YouSaid · the spoken record

Ayoune

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS AYOUNE

lines on the record: 112
first: 1968-09-24
most recent: 1969-09-24
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

“This course of restoring the reign of irrational forces in the world becomes the more alarming as it increasingly takes a turn that appears to be flouting the action of our Organization. 81. I am not taking any malicious pleasure in drawing up here an account of the shortcomings of the United Nations in order to conclude that it is useless; but I believe that if we are concerned for the survival of this institution, the situation must be examined realistically. 82. Gabon, for one, is concerned for that survival, especially since our Organization is not really impotent; for if the negative aspect of its activity stands out especially, that activity has nonetheless a positive side. And the very fact that the Organization is still in existence is in itself encouraging.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“When it comes to putting into practice the provisions of the Charter which we freely accepted, vacillation, open opposition, hesitation and passivity are factors condemning our Organization to impotence, inflicting bitter setbacks on the authorities responsible for implementing that Charter and discouraging them. Such surrenders by the international moral leadership to often paltry interests represent fatal blows to the United Nations and can only lead to re-establishing in the world the reign of those evil forces—imperialism, oppression, slavery and exploitation of the weakest—all of them forces engendering the ruin and misery that we are trying to eradicate. 80.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“My delegation would also be seriously remiss in its duty of gratitude and fairness if it were to neglect to make special mention here of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. His abilities and his total devotion to the cause of peace are patent to all, and if the world has not so far been involved in further disaster, we owe it in great measure to U Thant. We should like to express to him and to his staff our deep gratitude and our sincere esteem. 78. When we examine our Organization’s activities designed to attain its purposes, we find that it is encountering difficulties and obstacles calculated to lead to pessimism. 79.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“This, however, is possible only in the context of peace and only if Gabon can rely on the co-operation of the wealthy countries as well as on the understanding and friendship of all countries. For that reason, Gabon is zealously devoted to the fundamental principles that govern our Organization, if only out of self-interest. It therefore feels itself in duty bound to express its admiration and gratitude to all those who, like yourself, Mr. President, are assuming the responsibility of upholding and protecting those principles. 76. In this connexion, my delegation wishes to take this opportunity to pay a deserved tribute to your predecessor, who with unquestionable competence and wisdom presided over the discussions of the twenty-second session. 77.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Then, the United Nations will profit from that new spirit which it needs so badly today in order to keep open all the brilliant prospects for well-being and happiness that its establishment spread before the gaze of mankind. 75. Gabon is a young country; it has just celebrated the eighth anniversary of its independence. That means that having barely entered the community of sovereign nations, Gabon is still faced with many problems in completing the building up of the nation. Its major problem is the struggle it is waging against underdevelopment, a struggle that it is determined to win in order to join the ranks of the developed countries as quickly as possible.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“We know that it is man’s nature to return the next day to what he has repudiated and abandoned the day before. The essential thing is that he be able to draw back in time and realize that such withdrawals, such surrenders will not promote mankind’s progress towards the fullness of life for which all of us also wish naturally. 74. The United Nations Charter is a code of international morality. So long as the rules it embodies are not abandoned by all States, there is still hope. Indeed, if only a very few nations remain faithful to those rules, the defaulting Members will follow their example, recover their nerve and reawaken to their duties as they regain their former spirit.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“For this slackening of effort by the great founding Powers of the Organization now gives us the impression that they are callously disowning it, as though they were looking backwards out of nostalgia for the habits of a past age which they had disavowed and as though they had been impelled by an irresistible and sombre force once again to rely upon “the right of the strongest” which formerly governed international relations. Yet we thought that the lesson of the last world holocaust, which brought them so much wisdom, would be for all time the best motivating force for this peace-loving Organization, which was conceived and brought into being to banish forever from our world that law of the strongest. 73. Our disappointment is not, however, discouragement.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Unfortunately, experience shows that the generous impulse that prevailed during the drafting and adoption of the Charter that was ratified at San Francisco by nearly every country in the world has decayed until its implementation is no longer of concern precisely to those who originated it. 72. The new countries, we who are late-comers to this community of nations, we who had counted so much on the peace, harmony, solidarity, mutual assistance and co-operation among nations which the Organization undertook to make effective for mankind, for success in building up our nations and for furthering our development, have been bitterly disappointed.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“For there is an increasing need for new impetus of this sort, since the will of many Members has obviously weakened and they are slackening their efforts to keep us faithful to the fundamental principles that our Organization offer mankind as those best calculated to preserve continuing humane and fraternal relations between peoples, to maintain world-wide peace and to establish the conditions best suited to universal well-being and happiness. 70. All Member States, by joining the Organization, eagerly endorsed those basic principles, which are so attractive that their implementation would seem to entail no difficulty whatever, since their efficacy for promoting a peaceful and harmonious coexistence among men is self-evident. 71.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“President, our delegation, along with the others, cannot but welcome the fact that you have been chosen to fill that lofty post, for the choice was based on criteria which are a guarantee that our work will be conducted with competence, with realism, and with efficacy. And you can rely on our delegation to collaborate in helping you in the delicate task with which you have been entrusted, as we count on you to uphold with the whole weight of your authority the efforts that many delegations, including my own, are determined to make towards the complete success of this session and the attempt to give new impetus to the activities of our Organization.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“In our opinion, the result of the election is first and foremost a tribute to your country for the unremitting efforts it is making to preserve a true independence, for its fidelity to the noble ideals set for us by the Charter of our Organization, and for its ever more effective and constructive contribution to the triumph of those ideals. In addition, your election establishes before the entire world the high qualifications and great competence of an eminent diplomat, one who enjoys widespread esteem in his own country and who has won the esteem of the Member States that are represented here in this vast and worthy conclave. 69. Therefore, Mr.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“67. Mr. President, in speaking for the first time from this rostrum only a few days after your unanimous election to the Presidency of the twenty-third session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, I am highly gratified and regard it as a signal honour that I am able to add my voice to those of the distinguished speakers who have preceded me in extending to you the most sincere and most cordial congratulations of the delegation of Gabon. 68. We welcomed that vote with deep satisfaction, because we know that it was not dictated solely by the just principle of geographical distribution, which requires that the Presidency of this Assembly should be filled by rotation.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)