YouSaid · the spoken record

Benites

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS BENITES

lines on the record: 129
first: 1962-09-24
most recent: 1974-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
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

“An example of this has been the easy understanding between the industrial Powers without distinction of ideology regarding an immediate limitation of the territorial waters and the prudent attitude of the developing countries, which, in general, believe it is preferable to deal with this problem in connexion with all problems of the sea, including the prior establishment of an international regime and the machinery applicable to the exploration and exploitation of the seabed an ocean floor and the subsoil thereof beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. 98. Latin America has a long legal tradition in regard to maritime domain. The Foreign Minister of Colombia quoted [1846th meeting] one of the Principles of Mexico of 1956, namely, that an extension of the territorial sea is not a standard of international law.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“Those of us who have lived in the United Nations during the asphyxiating days of the "cold war" can today breathe the clearer air of coexistence. Nevertheless, coexistence and universality are correlative terms, and as long as the present situation persists regarding the People's Republic of China it can be affirmed that the divisions between the Eastern world and the Western world have shifted only in regard to geographical position, displacing further east the dividing line. 97. Peaceful coexistence through a closer understanding between the superPowers carries with it the danger that, since both are industrial powers, their common interests might affect the "third world". It is interesting that, as there is a growing EastWest understanding, the divisions between the industrialized north and the developing south become deeper.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“In what have been called Western democracies a short time ago the dangerous doctrine of the discipline of power came into being which was a restatement of the anachronistic Monroe doctrine, and it had been extended to Western Europe previously with what had been called the "British Monroeism", contained in a note to the United States of 19 May 1928 regarding the Briand-Kellogg pact. Brought up to modern times, it has found an echo outside the Western world. The political interventions in the Americas and Asia were followed by the reproachable ideological impositions by force on Eastern Europe. The danger of the doctrine of spheres of influence continues to be a threat to the principles of the Charter. 96. The principle of peaceful coexistence and friendship among peoples with various systems has received a positive increment.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“To the colonial war it wages there is only one acceptable solution, which is the granting of self-determination to the peoples of the Territories it administers. The permanent illegal action of South Africa in Namibia is an irritating mockery of the principles of the Charter, and the oppression of the illegal regime of Rhodesia over the Zimbabwe majorities is an opprobrium. We hope to see soon an active Members of this Organization Angola, Mozambique, Guinea (Bissau), Namibia and Zimbabwe. 95. The principle of self-determination of peoples, in the meaning of their ability to give themselves their own Government, and nonintervention in the internal affairs of States, has also suffered serious defeats and contradictions.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“Since nonMember States are the subjects of obligations, they have correlative rights, the first of which is their access to the Organization, the only requirement being to comply with the obligations. Universality will not be achieved so long as there remain outside the Organization, because of the interplay of political interests, some States able to comply with their international obligations and so long as some peoples that are awaiting their freedom to be able to constitute themselves as sovereign States remain under the opprobrious colonial regime. 94. The artificial concept of "overseas provinces" can no longer be maintained the means whereby Portugal avoids fulfillment of the duties imposed on it by Chapter XI of the Charter.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“But how much more beyond justification is the concept of taking hostages, applied to noncombatants, to women and children from countries outside the conflict. Accordingly, I have instructions energetically to condemn the hijacking of aircraft, which endangers innocent human lives, and the capture of hostages. My delegation will support any measures to prevent these attempts and to punish those responsible. 92. If in the preservation of international peace and security the shortcomings are visible, they are no less so when it comes to the application of the principle of universality, which is another of the cornerstones of our Organization. 93. The universality of the Organization starts from the very fact, which previously had not been achieved, that the Charter imposes obligations not only on Member States but also on nonMember States.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“He said: "Only when the talks get under way and the parties begin to deal with substance will it become clear whether they are prepared, in the interests of peace, to accept those compromises, and even to take what they believe to be those risks to their vital interests, which are the inescapable price for a peaceful settlement" [Ibid., para. 48]. 90. While the cruel battles waged among peoples of a geographical region which has contributed so much to human culture smite us with sorrow, it is also a source of sorrow that this battle has extended to non combatants who are taken as hostages. 91. In itself, the idea of hostages is a survival of barbarism, because a human being is not a negotiable instrument but an end in himself.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“President Velasco Ibarra, the Head of State of Ecuador, has frequently and enthusiastically expressed his admiration for the Judaic people as an eternal spiritual force and his firm support for Israel regarding its need to be granted the right to a secure and recognized existence. My country, which has a long tradition of respect for the principle of the peaceful settlement of disputes and international conflicts, considers it indispensable that a negotiated decision be reached within the letter and the spirit of the Charter. The SecretaryGeneral himself, U Thant, in his introduction to the annual report on the work of the Organization, spoke with realism about the need to start negotiations.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“The practical results were the division of an ancient country with its own culture into irreconcilable sectors. 87. Later it was VietNam, that martyred land where the generation which today is thirty years old has not known a single day of peace. It is necessary that this unjust and cruel war be brought to an end and the VietNamese people be free to determine its own destiny. 88. Finally, there is the Middle East, that cradle of cultures and religions, where peoples of the same ethnic quality, linked together by the interaction of religious and cultural traditions, are not able to find the means for the solution of their disputes, possibly because external pressures, the game of spheres of political influence and the hypocritical battle of the strategic interests of the great Powers keep the fires of discord alive. 89.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“This ultramodern version of what was once called "armed peace" means that the former balance of power is today a balance of terror as well, and that one cannot seriously speak about the preservation of peace and security until one seriously takes up the problems of general and complete disarmament. 85. As for the preservation of peace and security, it is an obvious fact that this has been achieved only in so far as the avoidance of universal conflict is concerned, while it has not been possible to prevent local wars or the new phenomenon of civil wars with international support. 86. First it was Korea, whose remote origin was the questionable Moscow Treaty of 1945, concluded shortly after the signature of the United Nations Charter, which does not admit of the establishment of Trust Territories by States.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“1 and Corr.1] the SecretaryGeneral states that the military expenditure of the industrial countries for both nuclear and conventional armaments represents more than 85 per cent of the total world military expenditure, which now exceeds 200,000 million dollars a year. 83. With regard to missiles, The New York Times of 23 November 1969, less than a year ago, indicated that the United States had 536 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 1,054 surface missiles and 655 submarine missiles, as compared to 150, 1,350 and 205 respectively for the Soviet Union. To this data we must add the fact that together with the single nuclear warhead of the Polaris type there are now multiple nuclear warheads, such as the Poseidon of the United States and the Soviet Union's SS9. 84.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“The Second World War witnessed the mass destruction of populations behind the battle front, so as to break the enemy nations' economic power and will to struggle. A third world war would affect all of mankind and could not be won by any Power because it would have the return character of a boomerang, given the fact that its lethal power is as uncontrollable as it is universal. Until a few years ago nuclear power was calculated to be 100,000 megatons. Today this must have increased considerably. In explosive force, this means more than 100,000 million tons of TNT; but in lethal power it means much more than that, because the radioactive fallout would produce destructive effects at. distances of thousands of kilometers away. 82. In the introduction to his annual report on the work of the Organization [A/8001/Add.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“It is a positive fact that during these 25 years mankind has been spared the scourge of a total war, but as you, Mr. President, so brilliantly stated in your opening statement: "But peace is not the mere absence of armed conflict" [1839th meeting, para 45]. It is obvious that the fictitious universal peace which we live in is, rather than an absence of conflict, the expression of a terrifying balance of the weapons of mass destruction, especially thermonuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. 81. The gradation of the number of dead is a tragic experience in the history of war. Until the last century, wars consisted of movements of armies with the purpose of occupying enemy territory. The First World War was a war of positions, of trenches, in which each kilometer which was won or lost meant a terrible harvest of death.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“It was natural that the Charter of the United Nations, which was born as an instrument for assuring peace and preserving future generations from the scourge of war, could not create a league of nations, but aspired to establish a community of peoples "We the peoples of the United Nations", in the words of the Charter and which had to be based on universality, coexistence, nonintervention in the internal affairs of other States, and the equality of all States, large and small. It was for this reason, too, that it had to serve as a means to coordinate international cooperation in the economic, social, cultural and humanitarian fields. 80. On arriving at the end of our first quarter of a century, we have to ask ourselves whether the Organization has discharged its essential duty of maintaining international peace and security.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“The first is that those in San Francisco who shaped the Charter had the immediate experience of the uselessness of the League of Nations as an instrument for the maintenance of international peace and security, since, despite the generous efforts of its leaders, it followed a system based on an association of interests and was born of a war which was above all a European war although it did extend to other continents a war of a Europe whose politics were based on the balance of power and the cold hardness of so-called political realism. 79. The United Nations differs from the League in that it was born of a universal conflict, of a total war, which affected those who fought as well as the civilian population in almost every continent. Obviously, it was a war of interests colonial interests, for example but it was also a war of ideologies.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“Personally, I can peak with the experience of one who has lived through and attended fourteen of the twenty-five sessions of the General Assembly, and with the impartiality of one who represents a small State which has not been directly involved in the disputes which shook the Organization in its first twenty- five years. 78. I shall start by pointing out certain basic facts.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“Schumann, in his statement in the general debate, when referring to the commemoration of the first quarter of a century of the United Nations, wondered whether it was not "our duty to proceed to a certain examination of our consciences without hiding any truth" [1842nd meeting, para. 85]. 76. I believe that in such a necessary self-examination both optimism and pessimism are negative attitudes that optimism which considers that the Charter and the Organization it represents are perfect, as well as that pessimism which considers that the world Organization is a vast and painful failure because it has been unable to find a just balance between ends and means. 77.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“May I request the delegation of the United Arab Republic to be so good as to accept the sincere condolences of my delegation, and my own, on the death of President Nasser? He was valiant in battle and an extraordinary statesman who undertook the difficult task of progressively modifying the social, economic and political structure of his nation, with the firmness of one who had the clear awareness that he was making history. 74. I would also request the delegation of Malaysia to receive my condolences on the occasion of the passing away of Ambassador Ramani, a brilliant jurist, from whose enlightenment we, who had the honor of knowing him and having a cordial friendship with him, so often benefited. 75. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of France, Mr.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“Now, on seeing President Hambro exercising his functions I have been able to see that the sum of his qualities as Professor, diplomat and man make him an outstanding leader who combines firmness with courtesy and a thorough knowledge of the rules of procedure, as well as an honest and energetic application of those rules, So it is that I extend to you, Mr. President, the greetings of my Government, but it is to the General Assembly that I address my congratulations for having elected you to preside over this important session. 72. Before making the statement on behalf of my Government, I should also like to pay an affectionate tribute to our former President Mrs. Angie Brooks Randolph. 73.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“71. It had been my hope that a loftier personality would be presenting the greetings and congratulations of my Government to the President. Due to unforeseen circumstances I must do so, but I can assure him that what you may have lost in quality is made up for by the warm and sincerity of my feelings. Before meeting Ambassador Hambro I had occasion to know the very eminent Professor Hambro, whose rich doctrinal works many times channeled my hesitations and shed light on my doubts. When I met Ambassador Hambro I could appreciate his human qualities which combine wisdom with kindness.”
1970-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 25 (1970)
“There have even been changes in religious attitudes. It may well be necessary in all these fields to give up something so as not to lose everything. 187. In this world in transition, conditioned by great advances in technology, perhaps the most urgent problem is whether the achievements of that technology and the forces it has unleashed are to be used for destruction or creation, for slavery or freedom, for one group of privileged nations or for the community of nations, for small national oligarchies or for the vast disinherited masses. 188. The United Nations, at the centre of this world in transition and in conflict, must remain an alert and vigilant reflection of the world community. History will say whether we have fulfilled our duty or whether we have turned the United Nations into a costly and useless glass Babel.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“These contradictions and conflicts, which the Organization cannot avoid, perhaps arise because we are living in a transition period between two historical eras and therefore in a world dominated by change. During a single generation there has been a violent transformation of ideas and of attitudes to life. Forms of economic production have been changing under the pressure of new techniques; and this has led to changes in the social structure which are not always based on justice. Social forms have changed with the emergence of vast urban agglomerations and large concentrations of population. There has been an intellectual change in the prevailing world outlook, from a perspective three-dimensional world based on the immutability of matter to a world without perspective based on transmutations of matter.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“My delegation is ready to help in specifying the legal rules which should govern co-existence, a field in which the International Law Commission is doing magnificent work; to promote economic co-operation for the improvement of social well-being; and, in general, faithfully to discharge its duties under the United Nations Charter. 185. My delegation is sure, Mr. President, that you will conduct the debates of this Assembly with all your discretion and wisdom. I wish to repeat the confidence which my delegation places in Secretary-General U Thant’s sincerity, dedication and evident awareness of his historic duties. I also wish to express my confidence that every Member of the United Nations will fulfil its duty in these difficult times, when the Organization is living at the centre of opposing forces and of drives towards conflict. 186.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Therefore, in testifying to the trust which my Government and my people place in the Organization, I declare that my delegation will be ready to condemn any aggression and to help to define aggression better within the United Nations, to promote methods for the peaceful solution of international disputes, to condemn any intervention in the internal affairs of States and any violation of their right to adopt whatever form of government they desire, and to condemn all forms of discrimination based on race, sex or religion. In that connexion, in a year devoted to the struggle against discrimination, I wish to express our repudiation of the violation of human rights based on racial prejudice which is occurring in Namibia and in Rhodesia.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“This region, which has been the cradle of religions and great cultures, has also been a centre of dangerous tensions which must be resolved justly through the methods and principles of the United Nations Charter. 184. To sum up what I have said, my delegation wishes to reaffirm its faith in the United Nations as the organization of the international community for the achievement of its basic purposes.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Moreover, the modest flow of official financial aid from the high-income to the low-income countries, and the establishment for 1970 of a possible treaty of unilateral preferences in favour of the poor countries, are praiseworthy but insufficient in a world where most countries suffer from such serious economic deterioration. 183. In the political field of the peaceful settlement of disputes we are concerned at the danger of conflicts, especially in the Near East, where it is essential that a negotiated peace, based on respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all States of the area may be brought about under the wise leadership of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Studies and technical assistance for increasing the yield and improving the quality of crops; discovery of new sources of food, especially proteins; control of plant and animal diseases; improved methods of exploiting ground water and of irrigation; housing and other programmes implemented by the Organization and the bodies known as members of the United Nations family — all these are evidence of this international co-operation. 182. Another of our concerns is the frustration entailed by the failure to make any positive progress at the second session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The growing poverty of the poor countries and the growing wealth of the rich is not a sound basis for a stable peace, and engenders many of the social conflicts which threaten the internal security of States.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“These items are debated separately one by one. But we feel that there should be a statement of the guiding principles of each State’s international policy. I shall therefore mention briefly some of the principal concerns of my Government. 181. One of these concerns is the imbalance between the population explosion and the available food, clothing and housing. It is true that international co-operation is making a considerable impact on this problem.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Therefore my delegation will support any measure aimed not only at implementing direct or collateral measures of disarmament, but also at reducing international tensions which hinder understanding. It will also support any measure aimed at releasing resources at present devoted to armaments, so that they may be used to help the peoples who are trying to achieve development. It feels that there is a need to study not only the problem of the frantic arms race of the great Powers, but also the piling-up of surpluses of conventional or obsolescent weapons to arm the developing countries, thus creating the danger of local wars or inciting to attacks against the democratic will of those peoples. 180. My delegation believes that what is called the general debate should not be a mere catalogue of problems or a list of agenda items.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“We hope that action by the United Nations, as the means of expressing world public opinion, will press for the achievement as the next step of effective measures for the final prohibition of chemical and bacteriological weapons; reduction of nuclear potential by transferring the use of all fissionable material to peaceful uses; reduction of conventional armaments; and the reservation exclusively for peaceful purposes of the sea-bed and the ocean floor and the subsoil thereof, underlying the high seas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, and the use of their resources in the interest of mankind, which is to be one of the most important items on the agenda of the current session of the Assembly. 179.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The process is long and difficult; but there have been such important achievements as the Antarctic Treaty of 1 December 1959; the Treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water of 5 August 1963; the Treaty of Tlatelolco for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, of 14 February 1967; the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, of 27 January 1967; and lastly the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, whose imperfections, given patience and good faith, can be corrected. 178.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“No one who is not supremely naive can believe that one fine day a General Assembly resolution will be able to decree universal peace and that all problems will be solved by implementing the utopian phrase of turning swords into ploughshares and barracks into schools.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“1(I) of 24 January 1946, should establish a Commission to deal with the problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy, at that time limited to nuclear fission, and that in the same year resolution 41(I) should call for the balanced reduction and regulation of armaments and armed forces. It must, however, be remembered that the problem of disarmament — not the mere reduction and regulation of armaments and armed forces — was not considered as a whole until the establishment under resolution 502(VI) of 11 January 1952 of the Disarmament Commission which had been preceded by the temporary Committee of Twelve, and that the present Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament was only established in 1961 under resolution 1722(XVI). 177.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Today no one invokes (or, if they do, their claim falls on deaf ears) domestic jurisdiction in relation to colonial matters; and, with two exceptions, none of the 125 Members of the United Nations doubts the obligatory nature of General Assembly resolution 1514(XV). 176. Another direction in which the force of international public opinion, represented by the General Assembly, has made slow but sure progress is that of disarmament. The United Nations was born of a war to protect succeeding generations from the scourge of further wars. That war had produced the horror of mass slaughter through atomic explosions. It was natural, therefore, that the first of its resolutions, No.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Interpreting the will of my Government, which was then led by the same eminent statesman who is today directing the destinies of my country, I contended that the Non-Self-Governing Territories were a class of incomplete States which had two of the three qualities of a State (a people and a territory) but not their own government, which the administering Powers were obliged to grant them. According to that argument, sovereignty is vested in the peoples and is suspended until the fulfilment of that condition; but there can be no confusion between the administrative authority exercised by the administering Power and sovereign power itself.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“From my personal experience I recall that when in 1953 I attended the General Assembly for the first time, the number of Member States was less than sixty and the theory still prevailed that Chapter XI of the Charter had a purely declaratory authority. Those few of us who were then in the ranks of the anti-colonialist struggle upheld the principle of the unity and indivisibility of the Charter, which no one today would deny. The colonialists at that time maintained that the administrative authority was part of their sovereign power and fell within the restrictions of Article 2, paragraph 2 of the Charter.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Admittedly in the same area we have heard threats against the Federal Republic of Germany based on outdated interpretations of the Charter which would amount to giving the United Nations the original meaning of the allied nations of the Second World War instead of its present meaning of the organization of the international community. Admittedly we witness the negation of human rights in South Africa, Namibia and Southern Rhodesia. Despite these frustrations, however, we must acknowledge the creative action of the United Nations in many fields of human activity. 175. The process of liberation of the colonial countries and peoples is a good example of the moral and legal authority of General Assembly resolutions.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Antonio Carrillo Flores, that those Powers which have veto privileges in the Security Council should exercise voluntary restriction of their negative vote [1681st meeting, para, 11]. 174. Despite the mistakes and frustrations of the United Nations, its history is nor merely one of disappointment. Admittedly a most cruel war is continuing in South-East Asia and bombs are falling on peoples whose youth has never known a single day of peace. Admittedly in central Europe we have seen armed intervention in the internal affairs of the Czechoslovak people, who were trying to concord their socialist socio-economic system with the individual freedoms by which the Charter guarantees the dignity of the human personality.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“In any case those General Assembly resolutions which are more than recommendations are the basis for the dynamic evolution of the United Nations. 173. An example of that process is given by the resolutions which have laid down and confirmed the interpretation of the General Assembly’s own powers, as when it has used its residual powers where the Security Council, which has the primary but not the exclusive duty to act in questions of international peace and security, could not discharge the responsibilities delegated to it by the Members of the United Nations for rapid and effective action. We hope that in future it will not be necessary to use those residual powers; and for that purpose we welcome a suggestion made by the distinguished Foreign Minister of Mexico, Dr.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Although it is the essential function of the United Nations as the organization of the international community to express world public opinion and thus give a predominantly political character to General Assembly resolutions, these do not thereby lose the legal quality which the writings of eminent jurists and the practice of the United Nations have attributed to them. They frequently clarify law: for example, resolution 95(I) affirmed the principles of condemnation of war which were recognized by the Charter of the Nürnberg tribunal and which had already been incorporated in the United Nations Charter. Or they may be a source of international law and contribute to its progressive development, as when they establish and affirm the rules of jus cogens.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The eminent statesman and professor of international law who was elected President of my country by spontaneous popular decision, Dr. Velasco Ibarra, recently acknowledged in his inaugural address that “the speed of information and communication is creating the people of one world”. And he added: “Only a violent upsurge of the international conscience will one day achieve general disarmament, destroy the weapons of mass murder, and create an international force which will punish the aggressor and guarantee true self-determination for the peoples and non-intervention”. 172.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Since the United Nations was not constituted as a super-State, and the General Assembly was set up not as a world parliament but as an organization through which the world community of peoples could express itself, the General Assembly is obviously first and foremost a political body. As a political body it has assumed an entirely new function in history: that of reflecting world public opinion. 171. This phenomenon had existed in embryo before the United Nations was founded; but the development of electronics, the widespread introduction of electromagnetic waves for communication and the use of jet-propelled aircraft were needed to create instantaneous world-wide information and thus a world public opinion.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“For the same reason my delegation rejects any attempt to revive the old doctrine of spheres of influence as a means of political or economic domination. On that false doctrine colonialism was based and the old forms of protectorates were constituted, and likewise attempts are now being made to constitute the new forms of ideological protectorates. On the same basis the mandates were established, one of which — that affecting Namibia — is still claimed against all law by the former administering Power. The most obnoxious forms of imperialism are contained in that doctrine of spheres of influence as a means of domination; and that is why we condemn all types of imperium whether ideological or economic, whether of the right or of the left, as contrary to the United Nations Charter and a betrayal of history. 170.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The inevitable consequence of this is the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of States and the right of peoples to adopt whatever political system they wish. 168. Intervention in the internal affairs of States has left a painful mark in Latin America. For that reason my delegation has defended and will defend the right of peoples to live according to their own principles, to organize themselves as they wish, and to act in conformity with their own lines of conduct, without fearing that ideological dangers, military alliances, the pernicious doctrine of spheres of influence or any other motive may be used as a pretext by any State or group of States to impose submission to any doctrine on a people, or to dominate a people, or to establish an ideological protectorate, with tanks and guns. 169.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Hence the United Nations Charter which established this organization is at the same time the legal constitution of the international community and a multilateral treaty in which the States which signed it on behalf of their peoples laid down binding obligations, voluntarily accepted, to fulfil the purposes and principles on which the Organization is based. 167. The international community represented by the United Nations is necessarily based on the sovereign equality of States, irrespective of the number of their inhabitants or the number of square miles of their territory. The sovereign equality of States imports, as a logical corollary, respect for political independence and territorial integrity.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The intention was not to establish a league of nations which would be used as an expression of power politics, but a community of peoples—the peoples of the United Nations to which the ever moving preamble of the Charter refers — whose aims were set out in the purposes and principles of the document which was drawn up twenty-three years ago at San Francisco. The peoples of the United Nations undertook by it to practise tolerance and co-existence, and to seek peaceful solutions for their disputes. They also undertook to set up an organization of the international community. 166.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“National parliaments are based on elective and demographic factors which enable majorities and minorities to interact within representative democracy; whereas the United Nations was based on the sovereign equality of States large and small, whose votes cannot be weighted by the density of their populations. 165. Unlike the League of Nations — whose very name evokes the balance of power and interest inherent in any league, the United Nations endeavoured and is endeavouring to be the organization of the international community for the fulfilment of the great human purposes.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“It has not been easy for the United Nations to evolve in this world of conflict; and it must be agreed that one of the facts which confers the greatest honour and prestige on the Organization is that, instead of becoming ossified in the ideas and ideals of the men who created its twenty-three years ago, it has endeavoured to become a dynamic instrument in the service of international co-operation. 164. The great wisdom of the men who founded the United Nations was that they did not attempt to turn it into a super-State, nor to make a world parliament out of the General Assembly.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“It would perhaps be more realistic to say that we are living in a transition period between two historical eras and that the United Nations has been unable entirely to detach itself from a world in conflict and hence so turbulent as it is today. On the one hand, the Organization has been asked to do more than its institutional powers permit, and on the other hand attempts have been made to convert it into a retrograde tool of power politics. Some have urged it to provide solutions for immediate problems and situations which need to be placed in an historical perspective of gradual change, whereas others have criticized it for appearing to go too fast. 163.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Manescu as President of the United Nations General Assembly is particularly praiseworthy since, under his wise and calm leadership, we managed to avoid difficulties which might have shaken faith in the value of the Organization itself. 161. It would be credulous to believe that those difficulties have been overcome, but it would be too easy to blame the Organization for not overcoming them. Political difficulties, the continuing reprehensible existence of war, attacks on the independence and sovereignty of States, are all flagrant denials of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. But this does not entitle us to conclude that the twenty-three years of the Organization’s life constitute the history of an immense and sad fiasco. 162.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)