e5bc6cfc3a3d3dea6e/barack-obama-united-nations.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3233 og:image:height: 1819 og:image:alt: World Leaders Gather In New York For Annual United Nations General Assembly og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Barack Obama's Final Speech to the United Nations twitter:description: "Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0ab912f360afafb/6988a6e5bc6cfc3a3d3dea6e/barack-obama-united-nations.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Barack Obama's Final Speech to the United Nations as President > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 20, 2016 8:31 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters on Sept. 20, 2016 in New York City. U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters on Sept. 20, 2016 in New York City. Drew Angerer/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 20, 2016 8:31 PM UTC President Barack Obama on Tuesday [delivered his final address](http://time.com/4501214/barack-obama-donald-trump-united-nations/) to the United Nations General Assembly , calling on leaders to work together and criticizing those who seek a “simple rejection of global integration.” “I do not believe progress is possible if our desire to preserve our identities gives way to an impulse to dehumanize or dominate another group. If our religion leads us to persecute those of another faith, if we jail or beat people who are gay, if our traditions lead us to prevent girls from going to school, if we discriminate on the basis of race or tribe or ethnicity, then the fragile bonds of civilization will fray,” Obama said. “The world is too small, we are too packed together, for us to be able to resort to those old ways of thinking.” Here are his full remarks from the United Nations headquarters: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4501910/president-obama-united-nations-speech-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4501910/president-obama-united-nations-speech-transcript/"},"headline":"Read Barack Obama's Final Speech to the United Nations as President","datePublished":"2016-09-20T20:31:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:43:23.771Z","description":"\"Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself\"","url":"https://time.com/4501910/president-obama-united-nations-speech-transcript/","keywords":["Barack Obama","United Nations","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0ab912f360afafb/6988a6e5bc6cfc3a3d3dea6e/barack-obama-united-nations.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd0ab912f360afafb/6988a6e5bc6cfc3a3d3dea6e/barack-obama-united-nations.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"World Leaders Gather In New York For Annual United Nations General Assembly","caption":"World Leaders Gather In New York For Annual United Nations General Assembly","creditText":"Drew Angerer/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4501910/president-obama-united-nations-speech-transcript/","name":"Read Barack Obama's Final Speech to the United Nations as President"}}]}] ```