YouSaid · the spoken record

Urrutia

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS URRUTIA

lines on the record: 31
first: 1953-09-24
most recent: 1954-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“All the organs of the United Nations, all its bodies for international co-operation, all the measures for security will fade into the background and become subsidiary and secondary until such time as the authority which the foreign ministry should hold in every country has been re-established. Such authority is essential in order to re-establish the confidence of the nations in the authority of the United Nations; armed with that trust, we can regain the confidence of all the peoples of the world in our Organization.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“They have been unable to use the United Nations because they have not succeeded in granting their foreign ministries sufficient authority. 133. Having heard General Romulo’s excellent speech I ask: what would we gain by a reform of the Charter if in future years foreign ministries still did not understand how to make use of it? Why seek representation for Asia on the Security Council, as General Romulo suggested, when he himself said that the Security Council is now useless? It is my belief, that the problem does not lie within the United Nations but in our own Governments and our own foreign ministries. 134.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“The Latin American States have felt that bodies of this kind would greatly assist their Governments in carrying out projects of supreme importance for the increased well-being of their peoples. Yet at every session a definite decision on this matter has been postponed and consequently, as Mr. Maza, the Chilean representative, so brilliantly pointed out last Thursday [475th meeting], the Latin American countries have now decided to study the matter on a regional level, that is to say outside of the United Nations. 132. These observations lead me to conclude that our present frustration is due to the fact that Governments have lost confidence in the United Nations, because they have not had the ability or skill to use the Organization for the purposes for which it was founded.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“Failure to understand the necessity for greater economic co-operation has resulted in an anomalous situation in which governments, chancelleries and state departments have reached an understanding among themselves, but at the price of being obliged to run counter to public opinion in their own countries, while that public opinion, surrounded by evidence of dire poverty, cannot understand why international diplomacy is powerless to forge an instrument for the solution of its economic problems. 131. To quote one example, the question of a special fund for economic development and an international finance corporation has been included in our agenda for the last three or four years.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“We can therefore state that the firmness with which our Governments pursue their policy towards this international Organization, in accordance with their position in the far-reaching ideological dispute of the present time, has not always kept pace with the collective feeling of our peoples who believe, and perhaps with reason, that it is of fundamental importance to make an all-out attack on the complex problem of their economic development. 130.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“The consequence of all this has been timidity and indecision on the part of delegations to the United Nations regarding the solution of the great economic and social problems which confront the so-called underdeveloped countries. The study of economic development as a means of endowing peoples with worthy living conditions, better adapted to the preservation of ethnic and national interest, has been carried over from one General Assembly to another without our having taken any important decision on a matter of such supreme significance for the destiny of our countries.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“In economic matters, for example, ministries have realized the futility of envisaging any political cooperation not supported by full economic co-operation. Yet, unfortunately, it has been impossible to ensure that the technical ministries, those, for example, concerned with finance, the exchequer or commerce, particularly among the great Powers, would uphold the suggestions or recommendations of those foreign ministries or state departments which have realized that the desire of nations for justice and economic and social security must be achieved as well as their aspiration towards international peace and security. 129.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“Hence, such ministries often instruct their delegations to avoid as far as possible any decision in the international body which they might later have to defend in their national parliaments. While the foreign ministries show paralysing inaction and indecision in the political sphere, the technical experts, without any regard for the views of their ministries, become the only channel through which the foreign relations of nations are conducted: the technical experts meet at international assemblies and endeavour to pledge the policies and resources of States; they speak for their countries and accept obligations for which in most cases the ministries are unable to obtain ratification by national parliaments. Sometimes the reverse is the case.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“Public health, for example, must be administered with reference not merely to the individual but also to neighbouring States. The United Nations has been unable to deal, as it would have wished, with those and many other problems, not owing to any deficiencies in its Charter but because delegations receive instructions from foreign ministries which lag behind progress and whose own organization has not developed to the same extent as that of international organization. The narrow official channel constituted by the sections formed in many chancelleries or state departments to handle matters connected with international organizations, and through which passes the stream of reports and documents of all kinds, cannot deal with any matter thoroughly and is consequently unable to direct a policy in harmony with the march of progress.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“country if they are to steer their way through the problems for which they bear responsibility. 128. An international body is not the product of a capricious desire on the part of nations to establish communication with one another, but the logical consequence of a more compact and homogeneous world, in the sense that there are very few matters which are still strictly and absolutely of national concern. No country could enact legislation today without taking into account the standards which govern the other nations of the world. Isolation is regarded now only as a sanction to be applied against countries which try to ignore the rules of international co-operation. Present-day civilization cannot tolerate any such obstacle in its path as might be caused by a nation claiming the exclusive use of its air, land and sea territory.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“We cannot ask the United Nations, to intervene in problems unless it has previously been given sufficient authority to deal with them. Recourse to the United Nations in such cases is one of the main factors impeding the progressive development of that body towards the ideal international organization to which we all aspire. 127. Another hindrance arises not in the Organization itself but in the Foreign Ministries of Member States. In the present century foreign relations are extended to fields which were not previously held to be within the competence of foreign ministries or state departments. Whether we call them state departments, chancelleries or ministries of foreign affairs, however, it is none the less true that they have not been given the powers which they should have within the framework of the administration of each.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“Year by year the bases for an improved international organization are becoming clearer and firmer, although we often come up against the embarrassing fact that some nations, probably because of a laudable striving towards human solidarity, require of our Organization a course of conduct of which it will only be capable when all its constituent parts are firmly co-ordinated. 126. For example, the United Nations has been entrusted with the task of drawing up conventions on such problems as respect for human rights or the right of peoples to self-determination; but until those conventions have been signed the international Organization cannot be asked to intervene in the same way as it would if they had already been ratified. We must not confuse ideals with positive legislation.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“An international organization is but the culmination of the general process of integration of social groups throughout history. If we had a clear understanding of our task, we could hasten the achievement of the fundamental unity of mankind. We could not expect that in ten years nations would organize themselves into a perfect international society, but we all feel that we might perhaps have better directed our efforts. 125. It would be entirely unjust, however, to say that in the process of integrating international organization the United Nations has not helped towards the rapprochement of the various countries.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“An organization of this kind easily tends to become a new state-like entity, a super-government with powers greater than those conferred by its constitution, and it must not be forgotten that such an arbitrary assumption of power has repercussions which could culminate in the extinction of the international body, with all the consequences attendant on such a failure, nor must we forget that because of this inordinate assumption of powers we have to witness a struggle for control of the organization which, with its extended powers, might be an effective instrument of intervention or of peaceful penetration. 123. Let us examine more closely how individual States, by their conduct, may wittingly or unwittingly help to undermine the authority of the United Nations. 124.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“Thus, we cannot lay the success or failure of our Organization at any particular door. We must realize that we are all to a greater or lesser extent responsible for what happens to the United Nations. The Organization reflects our conduct as States. 122.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“It is an over-simplification to ascribe the paralysis of the Security Council entirely to the matter of the veto or to delude ourselves that the political inertia of the United Nations is due only to that paralysis. I believe we must now recognize that that is not the only cause of our failures. 121. We may say of the United Nations, what Dr. Alberto Lleras said a few months ago in Caracas when he resigned his office as Secretary of the Organization of American States. The Organization is what its Members wish it to be. They can help to strengthen it or they can undermine its prestige in many ways, either by bringing before it questions which by its very nature it is not fitted to- consider and which it is consequently unable to solve, or by not bringing before it problems which can and should be solved in accordance with its Charter.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“I personally share the Secretary-General’s anxiety and concern over the fact that in recent months many countries have preferred to seek solutions of their problems outside of the United Nations and I think that we must investigate and remove the causes which have led them to adopt procedures different from those originally provided by the Charter. 119. I also agree with my old and valued friend, General Romulo, on the points which he has just raised. I think it would be absurd for us to close our eyes to the facts or to harbour illusions. The problem is there and if we are to solve it we must face it openly and seek its causes, so that we may remove them. 120.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“This apparent calm, however, rather reminds us of a temporary lull before a storm, since it is, unfortunately, true that never has there been such a cleavage of opinion or such a clear-cut assumption of positions in the ideological conflict which divides the peoples of the world. 117. Every day we are drawing nearer to that culminating period of crisis, to that parting of the ways when the inescapable choice must be made between the way of peace and the way of adventure. It is the duty of the United Nations, by discussions like this, to take stock and to reflect whether it has been able to fulfill the primary duty with which it was charged at San Francisco, the duty to maintain peace. 118.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“I wish first of all to associate myself with the other representatives who have congratulated you, Mr. President, on your election to the presidency of this General Assembly and to express to you my sincerest wishes for the success of your work. I should also like to take this opportunity of telling Mrs. Pandit how much we appreciate and admire the tact and efficiency with which she conducted the discussions of the last session of the Assembly. 116. For the first time in the nine years of the existence of the United Nations, the General Assembly is meeting without having to consider problems of armed hostilities in any part of the world.”
1954-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 9 (1954)
“Colombia has already demonstrated its willingness to serve by its action in the Korean war. The same attitude guides us now during this phase which is still one of conciliation and agreement; but should war again be unleashed upon the world, Colombia will again, with the same resolute will which led it to choose its battle station in Korea, range itself on the side of the nations of the world which yesterday fought for justice and freedom and which will fight for those ideals again tomorrow.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“We could likewise consider the revision of the Charter, with a view to making flexible, more adaptable, less oligarchical in respect to the veto and more democratic by providing a greater role for the Assembly, without, however, going so far as to introduce the preponderant vote, which would be a perversion of the spirit of the United Nations. And we should of course declare universal respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms. But this work, like so many other projects, depends upon the restoration of international confidence. 111. The Latin-American nations are young, and it is their bounden duty to be optimistic. They are not prepared to stand as dumb spectators, before calamity. They have placed all their enthusiasm and all their hopes in the United Nations, and they are awaiting the advent of peace. 112.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“Eminent jurists and high authorities on international law occupy a place of honour in this Assembly. What a vast work is theirs, what a wide range of subjects and arguments lies before them if they can work free from the stress and strain of international tension. Laws are sanctioned by unanimous acceptance, but, before they can be thus sanctioned, the common will must be strengthened. 110. Once confidence has been restored among the great Powers, we could, for example, take up the question of disarmament and set up some kind of progressive jurisdiction which would start by prohibiting the use of certain weapons, and in particular atomic weapons, on open cities, and could gradually be extended to all weapons of war.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“We had nothing to defend in the war, nor shall we sign the peace, as a belligerent nation. Just as yesterday on the battlefield we carried out the mandate of the United Nations, so we shall continue to do tomorrow, in the peace talks, with no interest of our own save to comply with our international obligations and to respect the provisions of the Charter in their entirety. 108. May I be allowed at this point to recall, on behalf of the Colombian armed forces, as a tribute to our dead in Korea, the words of admiration with which the United Nations Command recorded the heroic behaviour of the Colombian battalion, its legendary courage, its indomitable fortitude and the proud simplicity of its military life. Ours is a peace-loving nation, but a nation which knows how to employ force in order to honour its international undertakings. 109.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“Why should we devote careful consideration to the items on the agenda of this eighth, session of the General Assembly, which may be a turning-point in the history of the United Nations, if what we say and agree upon here is built upon unreality, distrust and suspicion? 106. We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of political manoeuvring, to use the apt words of Mr. Lodge, nor can we surround the Korean peace conference with the same atmosphere of distrust which envelopes this Assembly’s debates. We should concentrate less on the composition of the conference than on the desire for peace of those attending the conference. 107. Colombia will take part in the political conference in accordance with the same legal considerations and in the same spirit which promoted it to send its troops to Korea.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“Barely three days ago, the Soviet Union representative hurled an indignant challenge at the democratic countries which refused to include the question of the composition of the political conference on the agenda. We were certainly not surprised to hear Mr. Vyshinsky’s threat, and later we admired the moderation, the intelligence and the calm open-mindedness apparent in Mr. Lodge’s reply, when he declared that the United States was ready to meet the other side half-way in achieving a compromise. 105. After the last eight years of conflict, it is time we paused for reflection.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“Our primary and most urgent task is to restore confidence among nations and governments, and even more so among the governments of the great Powers, which, with their material strength and moral influence, should establish new, hopes for peace in the world. To restore confidence and to establish an atmosphere of trust are common-sense phrases, elementary concepts, simple principles which are today buried beneath a veritable avalanche of words. 104. Although we have reached the most acute stage of the crisis, and while no fine oratory, no matter how polished or biting, can conceal the fact that a struggle for world domination is taking place, the very fact that the problem has become so acute leads us to hope for an unexpected solution.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“The reply to this great question, which hangs threateningly over us and increases indescribably the burden of our responsibility, is now on all lips, for it is the elementary, simple, common-sense answer: we are passing through this period of strife because governments have forfeited our confidence, because the great Powers of the world are suspicious of each other, because words serve only to mask intentions and because international life, the daily communion between nations, is carried on without confidence, in an atmosphere of mutual distrust and prejudice. 103. All the machinery of the United Nations, all its agencies for international co-operation and all its security measures will recede from the foreground and will be relegated to a subordinate, secondary place until confidence is restored among the nations.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“But the world expected deeds to follow words, and the deeds have not yet appeared. The Korean armistice, the end of that terrible episode of bloodshed, strengthened the belief that we were approaching a solution of the tragic problems facing the peoples. It seemed that 1953 would become, if not the year in which peace was achieved, at least the year in which the first steps were taken towards peace. Why then do we find ourselves today confronted with this dire alternative, hearing the old, bitter words of recrimination and contemplating the frightful possibility that the course of oppression will become irrevocably fixed and that the lines of battle will again be drawn in Korea? 102.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“Vyshinsky, the USSR representative, advised us to do a few days ago [440th meeting], with such fine oratory but so little connexion with the facts. Look before you leap; but is there any government that would rashly destroy the spontaneous, human friendship of the peoples and subject the world once again to the clenched fist of hate? 101. The year 1953 has witnessed, in rapid chronological succession, a series of events of deep historical significance which seemed to open up a new prospect to the world and to herald a relaxing of international tension. The Soviet peace offensive — which an American statesman has termed the peace defensive — succeeded in creating a new atmosphere, favourable, as never before, to the study and adjustment of the world situation.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“Year after year, in the face of the anguished hopes of mankind, the international temperature has risen to fever pitch, providing a frightful warning of impending danger. And it is now, in these closing months of a year that has brought with it so many vain hopes for peace, that tension between the great Powers has become intensified to the point of obliterating from the horizon any prospect of universal peace. We seem to be reaching the climax of the crisis, a crossroads where nations must stop and choose either the road to peace or the highway of adventure. This is the end of a journey which has lasted approximately eight years; this is an appropriate time to reflect, to think, to look many times before we leap, as Mr.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)
“98. The United Nations Charter establishes the general debate in the Assembly as a means whereby governments can keep in touch with world opinion. Like all the machinery of the United Nations, however, the general debate, which is so truly democratic in character, was provided to help nations to achieve mutual understanding, using the language of peace, and not as an occasion for the utterance of angry, warlike words. 99. Nevertheless, since the close of the splendid San Francisco period, when nations, still stirred by the emotions of war and flushed with the victory over the dark forces of hate, met together and concluded a pact of peace and good will, our debates have proved to be occasions for suspicion and mistrust and for reckless moves towards fresh disasters rather than instruments of conciliation and agreement. 100.”
1953-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 8 (1953)