YouSaid · the spoken record

EBAN

lines on the record: 663
first: 1949-09-24
most recent: 1973-09-24
sittings or episodes: 14
sources: un-general-debate

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“In the effort to solve the financial crisis, it may be useful to create a new fund for the financial reinforcement of the Organization, so that Members which give less support to certain peace-keeping activities may give correspondingly greater support to the development activities of the United Nations. Provided that the over-all burden is equitably shared and duly apportioned, the manner of meeting the expenses of the Organization should be sufficiently ramified to allow Member States to select special areas for their interest. 101. The intensive growth of the United Nations budget requires the establishment of a sort of financial "Cabinet", with the full participation of the major contributors, to determine those financial measures which affect international policies in a broader field. 102.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Israel advocates a close study of the United Nations peace-keeping experience with the participation of all who have been directly or closely involved. The Foreign Minister of Brazil has recommended Charter revision in order to provide for the peace-keeping functions of the United Nations. Until this possibility comes into view, an ad hoc agreement among the major Powers on the relative responsibilities of the General Assembly and the Security Council should be sought at this session. If the great Powers can achieve a greater harmony, the Security Council will be able in some measure to restore the authority and efficacy which the Charter ascribes to it. 100.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“It is urgent that the Powers primarily responsible for international peace and security reach agreement not only on immediate financial problems, but also on the future balance between the peace-keeping functions of the Security Council and of the General Assembly. The Charter was conceived with the notion that restraint should be used not only in the exercise of the veto but also in the exercise of majority power. While a new attempt should be made to explore the avenues of great-Power co-operation envisaged in the Charter, it is already clear that new conditions have created new necessities. For example, it is now commonly agreed that the forces of the great Powers are less appropriate in peace-keeping activities than chose of small and medium nations whose involvement does not raise the shadow of possible nuclear escalation. 99.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“The issue is where responsibility lies for determining, controlling and financing the peacekeeping activities of the United Nations. 97. It is not that the enforcement provisions of the Charter have been "transferred" from the Security Council to the General Assembly. What has happened is that there has grown up a new area of international responsibility which falls short of enforcement as in Chapter VII, but goes beyond mere conciliation as in Chapter VI. This is an important area of international responsibility. These are situations which require the symbolic or restraining presence of the United Nations by invitation or consent to avoid belligerency or to establish a focus for public order. 98.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“The solution lies in an integral and co-ordinated approach to nuclear and conventional disarmament. The theme of disarmament should also be illuminated by a positive vision. The delegation of Israel therefore supports the idea of calling on the nations to divert an agreed portion of their military budgets to development projects. 95. My delegation will give close attention to the memorandum on disarmament put forward by the Soviet Union [A/5827]. The Middle East is one area in which States which manufacture arms could well illustrate their devotion to peace by avoiding a constant escalation in the arms race through the introduction of increasingly sophisticated weapons of destruction, 96. The deadlock from which the General Assembly has only partly emerged is not primarily a financial crisis at all.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“On signing the international treaty for the partial prohibition of nuclear tests, my Government expressed the ardent hope "that every effort would be made to remove the awful dangers to humanity arising out of the continuation [of nuclear arming]". In that spirit, my delegation will define its attitude to the various proposals on denuclearization that will come before the General Assembly and its Committees. At the same time, we urge constant attention to the perils arising from excessive accumulations and imbalances of conventional weapons of great destructive power, especially in areas of tension. For many countries, this is an even more real and actual danger than that of nuclear attack. The Foreign Minister of Argentina has warned us against the danger of nuclear pacifism accompanied by conventional aggression. 94.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“The General Assembly will respond both to the ideals and to the interests of humanity if at this session it proclaims the sovereign equality and integrity of all Member States and the confinement of territorial change to the realm of negotiation and mutual consent. The agenda items submitted by the USSR and Madagascar [A/5751 and A/5757 and Add.l] should offer the basis for a comprehensive discussion of these themes, 92. The meagre harvest of the Geneva disarmament talks should not lead us to premature despair. The dialogue on the limitation and control of armaments can never be broken off, the stake is too high. Nothing but the utmost tenacity will suffice. 93.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“And in small nations, life has to be lived on two levels: on the intimate level of national distinctiveness, and in the broader arena of intense international co-operation. In economic and social relationships, the trend is no longer towards dogmatic extremes of exclusive private ownership or exclusive public control. Most of our societies are mixed societies in which private initiative and State planning exist together within a single economic framework. In philosophy and religion, there is a search for unifying common principles, not for divisive barriers. It promises to be the age of tolerance. It is the ecumenical age. And over all aspects of our lives there stand the towering victories of scientific inquiry, which is the central enterprise of the human mind in its commerce with external reality. 91.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“A similar note was struck on the first day of this debate by the Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Japan and Somali, and has been sounded again and again in unvaried conviction by other representatives. 90. This strong world-wide emphasis on the pacific settlement of disputes is not only a reaction to the nuclear peril. It is inspired by hope as well as by fear. The world is moving away from the bi-polar confrontation of East and West during the nineteen forties and fifties towards a new international order marked by diversity, pluralism, variety, freedom end dissent. It is not an age for crusades. In great- Power relations, the keywords are "coexistence" and "co-operation".”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“It is in that spirit that Israel has announced its support for an international agreement for the renunciation by States of the use of force for the settlement of territorial disputes and questions concerning frontiers. The Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, whose Government has inscribed this question on our agenda, has correctly stated that the question of territorial disputes between sovereign States should not be confused with the liberation of territories from the colonial yoke or from foreign occupation. Mr. Gromyko went on to say: "... in respect of territorial disputes between sovereign States there can be no two opinions ... all such questions, as well as any other disputes between States, should be resolved not by force of arms but solely by peaceful means" [1292nd meeting, para. 98].”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“In great-Power relations, this consensus flows from a direct and awesome knowledge of the nuclear danger. Mankind can no longer afford the consequences of territorial expansionism. The result of aggression against the existing frontiers of great Powers would not be the gain of new territory, but the conversion of existing territory into scorched and poisoned earth. 88. And for small States, the universal respect of existing frontiers is a condition of national survival. Now that nearly every nation has its legally sanctioned area of territorial sovereignty, there is every reason to safeguard the world's political map against violent change. The impulse of change should be applied henceforward to the liberation of human societies from economic and social servitudes. 89.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Israel comes to the nineteenth session of the General Assembly in the conviction that the hour is ripe for a new advance towards a more stable and peaceful international order. The most urgent need is to reaffirm the right of States to maintain their political independence and territorial integrity, and their corresponding duty to seek the pacific settlement of their disputes in strict avoidance of the threat or i use of force. 87. There is now a wider agreement than ever before on the need to maintain the integrity of the world's territorial structure against violent change. This principle was expressed in an exchange of notes between the Soviet Union and the United States of America early this year. It was endorsed in other replies to the Soviet Union’s message of January 1964.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“The capacity to hold a general debate is a very small and temporary consolation for the absence of a normal and orderly procedure. Indeed, the financial difficulties of the United Nations illustrate the paradox of our age. More will be spent on armaments around the world on this single day than is required for all the activities the United Nations for a whole year. The Governments of the world spend $14 million on armaments every hour, and $150,000 million every year. But to find $300 million for a world peace organization seems to be beyond our ingenuity. It appears that men are more easily moved to effort and sacrifice by the spur of conflict than by the challenge of co-operation. 86.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Yet amidst the full brilliance of the scientific revolution, 700 million adults — one-third of the world's adult population — are totally illiterate. 84. If I evoke the sombre reality of man's unfilfilled yearnings for peace and security, economic dignity and cultural enrichment, it is not for the purpose of suggesting a conclusion of despair. I mean only to emphasize that beyond the particular interests of nations there are challenges of global scale which cannot be confronted, still less solved, except within a unitary framework of international relations. Yet precisely at this moment the United Nations, which ought to be saving mankind from the peril and confusion of our times, is itself in acute need of being saved. 85. It is urgent that a power of action be restored to the General Assembly.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Man is now clothed with a power which he never previously held — to generate and control energy; to fructify land; to conserve and utilize water; to sweeten the seas and to harvest the desert; to open the gates of knowledge; and to draw the human family together in close and constant accessibility. 82. Yet in this era of potential abundance, one-half of the world's population of 3,000 million suffer from under-nutrition or malnutrition or both. By the end of the century, there will be 6,000 million people to be fed in a world which shows no present sign of adequately feeding one-half of that number. 83. This is also a golden age in the expansion of knowledge. Twentieth century experience has been dominated by the power of reason with its decisive influence on the life of humanity.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“It is difficult to refute the Secretary- General's statement in the introduction to his annual report that "the year 1964 has not fulfilled the hopes generated by the partial test-ban treaty and the general improvement in international relations in 1963" [A/ 5801/Add.l, p. 1]. 80. In the promotion of economic and social development, the United Nations does not face obstacles as great as those in the way of political conciliation. Here there is at least a starting-point of general interest and universal agreement. But even in this domain, there is a lack of proportion between the immensity of our tasks and the slow rate of our progress. 81. This is the first generation of mankind in which the elimination of poverty, disease and illiteracy has become an objectively attainable goal.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“There has been little progress towards agreement on partial or collateral measures; still less towards a substantive limitation of armaments. 79. Meanwhile, persistent armed conflicts in Viet-Nam, the Congo, Cyprus and Yemen, have taken a heavy toll of life and disturbed international peace, and they threaten to leave a heritage of bitter memory. While wars are waged in some places, they are threatened in others. Governments assembled at Arab "summit meetings" have openly planned and threatened to violate the provisions of the Charter guaranteeing the sovereignty and integrity of all Members of the United Nations.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Our common ends are peace and security; equality and co-operation; the development of our planet's natural and human resources; and the construction of an organized family of sovereign nations reconciling their creative diversity with the overriding solidarities of a new international order. 78. In the past year, the progress of the United Nations towards these goals has been halting. The treaty prohibiting nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water was significant as a first step towards the limitation and control of the nuclear threat. But when a first step is not succeeded by others, it merely confirms a static impression. Indeed, the test explosion in China reminds us that time is working against the hope of nuclear limitation. The Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament has had a lean and hungry year.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Nearly all its nations are now free to take part in a universal discourse. In previous ages, whole regions and continents, great civilizations and cultures, were insulated from contact with each other. Only in our own times does an event or an idea originating in any part of the world communicate its effects across the entire human scene. 76. The United Nations is the central expression of this new global interdependence. It is not just an annual diplomatic conference. It is not only a reunion of national representatives. It brings us together not for the mere sake of assembly, but in common devotion to specific aims and purposes. The Charter tells us clearly what we are; what rights we hold; what duties fall upon us; what common ends we are bound to serve. 77.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“74. When I had the opportunity to congratulate you last week on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly, Mr. President, I expressed the hope that this session would take us further on the road to peace. In reiterating my congratulations today, I express my Government's deep respect and regard for your predecessor, Mr. Sosa Rodriguez of Venezuela, who gave high expression to the traditions of Latin America in international statesmanship. 75. It is our custom in this debate to make an annual re view of the human condition. From no other platform can the future of the world community be surveyed in the spirit of responsible authority which moves us here. This is the first generation in which the great majority of the human race lives in sovereign independence.”
1964-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 19 (1964)
“Israel then reaffirms its faith in the ideals of the Charter; pledges its labours to the advancement of peace and abundance; invokes both its ancient tradition and its modem revival to inspire its faith in man’s capacity to advance through perils and pitfalls, towards the fulfilment of his peaceful destiny.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“57. The General Assembly of the United Nations has a unique eminence in the international life of our age. All nations and cultures, all systems of thought and conduct confront each other here in the overriding solidarity of peace. Science and history have narrowed the margins of safety within which nations used., to dwell. In modern diplomacy the price of success and the penalty of failure have become vaster than they ever were before. International relations are now the decisive preoccupation of our age. Those who labour in these fields may rightly approach their task with a heavy sense of responsibility and dedication.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“The journey of this people across history for 3,000 years, bearing the great message of order and progress in the universal design; its survival by spiritual dedication amidst unexampled violence and hostility; its martyrdom a decade ago, under the most barbarous assault which has ever disfigured human history; its sudden recuperation at the very depths of its agony by its restoration to statehood in its original home; its revival of one of mankind’s oldest cultures; its assault upon the primeval desolation of its country; the rescue which it extended to its kinsmen, remnants of massacre and oppression in Europe and Africa; the establishment of its free institutions; its return to the Community of nations after an absence of 2,000 years — these are all landmarks in a story which, despite its small physical compass, has a quality of grandeur and exaltation which has deeply impressed men of sensitive historical insight in every land.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“While we have reservations on some points, and see unresolved obscurities on others, we respect the broad purposes which have inspired this initiative, and are moving in the proper channels towards its further elucidation/ 55. Recent developments which portend the introduction of new and disturbing factors into our region have created a situation of urgent gravity. Thus, any plan to redress the balance and to strengthen inter-regional security is now of real value only if it is so conceived and formulated as to be capable of very early application. 56. We cannot discuss our country’s fortunes in its region without a glance at the broad vistas of universal history which surround Israel’s view of world affairs.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“Similarly, Israel’s co-operation is assured for any well-founded effort from outside our region to stabilize its security and to advance its progress. 53. In his address to the General Assembly on 23 September [518th meeting], the Secretary of State of the United States announced his Government’s readiness to contribute to s'/ stable settlement by suggestions of which the three essential aspects were, as he described them, irrigation projects, financial assistance in relation to the refugee problem and security. The United States Secretary of State announced his Government’s willingness to enter into monetary and security commitments if those directly concerned wish to contribute to a settlement along these lines. 54. These ideas merit our careful and discerning reaction.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“If we are denied this fair prospect of conciliation, if conflict and controversy are forced upon us, we shall deploy ourselves accordingly. Some might say that our efforts to consolidate our statehood and defend our interests during seven years of relentless siege have not been unsuccessful. But the vision which attends us when we enter this hall ’of peace, is the vision of regional harmony and co-operation. However vigorously our neighbours now reject this prospect, we are convinced that it must finally prevail. 51. It was in that spirit that my delegation last year proclaimed from this platform its readiness to fortify the armistice agreements by new pledges of non-aggression, and of mutual respect for political independence and territorial integrity. We do not regret that suggestion, we uphold it still. 52.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“Only if hostlity is abandoned will a free commerce of ideas, energies and merchandise flow across a region which has all the resources of natural and mineral wealth, of man-power and cultural tradition with which to sustain a rich civilization at the highest levels of the atomic century. Is this not a vision worthy of tenacious pursuit? 49. There are no problems outstanding between Israel and the Arab States which would for so much as a few weeks survive a mutual decision to solve them by negotiation. The tragedy of the Middle East lies not only in the Arab refusal to envisage peace and mutual recognition, but, even more acutely, in the painful consciousness of the rich potentiality which lies so close to our common door. 50.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“These are some of the basic concepts which determine the duties of Israel and the Arab States to each other. 47. Much progress must be made before we achieve even this minimum basis of a formal inter-State relationship. But this cannot be our total aspiration. Even in these discouraging days Israel's vision of the Middle East goes far beyond a mere renunciation of hostility. We are convinced that these two peoples whose encounters in history have been so fruitful for mankind, can, by united effort, restore the past glories of their common region. 48. Israel stands at the very heart of the Middle East, in the centre of its pivotal communications.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“Since these agreements already signed are described in their own text as a "transition to peace”, it is surely an offence against their letter and spirit to maintain them indefinitely without an attempt to extend them into a more, durable accord, and it is still more illegitimate to regard them as a shelter for regulated siege or belligerency. 46. Subject to their obligations to each other in their agreements, Israel and each Arab State are completely sovereign. Israel is thus fully entitled to maintain its territorial integrity, and to apply the elementary principle that those who enter Israel's gates shall be men and women, the central passion of whose lives shall be devotion to Israel's flag, loyalty to Israel’s independence, zeal for Israel’s welfare and security, and a readiness to defend it against all assaults from near or far.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“It is our further contention that Israel and the Arab States are bound to respect each other’s political independence and territorial integrity. They are bound to maintain armistice agreements which define the precise limits of their jurisdiction and which cannot be changed without mutual consent. 44. The obligation to respect armistice agreements is, of course, mutual and reciprocal and does not require Israel passively to accept the encroachment of its neighbours. The Arabs are not entitled to exercise, nor is Israel obliged to suffer, a policy of belligerency and blockade which has been ruled inconsistent with the existing agreements. 45.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“In recent decades, the Arab peoples have been awarded independence in eight sovereign States, thirty times greater than Israel in population, three hundred times as great in area, with unlimited resources of natural and mineral wealth. Israel’s restoration to freedom in its small but cherished homeland therefore constitutes no grievance to the Arab world. Indeed, it would have been an indelible disgrace to the world conscience if an international community which had rightly liberated the Arab peoples on an almost imperial scale, had not been able, in the aftermath of immeasurable Jewish tragedy, to establish Israel’s independence within the smallest margin of territory and resources in which a modern sovereign State can survive. 43.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“40. Instead of rebutting in detail accusations of dubious title and content, I prefer to summarize in positive terms the ideals which guide Israel’s outlook on the affairs of its region. Representatives are, of course, free to place this vision side by side with the doctrine of belligerency, blockade, rearmament and nonrecognition, winch Arab representatives have unfortunately espoused, and to decide which version more closely corresponds to the ideals of the United Nations and to the current mood and outlook of peace-loving mankind. 41. In our conception, the Middle East is a region in which the Arab States and Israel have an unconditional duty to live together in peace side by side. 42.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“A State which seven years ago sent its armies and air force across its frontiers to launch war in an attempt to destroy a neighbouring Government whose establishment was sanctioned by international recommendation; a State which leads the Arab world in its refusal to establish a peace settlement in the Middle East; a State which professes belligerency and exercises a unilateral state of war; a State whose present Foreign Minister once declared that Egypt admits no obligations under the resolutions of the General Assembly and implied that it is even entitled to resist them by force; a State which, with other Arab States, fought a United Nations resolution by armed force and now requires others to honour the recommendation which she and her associates tried to destroy; a State which has publicly avowed her refusal to be bound by the decisions of the Security Council, which alone amongst United Nations resolutions have a legally binding effect; a State which maintains in Suez and Aqaba a blockade condemned by international judgement and by the unanimous opinion of the maritime world; a State which has published communiques boasting that its armed units have penetrated deep into Israel territory, there to spread murder and violence amongst an innocent civilian population; a State from which an influence of tension spreads to every point of encounter with the neighbouring world, northward to the Israel frontier, southward in an attempt to intimidate the people of Sudan, westward in efforts to incite violence across the shores of Northern Africa; a State which, already maintaining a military budget three times the size of that of Israel, invites the horrors of an arms race in the Middle East and seeks to conduct macabre bargains in weapons of death —- is such a State really in any moral condition to denounce its neighbour from the forum of the United Nations?”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“The very first day of our general debate [518th meeting] was marked by an extraordinary tirade on this subject from the representative of Egypt, since echoed by his Arab colleagues. Describing the citizens of a neighbouring State as “a motley horde of invaders” inciting the Arabs neither to live peacefully in Israel nor to tolerate Israel’s existence from outside, he has used the highest international forum as a platform for threatening the integrity and independence of a neighbouring State. 39. Israel is at least as able to withstand these verbal assaults as to resist the more tangible violence which has been directed against her for over seven years, and especially from Egypt in recent months. It is here, more than anywhere else, that we see the incongruity of denunciation. For who is the denouncer?”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“Since the countries which I have in mind happen also to be the inveterate denouncers of Israel in these halls, we have naturally followed their performance with anxiety and with an envious wonderment at their ability to display such a sweeping tolerance of ills within themselves and such a ruthless intolerance of imperfection anywhere else. 37. Now that the atmosphere of discussion between the major world Powers has become more conciliatory and less vehement, has not the time come to exclude the censorious note of rancour which still marks United Nations debates in regional conflicts and in the great discussions on national emancipation? 38. There is no area in which such a change of atmosphere and approach is more urgently needed than in the Middle East.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“Representatives of countries in which slavery is officially practised, in which mutilation is a penalty for theft and decapitation the punishment for non-capital crimes, in which elaborate systems of discrimination still prevail, in which power is concentrated in absolute monarchies or military dictatorships, in which fearful poverty and squalor are fatalistically endured, in which labour enjoys neither the right of free association nor the protection of elementary social legislation, in which such outrages as child labour are officially condoned, stand here in the white raiment of immaculate virtue to denounce others for falling short in the observance of human rights or in the promotion of national independence. 36.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“But it has still not been pointed out with sufficient frequency that those who denounce the shortcomings of others would do well, in all humility, to contemplate their own. Governments which have themselves never provided their peoples with a free election denounce States with free institutions for their alleged lack of democratic zeal. Representatives of countries in which men have few civil rights and in which women have none, appear in our assemblies as the champions of human equality and as defenders of fundamental freedoms.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“Similarly, appeals to all nations to practise tolerance and live together in peace as good neighbours even in times of conflict and dispute are not consistent with the refusal to allow all the nations of the region to practise that tolerance and live together within the confines of a single Conference. 34. We are confident that the peoples of Asia and Africa with whom Israel's ties of friendship are steadily increasing will not on any future occasion allow themselves to be pressed into any surrender of their own most cherished principles of equality and coexistence. 35. In debates on national independence, and in many others, especially those concerning the Middle East and North Africa, some States have been eloquent in describing the imperfections of others.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“The Asian-African Conference of nations held at Bandung early this year, adopted a series of principles, many of which reflect the general ideals of the United Nations. Most nations assembled at that Conference would undoubtedly agree that the test of these principles lies in their honest and unswerving application. Declarations against discrimination lose much of their value when they proceed from an assembly which embodied discrimination in its composition by prejudicially excluding a Member of the United Nations which forms part of the geographical area represented at Bandung.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“Israel is one of many countries which have been established since the Second World War through the evolution of dependent or mandated territories into sovereign States. 32. The transition by so many communities from dependence to sovereignty has been powerfully aided by international judgement. A process of liberation which, but a short time ago, could have been achieved only by forcible secession or revolt can now be promoted by conciliation and international judgement. This, indeed, is one of the most important developments in the international life of the twentieth century. There is still much to be done in this field. But there is already such a swift and favourable momentum, the tide of liberation is so irresistible, that the bitterness and acrimony which have attended discussions of this problem are surely without cause. 33.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“The concept of a world government over-riding national sovereignly has a certain nobility. It is a vision towards which the international order may well evolve over the years as community attitudes strike root more deeply in international life. But the Charter of the United Nations is something quite different. It specifically defines our powers and functions and there would be nothing valuable or idealistic in infringing its terms, even if the motives for such infringement were in all cases beyond reproach. 30. This acute problem of determining the due limits of United Nations jurisdiction has often arisen in the context of debates initiated by the newly-liberated countries of Asia and Africa. 31. The United Nations has played a proud role in the emancipation of dependent communities.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“It was never intended by the authors of the Charter that these provisions should be so stringently applied as to defeat the moral purposes of the United Nations in the broad field of human rights and self-determination. On the other hand, these provisions were certainly meant to be a barrier against headlong encroachments on sovereignty such as that which occurred on Friday last. It is disquieting to assemble today in the absence of a nation whose radiant contributions to the ideals of liberty have left their impress on the best thought and institutions of modern civilization. To repair this crisis and to prevent its recurrence will now demand careful judgement and action. My delegation hopes that the First Committee will move immediately to dispose of that item by deciding to avoid substantive diseussiort. 29.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“The Secretary-General's success in bringing about the release of United Nations troops held captive in China is both a tribute to his personal statesmanship and an example of an enlightened use of international machinery. 27. But the most acute dangers facing the United Nations today are not those which arise from a neglect of its availability. On the contrary, the crisis lies in a tendency to stretch our functions beyond the limits of discretion, and even of law. The powers of the General Assembly are broad, but not unlimited. Indeed, the Charter first restricts them to a capacity of recommendation, and then denies their application entirely to matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State. 28.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“Where any act of international cooperation or discussion could, with equal efficiency, be carried out either inside or outside the United Nations, there is reason, wherever feasible, to make use of the machinery and moral prestige of the United Nations. There are many techniques available to the United Nations in addition to the familiar method of public debate. More use can be made of our Headquarters as a centre for harmonizing the interests of nations and seeking contacts and agreements away from the inhibiting gaze of publicity. Attention should be given to the Secretary-General’s function as a supplementary means of diplomacy.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“The traditions of chivalry and freedom which have grown up across the ages in maritime relations should have their counterpart in the protection and immunity of aircraft innocently traversing the skies. 25. Many successes in recent diplomatic history have been achieved by procedures outside this Organization. We need not begrudge this fact, for our Charter, in Article 33, requests parties to a dispute to seek remedy first of all by negotiation and other peaceful means of their own choice. 26. Nevertheless, it is legitimate to feel concern for the institutional welfare of the United Nations and its organs. There is sometimes a danger of weakness through neglect.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“My delegation will again contribute its best efforts to the work on die Covenant of Human Rights and to the promotion of the aims of the specialized agencies and of the High Commissioner for Refugees. 24. The General Assembly has agreed by unanimous vote to inscribe in its agenda an item proposed by Israel concerning the question of the safety of commercial aircraft flying in the vicinity of, or inadvertently crossing; international frontiers. The submission of this item to the Third Committee reflects my delegation’s intention to treat this matter as a humanitarian question and not as a political or legal problem. In days when so many people commit the safety of their lives to the fortunes of the air, it is urgent to improve procedures for avoiding the disasters which have clouded many homes in many countries in recent years.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“The technical assistance programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the efforts of the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency and of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the regional economic commissions and the co-ordinating activities of the Secretariat have all made the name of the United Nations a byword of humane and disinterested endeavour. Yet many fields remain fallow or peglected. It is urgent to find methods of encouraging international capital investment on terms which are economically feasible to the majority of under-developed countries. 23. The Committees of the General Assembly will again be called upon to examine non-political problems which evoke universal human solidarities across the dividing barriers of national frontiers.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“There is clearly a growing opinion in favour of expanding our membership. The Charter envisages the admission of States which are able and willing to carry out the obligations of the Charter. These, of course, include the obligations for the pacific settlement of disputes and the duty to respect the territorial integrity and political independence of all other States. 21. All States which honour these Charter obligations, which have not repudiated pacific settlement and which do not profess or exercise a “state of war” against a Member of the United Nations, may rightly claim a sympathetic response to their membership applications. 22. The work of the United Nations in the fields ol development and welfare attracts little of the attention which converges upon its political discussions.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“The institutional problems of the United Nations — its membership, its Charter and its procedures — deserve our vigilant care, especially if we believe that this Organization is destined to play an increasing role in the international problems of the next decade. 18. The question of a conference for reviewing the Charter appears on our agenda in accordance with Article 109. But there is need for delicacy of judgement in selecting the circumstances in which a review conference might be held. 19. My delegation agrees that an attempt to revise the Charter might at this stage present more danger than opportunity. However, a review need not necessarily compel the adoption of revisions. It might well emerge, in such a review, that the trouble lies not in the text of the Charter but in its faulty application. 20.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)
“It is indeed hard to comprehend how any Government which values its moral position can give or sell arms to Governments whose primary international objective is to harass, besiege, intimidate, and if possible destroy a neighbouring State with which they refuse to establish peace. It certainly cannot be righteous for any Power to do that which is wrong for another Power to do. Can it be assumed that Israel, or indeed any State in like circumstances, would be content to wait passively while a hostile neighbour, asserting or practising a state of war, strengthened itself for the decisive blow? 17.”
1955-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 10 (1955)