YouSaid · the spoken record

RAMPHAL

lines on the record: 334
first: 1967-09-24
most recent: 1974-09-24
sittings or episodes: 7
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

“The continuing dangers which confront the people of my country and the future of my State imperil the interest of all small countries and the future of all small States; they imperil the survival of all States which place their faith in an international legal order, and they place in jeopardy settled boundaries the world over. I invite other delegations to mark the lessons of our experience as a commentary on the President’s plea for a return to the spirit of the Charter. 54. Guyana’s boundaries with Venezuela were settled nearly seventy years ago, even as the nineteenth century was drawing to its close. It was settled with due formality by an international Arbitral Tribunal established under the Treaty of Arbitration? which the Government of Venezuela had freely signed.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“The experience of the past year has led my Government to a reappraisal of all these assumptions as they relate to the policy of the Government of Venezuela. The sole response to our restraint at the international level has been the blatantly provocative occupation of a part of our border territory, an intensive pattern of clandestine interference in the internal affairs of our country, a studied campaign of economic aggression, of pressure and of intimidation directed at our development, and, most recently, one of the most flagrant acts of contempt for international law that the Hemisphere has seen. This aggression, this interference, this intimidation make it vital to my country that I speak more plainly now before this Assembly of nations. 53. As I do so, I invite other delegations to consider the import of our experience.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“It is an experience that has shocked our people even as it has steeled their determination to ensure that the freedom so recently won from an imperialist Power across the seas is not overborne by a new imperialism from across our borders. 51. In my address in the general debate a year ago [1581st meeting] I alluded to the Venezuelan threat to my country’s territorial integrity with deliberate restraint, in the belief that the traditions of a Hemisphere that has fought so valiantly against a colonial imposition must deter a new colonialism from within it, and in the belief also that with dialogue and diplomacy a sense of justice and of international morality founded upon a respect for treaties, and above all for boundary treaties, must in the end prevail. 52.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Our experience may therefore hold lessons for world society and our special problems may have import for many States — certainly for all those like ourselves, who may be small in size and in population; who may be weak in a world in which strength still continues to be measured in units of missiles; who may be poor from centuries of neglected and retarded development; but who are rich in devotion to country and in their resolve to create a better life for their peoples and for those of the region whose destiny they share. 50. For us, these first years of independence have been rich and varied and stimulating. And just as they have been informed by the harsh realities of international existence, so they have been warmed by many acts of friendship and help. But that experience has been overshadowed by a neighbour’s hostility and aggression.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“We are a racially various people whose forebears were moved mainly from Africa and Asia in the cause of enriching the treasury of metropolitan power and the prestige that once attached to empire. That time has passed. Today, as in so many of the new countries, a national identity now transcends these ethnic differences, and with the self-respect that comes with self-determination we are working to build a just, stable, democratic multiracial society. 49.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Conscious of these considerations, Guyana’s contribution to this debate will not be an attempt to range through the broad spectrum of international affairs; instead, it will be an effort to focus attention upon matters which seem to my Government of transcending importance and about which we feel qualified to speak with the authenticity of experience. 48. The first of these relates to the special problems of the small States in a world from which avarice, expansionism and vaulting ambition have not yet been banished. My country is a small State. We are one of the States which this Organization helped to bring to freedom. We are a community of three-quarters of a million people, and our land covers an area of 83,000 square miles.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“62.] If we could make those thoughts the theme of this general debate; if we could make those thoughts the creed of this twenty-third Assembly; if, above all, we could make those thoughts the basis of international action during the life of this ensuing session, then perhaps we might begin to restore the faith of the peoples of the world in the United Nations and in its pursuits. 46. If the general debate is to achieve anything, it must proceed on a commitment to recapturing the belief of the world in our seriousness of purpose, and to rebuilding the faith of men and women everywhere in the value of our endeavours and of this great institution through which we must pursue them. 47.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“In the closing passages of that statement he gave expression to sentiments which many Governments must share, perhaps more particularly the Governments of smaller States, and they are sentiments which express what I believe the peoples of the world everywhere recognize as the basic necessity of our time. He said: “What is needed is not a new organization; what is needed is simply a return to the spirit of the Charter, a return to those principles of human coexistence which at both the international and national levels, should set the standard for a humanist political philosophy.” [1674th meeting, para.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“For all of that troubled time this Assembly was led with assurance, with humanity and with a sensitive care for the peace of the world by the President’s distinguished predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Corneliu Manescu, Foreign Minister of Romania. My delegation wishes to pay tribute to him for the outstanding service he rendered to the General Assembly and to the United Nations. 45. As this new session begins, we need to reassess our progress towards an ordered international society and to renew our commitments to its pursuit. The President, in his inaugural statement, set before us with understanding and realism the problems which lie ahead.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“In so doing, I am happy to pledge the co-operation not merely of the Guyana delegation but also of our Permanent Representative who will be serving with the President during the life of this Assembly as one of the Vice-Presidents. We in Guyana are particularly gratified that this early opportunity which has been afforded to us of contributing to the organizational work of the Assembly comes at a time when so close a regional colleague occupies the President’s chair. 44. I hope — and may the future prove this to be no excess of optimism — that the months which lie ahead of us will bear witness to a world less convulsed by national and international tragedy than have the months through which we have passed since the beginning of the twenty-second session of the Assembly.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“43. It is with a very real sense of regional pride that I congratulate the President on his election to preside over the General Assembly at its twenty-third session. As a distinguished son of Guatemala, as an experienced diplomat and minister of the Latin American region and, perhaps above all, as a devoted internationalist, his election represents a source of great satisfaction to the Government and to the people of Guyana. To us, coming as we do from the same part of the world and linked as we are by the comradeship of small and developing nations, it is a special pleasure to assure him of Guyana’s support during his term of office.”
1968-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 23 (1968)
“Let us remember always when we promote our theories, when we indulge our tastes for dragon slaying, that what we may be promoting is fragmentation of society and that the dragon slain may turn out to be the embodiment of lawful government. Above all, let no approach to the problem of the small society address itself to the breaking-up of political entities already in existence for this would leave open to disintegration many of the world's great archipelagoes. It is to the building of societies and to the preservation of an environment of peace in which they may prosper that this Organization must remain dedicated. To that work my delegation is fully committed.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“The Governments of the region in which such events occur cannot be indifferent to the fate of constitutional government in their part of the world any more than this Organization can endorse the cause of the illegal overthrow of Governments or of governmental authority anywhere. Let us realize that it is futile for us to make valiant efforts to maintain the rule of law at the international level if, simultaneously, through a facile romanticism, or even less worthy considerations, we give comfort and support to those who are prepared to pursue solutions to social, political or economic problems by way of the illegal dismantling of constitutional government and the establishment of new States on the foundations of outlaw régimes. 20.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“At the request of the Governments concerned, the Governments of Guyana and other Commonwealth Caribbean countries sought to mediate the dispute. Our efforts were directed to a peaceful solution of the problem based on a return to constitutional government on terms which would advance the economic development of the island and provide a rational system of local government. These efforts have so far failed in their objective — a failure which has been influenced by attempts at the international level to sponsor the cause of the insurgents. Some of these attempts have had little to do with the State or with the region. Some have been centred on the promotion of theories of international organization relating to small communities; others appear to have their origin in battles long ago, and sometimes not so long ago or far away. 19.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“Conscious as we are of the difficulties which beset the small States of the world, my Government is mindful always of the dangers of still further fragmentation. Whether in the Caribbean or, indeed, anywhere else in the world, no worthy cause is served — certainly not the cause of an ordered international society — by secessionist movements which seek achievement of their aims through an investment in rebellion. 17. Within recent times there has been in the Caribbean a situation of this kind in the former British colony of St, Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla — now a State in association with the United Kingdom, This situation posed grave implications for constitutional government throughout the region, since what was involved was an illegal attempt in Anguilla to displace the lawful authority of the State. 18.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“We are also considering a report by the United Nations Development Programme Preparatory Mission for the establishment of a Caribbean Regional Development Bank, to whose funds we are prepared to contribute more than the normal governmental share and for which we hope the developed countries will be willing to demonstrate their strong support in practical ways. We shall continue in these efforts, for we accept the initial obligation to promote and establish those institutional arrangements which will best advance our own development and that of the region of which we are a part. 16. But economic integration will fail to meet the urgent needs of our society — indeed, it may fail altogether — if the movement towards economic union is permitted to falter before the counter-pressures of political fragmentation.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“The challenge of changing these conditions and reversing these trends must be accepted by the international community. 15. There are, of course, some respects in which we in the developing countries may help ourselves. In my own area of the Commonwealth Caribbean my Government has been militant in its promotion of regional unity, and already tangible steps have been taken in the direction of economic integration. Along with the Governments of Barbados and Antigua, we have taken the first step towards the creation of a regional trade market in arrangements agreed upon for a Caribbean free trade area. Later this month the heads of all Commonwealth Caribbean Governments will be considering proposals, already discussed at official level, for the widening of the free trade area as part of a phased establishment of a sub-regional common market.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“The Secretary-Generals annual report [A/6701] has made painfully clear how little has been achieved since 1964 when the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) came into being. As so many others who have spoken before me have pointed out, despite its high promises the Kennedy Round has been a triumph for the developed countries and a bitter disappointment for the developing countries, where the need for improvement was so much greater. Against this background of disappointment the urgent need to find solutions to the problems of the developing nations is perhaps brought into finest focus by the UNCTAD projection that net lending to the developing countries will become negative by 1975 if present conditions and trends remain unchanged.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“For the greater part, the economies of the developing nations stagger under the burden of falling growth rates, decreasing flows of capital investment from the developed countries, uncertain markets for their products, and population increases accompanied by disastrous personnel shortages in the professional and technological fields. And the disaster is compounded when our own experts are absorbed into the thriving economies of the developed nations, leaving us to benefit as best we may from the technological "charity" of the more advanced countries. It is a sad reality that in this particular area the developed nations have gained so much more than they have given — or even acknowledged. 14.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“It remains for this Assembly to determine — and this is as true of Rhodesia as it is of South Africa — whether a single régime can, at this stage of organized international effort, be permitted to challenge international society and to flout the international order in which mankind everywhere has reposed its trust. If the international order proceeds always on a theory of survival which requires that every confrontation with power be avoided, it will not be long before it loses the faith and respect of the people of the world without which its survival would be meaningless. 13. And yet, political problems are by no means the only ones that cry out for solution at the international level.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“We have not been unmindful that in some respects the establishment of the Council places in issue the authority of the United Nations. On the other hand, one is bound to ask the question whether we do not do more harm to the authority and standing of the United Nations by declining each challenge to its authority rather than facing the challenge and isolating those members of international society who are prepared to stand aside from the mainstream of international justice and co-operation. Surely it must be the case that the greater the solidarity among those nations accepting these principles, the more effective must be the isolation of those who deny them. 12.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“The misery, humiliation and oppression which are the under-pinnings of the racist minority regimes in South Africa and in Rhodesia shame all mankind; and for so long as the Government of Portugal continues to withhold the right of self- determination from millions of people in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea, in open contravention of the wishes of this Assembly, the integrity of our commitment as a world Organization to the principle of independence is tangibly diminished. 11. It was with a consciousness of these matters that my Government accepted the invitation to serve on the United Nations Council for South West Africa established by this Assembly [resolution 2248 (S-V)] at its fifth special session earlier this year.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“This Organization has achieved much in advancing the cause of the equality of all men. Already many hundreds of millions have been led out of the depression of colonial status to the self-respect of nationhood. But that work is not yet done and what lies ahead demands the full commitment of every State in which individual freedom has meaning. Human dignity is not divisible by continents or countries; there are no geographic or ethnic boundaries which may confine it.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“However, I must express the deep disappointment of my Government that that controversy should be made the basis of Guyana's exclusion from participation in the regional arrangements for a nuclear-free zone in Latin America — all the more so since, by their very nature, those arrangements must depend for total success on the degree to which they are truly comprehensive and all-embracing. 9. But these great issues of war and peace that we pursue so imperfectly are no more important than the fate of the human personality within the boundaries of nations. Indeed, our efforts for peace among nations must always fail to attain their maximum effect while within nations systems persist under which men are so far denied their basic rights as individuals that peace becomes no less a solitude than that which war may bring. 10.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“It is, therefore, a matter of deep regret and concern to my Government that, by virtue of the exclusionary provisions of article 25 of that Treaty, Guyana is precluded from being a signatory. The explanation of this exclusion lies in the controversy between Venezuela and the United Kingdom over the validity of the international arbitral Award of 1899 by which the boundary between Venezuela and Guyana was established. A solution to that controversy — with which, on attaining independence, my Government became associated — is being pursued through machinery established for the purpose, and it is not my wish to advert to these matters on this occasion.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“In these efforts let it never be the case that peace in our time is made to take second place to a sterile emphasis on the machinery which was itself designed to promote it. 7. In the Latin American region commendable success has recently attended the efforts of the Governments of that region to contribute tangibly to the cause of world peace. The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America [see A/6663], signed in Mexico last February, is a notable step forward in curtailing the spread of nuclear weapons through the creation of nuclear-free zones. The Government of Guyana shares fully the motives that have guided Latin American Governments in the negotiation of the Treaty and endorses the principles and procedures embodied in its text for fulfilment of those aspirations for peace. 8.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“Issues vital to the survival of the small State in many parts of the world are here at stake. Many of us live in the shadow of territorial claims — claims often advanced by larger and more powerful neighbours — which threaten the right of small States to make their way in the world. This Organization must stand behind the independence and the territorial integrity of all States, including those it has helped to bring to freedom. 6. What I have said about the need for a determined approach to a negotiated settlement in the Middle East must apply with even greater emphasis to the situation in Viet-Nam. There is no peace in the world while that conflict rages. It must be the duty of this Assembly to make use of all its resources in examining and exploring the means by which international conciliation may contribute to a peaceful settlement.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“That principle has been reinforced by what must surely be the lesson of recent events: that recourse to force and the perpetuation of a state of war offer no solution to international disputes. The Charter of this great Organization upholds that principle, and Member States cannot afford simply to pay lip service to it. In the seventh decade of the twentieth century the developing nations in particular need a firm assurance — which only a keen international conscience and an effective world order can provide — that they can be free to use their slender resources, both human and material, in the vital tasks of change and improvement to which they are so inevitably committed. They need to be freed of the burden of bearing arms in defence of their right to survive as sovereign States.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“We believe that success may yet attend those efforts if all parties to the conflict show a greater willingness to seek a reasonable way out, Only negotiation can point the way to peace, and only a determination on the part of all to pursue a vision of the future in which peace is lasting will bring that permanent calm which is so essential to the well-being and advancement of the many millions of people who live within the area. 5. Yet in our search for a solution there is one overriding principle which must not be lost sight of. It is that the acquisition of territory by force cannot and must not be condoned either individually by Member States or collectively by the international community.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“This is the role that my Government has sought to play, in its modest way, during this past year—a year which has seen so much activity in this Assembly—and it is the role that we shall continue to pursue in the work of this Assembly in the months that lie ahead of us. 4. The crisis which now confronts the Middle East - affecting, as it does so directly, small States on both sides of the dispute — has concerned us deeply. Along with so many others, we strove during the fifth emergency special session earlier this year not merely to help to end the war but to secure a lasting peace in that troubled area. Those efforts must continue, and the need for them grows greater as the issues become clouded by distrust and resentment, by hatred and by fear.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“As the large and powerful nations confront one another today in so many vital areas of international endeavour, the need for this freedom is perhaps greater than it has ever been; for if the small States have a role to play in resolving the vital Issues of war and peace in our time — as I am certain that they have — that role can be fulfilled only through the freedom to bring to bear on those issues an independent judgement which takes as its starting point a commitment, not to dogma, but to the rule of law at the international level as it is enshrined in the Charter of this great Organization.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“What we can insist upon, and what as a new nation we do insist upon, is the right to devise a foreign policy on the basis of experience — one that is shaped by our needs and the needs of the international community as we assess them. It is, I suggest, this demand for an acknowledgement of the right of self-determination in the area of foreign affairs that lies at the heart of the concepts of neutralism and non-alignment — concepts which have been the central themes in the foreign policy of so many new States and which, when recognized in this light, represent not an arid negativist policy but an environment of freedom which is essential to the evolution of a healthy, constructive and internationally beneficial approach to world affairs. 3.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“In setting about this task we recognize that a nation's foreign policy in the truest sense can only emerge out of the experience of many years of responsibility for its foreign affairs. There are, I know, some who sometimes speak as if on the achievement of independence small countries like mine can, as we select our flag and national anthem, choose a foreign policy which we should immediately proclaim and to which the conduct of our foreign affairs should thereafter at all times conform. But this notion is naive and an over-simplification of international existence. A nation's foreign policy can only be hammered out on the anvil of experience and amid the dust and heat of the busy workshop of international affairs.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)
“1. Mr. President, on behalf of the Government and people of Guyana my delegation congratulates you most warmly on your accession to the Presidency of the General Assembly at its twenty-second session and wishes to assure you of the same unswerving support and co-operation that it was our aim at all times to give to your predecessor, Ambassador Pazhwak, as he so ably guided the twenty-first session and the special sessions through their many excitements and crises. 2. For Guyana the twenty-second session of the Assembly marks the end of our first year's participation in the work of the United Nations. Tor us this first year has been one of building foundations, and nowhere has there been a greater need to build securely than in the area of international relations.”
1967-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 22 (1967)