YouSaid · the spoken record

Sékou Touré

lines on the record: 283
first: 1960-09-24
most recent: 1962-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

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“Our confidence in the future is equal to our determination, and we are profoundly convinced that the conscience of man will be able to transcend the contradictions of an age which is coming to a close; that it will be able with determination, realism and clear-sightedness, to enter upon a new age in world history.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“The ideal embodied in our national revolution extends infinitely beyond the destiny of Guinea; that is to say, ever since gaining their independence, our people have made themselves part of world society and they can conceive of no other form of human happiness than that dispensed freely to all men and to all peoples without any limitation. 155. The path to which we are committed brooks no compromise; it leads to a world forever freed of selfishness and of the shameful practices of oppression, exploitation and social injustice. 156.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It is in this spirit that we regard the struggle to bring together the conditions for the development of the peoples as essential to the harmonious and interdependent evolution of mankind. We accordingly rejoice that a proposal has been made to hold a world trade conference, and we hope that it will bring about fair solutions for the economic problems which beset our peoples. 154. The people of Guinea, who, for the past four years, have been engaged in a democratic and popular revolution, have always shown their readiness for friendship with all the peoples of the world, their sincere desire for co-operation with all States, and their fierce determination to work for peace, justice and progress.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“If we condemn, without making any distinction, all the retrograde forces, all the retarding systems and all the backward philosophies, it is because they carry within them the viruses of impotence and irresponsibility. 151. One may denounce famine, ignorance and disease just as one may denounce war, and regression, but that is only a pious attitude based on negation and a certain fatalism. 152, As far as we are concerned, our choice has been made. It is for progress in all Its forms, for justice, for peace and for the happiness and solidarity of all people. This choice is a positive one, and we are proud to be numbered among the committed peoples, among the forces of progress. 153.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“To recast international assistance and co-operation is to have an all-encompassing view of history which makes it possible to analyse its phenomena is their causes and to ascertain the means and methods whereby man will be able to control his destiny and better direct the course of his history; it means aiming at restoring to every nation and every human being their place and social function, and giving to human society the virtues and capabilities with which man has enriched it. 149. The will to develop, that unconditional choice for progress which will rid development of all its negative aspects is produced by human needs and human conscience. The triumph of human reason will be no more than an expression of the uplifting of the conscience of the peoples. 150.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“To recast international aid and co-operation is to mobilize to the same end resources and means frequently used for contradictory ends. 147. If, for instance, the scope of the World Bank for granting credit is compared with the amount of capital hoarded throughout the world, one quickly realizes the tremendous disparity between the means available and the means used. 148.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It is too often forgotten that these young nations, the victims of colonial rapacity, are still pacing installation costs long after the industrial revolution: for although colonialism has already taken root at the time of the spice trade, it was the industrial revolution which made it possible for the commercial relationship between Europe and Africa to be converted into a relationship of robbery. Although we do not wish to base our argument on this fact alone, we are entitled to mention it here if only stir the conscience of mankind to international solidarity, the determining factor in universal and harmonious development. 145. To recast international assistance and co-operation in the mould of universal solidarity is to participate effectively in the evolution of the world and in the improvement of human society. 146.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Finally, we all know that foreign investment, which fights shy of low-yield ventures, concentrates mainly on parasitic sectors the growth of which tends to drain economies that are already on the verge of collapse. 143. To the countries for which it is intended and which judge it on its actual efficiency, international assistance seems dramatically inadequate, frequently ill-suited and endlessly troublesome; to the donor it represents a burden the usefulness or even the necessity of which, often seems doubtful. In the eyes of many, the impatience of the young nations is unbearable, but who can claim the right to question the needs and vital requirements of a people? 144.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“In 1957-1958, forty-five under-developed countries (among those that do not produce Oil) received $5,000 million in grants, while for the same year their trade deficit amounted to $6,500 million. Finally, here is one last fact which is connected with that just mentioned: during a five-year plan the steady rise in import prices reduces the value of investments by nearly 25 per cent. 141. Has it been sufficiently realized that initially human energy is essential to secure and increase in production and that in our countries the percentage of wage earners is very low. How can the continual increase in prices do other than discourage effort on the part of our farmers, who are the real productive class and the basis of our agricultural economies, if their efforts do not make any impression on their standard of living? 142.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Rather than receive lengthy encomiums and expressions of gratitude, I think that these two assistance bodies will be more justifiably proud in knowing that in four, years of independence we have increased the number of hospital beds tenfold, thus demonstrating that any assistance which is perfectly attuned to our real needs is fully used and has most beneficial results. 140. But once again, the vastness of our needs should spur us to find new means and original methods capable of giving our economies a real start. Is there any need to cite here figures that are known to all? In ten years, from 1950 to 1959 inclusive the United Nations sent, 4,689 experts to countries in the Far East having a total of 800 million inhabitants, and those countries trained 3,966 people.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“International aid tends to lose much of its value by the fact that it is concerned with the problem of wells rather than with the building of medium-capacity dams or with electrification, and by the fact that it gives more attention to satisfying everybody than to meeting the pressing common needs. 139. In this connexion, however, we are happy, standing at this rostrum, to pay a well-earned tribute to the Commission for Technical Co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara, which since its inception has never failed to co-operate with Africa effectively and in a manner increasingly suited to the realities and needs of the continent. We should also like to thank UNICEF and WHO in a special way for the very substantial efforts they have made towards meeting the tremendous needs which confront us in the field of health.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Although the aid and assistance needed by our countries outstrip the international possibilities of meeting that need, if is none the less true that such aid, which is found to be extremely costly, very often falls short of its objectives and becomes watered down as a result of the great number and variety of requests. We consequently think it essential for priorities to be established in accordance with a balanced view of development and a plan covering all the economically under-developed countries on a continent by continent basis. It would seem to -be more rational, for instance, to set up ten to twenty universities throughout Africa and to endow them for five to ten years with an international status and an inter-African administration, than to assign 6,000 to 8,000 scholarships for secondary education to that continent each year.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It is not superfluous to add that they have in this way gained the deep friendship of our people and Government, who sincerely desire that the bonds of co-operation with those States should be strengthened and broadened. 138. In this connexion we wish to make it clear that although, in accordance with our principles of free determination and national independence, we do not intend to repudiate bilateral assistance and cooperation, we believe that international aid should be entirely recast so as to be effectively and efficiently integrated into the economic development programmes of the under-developed countries.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Who imagines today that the tremendous backwardness which was the farewell legacy of colonialism to Africa can be made good by a few more or less selfish donations? 136. We are, of course, the first to demand the heaviest burden and the heaviest sacrifices in the task of bringing our living conditions into harmony with those of the highly developed countries; that is a matter of our pride and honour. What we also ask, however, and we do this without the slightest feeling of embarrassment, is that international co-operation and solidarity should lighten a burden which is unjustly grinding us down. 137. On this occasion we should like once more to tender our sincerest and warmest thanks to those Governments which, spontaneously and without imposing any obligations, have given us effective aid and disinterested support.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It is because we eschew charity and subjection, and because we claim on behalf of our peoples their due share of responsibility in the conduct of international affairs, that our political preference will go to those Governments which, in their international activities, concentrate on harmonizing the living conditions of all peoples. 133. Charity, the creator of vested interests, is viewed by us, not as an aid, but as a usurious practice which gives more than it has and less than it takes back. 134. Aid which is not conceived and given in a spirit of loyal co-operation and perfect disinterestedness is poisoned aid which we shall consistently reject, and we shall also be careful not to confuse technical assistance with the technique of assistance. 135.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“The establishment of a sliding scale to determine minimum international prices for raw materials and primary commodities must be supplemented by the establishment of an international equalization fund which, in the initial stage, would help to take care of the bottle-necks that crop in unpredictable fashion on the various market and are inherent in the anarchy that characterizes the development of the world economy. 132. We would point out that our evaluation of the various forces that dominate the world economy is predicated solely on the real support which they provide and the effective contribution which they make in encouraging the economic growth of the non- industrialized countries.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It is not enough in this matter to call for the stabilization of the prices of raw materials and primary commodities. We must concentrate on ensuring that the international prices of raw materials and primary commodities are preserved from speculation of any kind by the establishment of a guaranteed base price which will effectively reflect production costs and will be automatically re-evaluated in conformity with increases in prices of industrial products on the world market. 131.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“However far we may be from condemning out of hand the concept of economic communities — the positive consequences of which include the intensification of trade within a given group, the concentration of productive capacity, and the speedier establishment of conditions conducive to dynamic supranational economic planning — we wish to call attention to certain potential dangers inherent in them which could produce a state of stagnation in the non-industrialized nations. That is why we do not hesitate in the least to state that these communities will be fully acceptable to us and will receive our full support when, forswearing all selfish aims, they become closely integrated with the requirements of an interdependent, harmonious and equitable economic development of both the highly and the poorly equipped countries. 130.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It is obvious that although the solution of the economic, and social problems of our peoples necessarily depends on the industrialization of our countries, this can hardly be achieved within the limits of the micro-economies of our States. 129. The potential threat that the economic communities, which are daily becoming more powerfully organized, may represent for the development prospects of the non-industrialized or under-industrialized countries is becoming increasingly apparent.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“127. Vociferous alarm has been expressed about the increasingly abundant output of coffee, cocoa or peanuts, while nothing has been said about products which are in increasing demand but the prices of which remain stable, such as diamonds, gold, oil, radio-active minerals, zinc, copper and so on. This in itself sufficiently illustrates the mercantile nature of the economic relationships that have been set up between the highly-developed countries and the countries producing raw materials and primary commodities, to which category Africa belongs. 128; The African nations are becoming daily more aware that if the important and urgent social problems that confront their peoples are to be adequately solved, they must bring about the indispensable transformation of their barter-type economies as soon as possible.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“The extent to which the price relationship in international trade has deteriorated is abundantly clear from various statistics that have been published in international periodicals. 126. The consequences of such a situation make it easier to understand that the object of the economic community of African and of its monetary independence is not; as some have suggested with false naiveté, to enable Guinea to sell its coffee to the Ivory Coast, its palms to Dahomey and its bauxite to Ghana; it consists rather in taking whatever measures are required to project, Africa on to the international market as a producing area and thus help to establish on an equitable footing the relationships of strength which govern international trade but which, in the case of the under-developed countries, are at present relationships of economic dependency.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“The non-industrialized countries producing raw materials and primary commodities must struggle valiantly in order to cope with the declining prices for their agricultural and mining products and the rising cost of industrial goods, for this situation limits the expansion of their national economy. 125. It is easy to document this analysis by several examples that will better illustrate our present position on the world market. Let us take some figures covering the period 1957-1961. The exchange value of raw materials and primary commodities in relation to industrial products shows a drop of 34 per cent; yet, between 1955 and 1957, there same terms of trade had already decreased by 50 per cent in comparison with the 1948 level.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“To conquer and then proclaim the independence of a Country while retaining its former colonial structures would be tantamount to ploughing a field and then failing to sow it, while yet expecting a harvest. The political liberation of Africa must be viewed as a means for establishing and developing the new African economy. Our continent has enormous reserves of raw materials which, coupled with its vast energy-producing potential, provide it with highly favourable conditions for industrialization. 123. The prospects for utilizing our economic potential are, however, set at nought by the inability of the under-developed countries to achieve normality, in their economic conditions, which continue to deteriorate as a result of the general deterioration of the terms of trade. 124.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It follows that the greatest of our victories will not be that which we shall have won over colonialism through the mere fact of having recovered our national independence: it Will be above all the victory that we shall have won over ourselves by finally casting off all the complexes peculiar to Colonized peoples and by proudly and loyally proclaiming the authentic values of Africa and identifying ourselves fully with them. The African people, having confidence in themselves, must become increasingly aware of their responsibility, for by so doing they will become aware of their true equality with all other peoples. 122. We are aware that we must rebuild Africa.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Only when a people proclaims its independence and exercises its sovereignty without let or hindrance can it abolish exploitation in every form; for only then can it erect democratic structures which release the creative initiative of all and promote the liberation of man through social progress, which depends in its turn on scientific and economic progress. 121. The worst of the misdeeds of colonialism may be said to have been the attempt to deprive us of responsibility for the conduct of our own affairs and at the same time to convince us that our civilization was nothing but savagery — the attempt to instill in us an inferiority complex which branded us as irresponsible and stripped us of our self-confidence.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“In exchange for this, it must actively assist in setting up a universal society wherein each and every people, while preserving its own personality, will have exactly the same rights and duties as all the other peoples and, like them, will assume the responsibilities that are properly incumbent upon it. 120. Africa has been divided and carved up. The evils of colonization have not been confined to exploitation, racial discrimination and cultural oppression; they have also, and above all, resided in the loss of our freedom and the confiscation of our sovereignty.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Africa has been exploited and oppressed on economic grounds; its legitimate will for resurrection consequently postulates a threefold rehabilitation on the moral, cultural and social plane, which must naturally be achieved through the process of economic evolution. 119. We know, of course, that in the modern world, interdependence has become a rule, and Africa, which cannot exist in a vacuum, does not intend to remain divorced from that world. It also considers that it is entitled to benefit by the experience of other peoples, as well as by the fruits of its own endeavours.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“By a paradox it is in the name of safeguarding human welfare and the interests of the people that some have elected to tread the dangerous and perilous path of military power, which might in the end succeed in wiping out humanity, and with it the universe. 117. In the course of a decade, Africa has become clearly aware of its material backwardness and has pledged itself to the task of catching up with the level of development of the highly industrialized countries with the utmost speed. 118. When one analyses the ills from which the Africans have suffered, one must perforce acknowledge that the slave trade, the deportation of our people, racial discrimination and colonization — these last two more, recent evils now supplemented by neo-colonialism — have been, able to flourish chiefly for economic reasons.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“The utilization and exploitation of the means made available through the latest scientific discoveries already call for, and will in future increasingly require, the co-operation of many countries, and indeed of all countries. 116. That being so, it is not without bitter irony that we note that progress on which man's future welfare depends, is hampered much less by lack of knowledge than by the kind of hermetic enclosure in which certain selfish peoples secrete their discoveries, the experiments and their scientific achievements. By allowing the desire for power to be substituted for the power of progress, the welfare of mankind and the interests of all peoples have been deliberately and irrevocably sacrificed.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“While this implies the total disappearance of colonialism and the establishment of a society where privileges are unknown, at the same time it opens up new and exhilarating prospects based on justice, progress and universal peace. Need I recall that in their desire to safeguard their privileges and their temporary technological superiority, highly developed nations have by the same token deprived themselves of the contribution to be made by the creative genius and productive capacity of the hundreds of millions of persons living in the under-developed nations? 115. The scientific potentialities of the modern world have already surpassed the scale of mere national capacities and resources.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“What is required is that, starting from the imperatives of our own destiny and the demands of an emerging "universal society" based on fraternity and solidarity and consistent with the aspirations of mankind, Africa should be granted the right to blaze its own trail, with full regard for its wishes, the means at its disposal, its intrinsic genius, its capacities and its original values. 112. We are resolved to affirm our "Africanism", that is to say our personality, and to promote the harmonious construction, the rapid development and the total fulfilment of a genuinely "African" Africa. 113. Africa has its own requirements, ideas and habits. It certainly does not wish, and still less does it seek, to adorn itself with borrowed raiment which has not been tailored to its measurements. 114.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“This transformation is inherent in the historical evolution of society. It is a determining factor in the achievement of the equitable international balance that is indispensable for the establishment and formation of the new universal society on which, in the last analysis, the fate of all mankind depends. 110. It is vain to attempt to place Africa under trusteeship and to dole out alms to it which salve the conscience of some, while temporarily delaying or attenuating the awakening of that of others, and which perpetuate unequal relationships between peoples by operating to preserve the barriers raised by the differences in their material living conditions, 111. It is likewise vain to seek to impose such-and-such a course on Africa.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“In our eyes, the urgency of the needs that must be met takes precedence over gratuitous philosophical reasoning or mere ideologies, for it is these human needs which, together with man’s awareness of them and consequently their reality, constitute the main driving force of history, a force which varies in intensity and effect in proportion to the forces that hamper and oppose it. 109. It is therefore vain to hope that Africa will evolve according to a particular pattern imposed on it from outside in disregard of its own conception of things. Africa will evolve in accordance with its own nature, characteristics and personality, in terms of the deepest aspirations of its people, until its economic conditions have reached the level of development of the industrialized countries, that is to say, until they become normal.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“To believe that everything has been won and that all endeavour ceases with the achievement of independence — which, moreover, has yet to be consolidated in the case of most African countries — is to close one’s eyes to human realities, to deny the progress of history and to disregard the true existence of the poorer countries, which, having come to realize the injustices they have suffered, are eager to exploit judiciously whatever resources they possess. It is thus that they will be able to proclaim the historical rights that are theirs and that are due to them in the struggle to achieve progress and to maintain a proper balance in the world — a balance regarded not as the mutual offsetting of antagonistic forces but as the outcome of the necessary harmonization of the levels of development of all peoples throughout the world. 108.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Similarly, the more that people are threatened in their lives, their freedom, their personality, their dignity and their hopes, the more heavily will they arm and the more resolutely will they fight in order to conquer and safeguard their freedom and effectively exercise their sovereignty and in that way to satisfy their needs and ensure their survival and continuing development. 106. Thus the struggle for independence, whatever shape it may assume and whatever channels it may seek out, has never meant, in the eyes of our peoples, anything else than the acquisition of the first and necessary instrument which will enable them to solve their human problems in full awareness of their responsibilities. j 107.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Today, the majority of these peoples have reconquered their rights to a worthy and independent existence. The ignoble racial segregation that is rampant in South Africa will make no difference. On the contrary, it stimulates the historic role of Africa. It makes its peoples more sharply and sensitively alert, and it further strengthens and hardens their personality, since the ultimate tests of strength which the racialist notions and profoundly reactionary attitude of the "Afrikaners" must inevitably bring about will compel the peoples of Africa to take a stand with respect to this crucial problem. The more that people are subjugated and the more they are oppressed, the more capable do they become of rising to their historic destiny.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“The truth is that an important historical evolution is taking place, at this moment, and its effects and consequences, whether direct or indirect, will exert an increasingly greater influence on the progress of world society. 104. The colonial and semi-colonial countries, whose inhabitants made up the majority of the population of the world, were nothing more than names on the map, and although those countries were prominently displayed in the atlas, their peoples, who had been pushed completely into the background by the Imperialists, were unjustly considered to be of little importance because they were dominated and enslaved by foreign Powers. 105. They remained silent and static in appearance, whereas in reality there had taken root and was growing within them the conviction that they must fight for their national liberation.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It is not, however, from this point of view nor on the basis of such facts that the problems of relations between peoples, should be studied, if we wish to avoid accentuating the existing division of the world and thus aggravating the unbalanced state of affairs which already exists in world society. There can hardly be any need to point out that this division and this lack of balance concern all peoples, whether they be rich or poor, all nations, weak or powerful, and all men, whether they be millionaires or paupers. 103. The magnitude of the movement of national liberation which has led to the sudden rebirth of a whole continent and to its emergence into international life is sufficient proof of the strength of this upsurge of feeling and the collective awakening of the conscience of our countries and peoples.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“It should be observed, however, that although these aspirations are of a universal nature, each of them has a particular well-defined degree of urgency for each people because of the infinitely varied nature of each people’s potentialities and its capacity for training and the mobilization of its resources. This is precisely the situation in the countries which were until recently colonies. 102. For these reasons, and because of their historical past and their present state, which is characterized by under-development, it is obvious that there are greater similarities and a more marked community of ideas between the peoples of Africa and Asia than between the peoples of Africa and Europe.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“The position is that the poorer countries and the under-developed, nations are forced to face vital needs, requirements and demands and to come to grips with hopes and difficulties which have no limits in terms of the problems of the highly-developed countries and prosperous nations. 101. There is nothing unusual in the fact that all peoples aspire to security and to an improvement in their living conditions, since the true universal aspirations of mankind are those which are inherent in progress, social justice, liberty, prosperity and peace.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“In order to understand the language of Africa and what lies behind it; the words, the expressions and the turns of phrase must be regarded as reflecting, not the abstract character of a dialectic, but the substance and reality of life: that life made up of human compulsions, of social requirements, of vital needs and of real necessities which are its fundamental attributes, and which are becoming ever clearer and more pressing as the conscience of the peoples of Africa develops and awakes to all the social injustice which fundamentally characterizes and undermines the status of Africans as human beings. 100.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Because they are associated with social phenomena which gives them different meanings, the same words are often applied to completely separate realities, and such differences of meaning are sometimes very great indeed. To deduce from this, however, that the peoples of the world cannot attain mutual understanding does not bring a solution of this problem the slightest bit nearer.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“But although the improvement of relations between peoples is linked with the democratization of the United Nations and the refinement of international law, it is also dependent on a better understanding of the realities of each people and a juster appreciation of the legitimacy of their aspirations. 98. There is therefore little point in expecting that the African peasant, with, his primitive tools, his absurdly small productive capacity and his altogether distressing conditions of existence — which may seem very fine from the point of view of the exotic effect which they create, but which are not so amusing from the human point of view — should think, act and behave like an employee of General Motors or a steelworker in a socialist country. 99.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“We have all the more confidence in the United Nations because its disappearance would be a disaster for the whole world, and we would like to believe, with all our hearts, in its triumph. 96. This shining confidence is the same as that which we have in the victory of justice over injustice, or of right over might, of love over hate, and of freedom over slavery. In this game in which the stakes are the world, we do not wish to be passive spectators, but intend on the contrary — joined with all the forces of progress, human solidarity and social peace — to be an active instrument and a people wholly engaged in the struggle for the future well-being of the world. 97.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“We believe that, despite the contradictions, tensions and explosions of the world, the international organization is, able to find ways out of impasses, to plug breaches and to calm antagonisms, while retailing for the well-being of the people all the progressive elements and positive forces that will be liberated and made fruitful through international cooperation in peace and friendship. 94. We have all the more confidence in the United Nations because it is gradually imposing the real face of the universe, with all its indispensable shades of difference, on the world, and is instilling in the people an awareness of their international responsibilities and their human solidarity. 95.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“91. It is obvious that structural reforms, no matter how highly perfected they may be, can, never be sufficient, by themselves, to endow the international organization with the universal authority which is indispensable to it and which can be conferred upon it only through the moral soundness and practical effectiveness of its actions. 92. It would not be fitting for us to terminate these remarks concerning our international organization without expressing the confidence which we have in it: a confidence which is all the greater because we believe in the boundless possibilities for the improvement of the international organization and in the continued uplifting of the world conscience which it will faithfully interpret and consciously inspire. 93.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Thus, the first objective towards which nations favouring positive neutralism must strive is the reorganization of the international organization by the democratization of its structure; the perfecting of its principles; the replacement of the Security Council with a permanent judicial council to which representatives of the various geographical areas of the world would be elected; the admission of all legally constituted States which are not yet members of the United Nations; the disappearance of the Trusteeship Council and the abolition of the principle of trusteeship under one or more nations; a new definition of the law of peoples and nations; a statement of determination to modify the nature of international relations in the direction of true equality of rights and respect for all nations, without distinction or discrimination; the establishment of a conciliation procedure to be followed before any appeal is made to the General Assembly or to the judicial council; the establishment of a procedure for appeals against the resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly; an extension of and increase in the autonomy of the United Nations bodies for social affairs, economic co-operation and technical assistance; a restrictive enumeration of the ways and means to be left at the disposal of the United Nations in order to give effect to its decisions; and so forth.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Reshaping the law in accordance with the interests of the people involves humanizing the legislation which governs the law in order that justice may be identified With the law, the law with the statutes, the statutes with the interests of the people, and the interests of the people with the interests of the nation. When these different conceptions become intimately mingled with each other in practice in the hearts of every people, then the human conscience will become the universal code of law so long, however, as antagonistic social relationships persist among men, so long, as relationships based on domination persist between peoples, justice will be what the political struggles of peoples make it. 90.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Far from regarding the law as a transcendent entity, we assert its infinite capacity for improvement, and consider the relationship between the nature of the law and the nature of political regimes to be of the most vital importance. We know, moreover — and this is confirmed by experience — that in the great majority of cases, the independence of justice is nothing but a snare and a delusion which, when it is, not helping to keep in power the most unpopular regimes, is engaged in defending and maintaining the most unjust of privileges. When the people constitute the centre of interest of a regime inspired, actuated and controlled by them, justice cannot be dissociated from the body politic of the nation without vitiating the popular character of the law which it is the function of justice to administer. 89.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)
“Thus, whether it is a question of domestic law or international law, only a fundamental, and not merely formal, democracy can promote the evolution of the law by restoring to all men and to all peoples their liberty, their sovereignty and the exercise of their responsibility. We have fought long enough and hard enough for equity and liberty to be able to refuse to acknowledge that human Justice cannot be made more perfect. On the contrary, we are convinced of the need to promote the constant growth of the law by the continual extension of human liberties and responsibilities, which are indispensable conditions for the full flowering of the intellectual faculties and moral resources of mankind. 88.”
1962-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 17 (1962)