YouSaid · the spoken record

C. Malik

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS C. MALIK

lines on the record: 111
first: 1948-09-24
most recent: 1949-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“True, the General Assembly was a meeting ground; but did one system really confront the other there, was it really challenged by the other, was there a genuine interpenetration between the two orders? It was hardly possible to assert that that was the case. 103. It was inevitable that, so long as one side was completely closed to the outside world, both in space, and in time — and in a sense the self closure against history and tradition was the most grievous — the great ideological conflict could not be resolved. That meant that, in a crowded world, peace was precarious. Unless something happened to alter that whole situation and to render possible real communication between tire two opposing concepts, the despairing feeling would remain that the world was, for the most part, at grips with shadows and not realities.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The radical conflict would persist; or a reconciliation would be effected; or the difference of ideologies would break out into armed conflict. It was the function of the United Nations to promote the second possibility or at least to prevent the third. 102. Reconciliation was impossible without genuine interaction, meeting, debate, humility of spirit, openness of mind, belief in reason and objective truth, and a certain sense of humour. But one side in the existing ideological conflict had hermetically sealed itself from every outside influence, physical or intellectual. There was thus no genuine interaction, no real meeting ground, and the necessary objective conditions for the modification of fundamental positions were therefore lacking.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“It was the responsibility of the great Powers, with their vast and vital interests in that part of the world, to provide the necessary and sufficient external political conditions which would make lasting peace possible. 101. But all those issues really belonged to the periphery of the contemporary world situation. The heart of the matter was the great ideological conflict. A world that had amazingly shrunk was endeavouring to house at the same time two radically contradictory conceptions of reality. There was no agreement whatsoever, not even a distant hope of agreement, with regard to the ultimate categories. Man, matter, the individual, the soul, government, democracy, history, truth, God — all those ultimate things had utterly different meanings as between the East and the West. There were only three possibilities.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The second condition was the removal of the deep sense of fear. Nothing was more obvious than that Israel, left to itself and to the dynamic forces it had set in motion, would tend to expand and to dominate the Arab world. It could be extensively shown that that was precisely the desire of Israeli visionaries. The great Powers might well wash their hands and tell the Arabs that they must agree with the Israelis, that that was their problem, that they would not interfere. But the whole affair, from beginning to end, had been one long series of interferences. To interfere up to a certain point and then, at the crucial moment, to withdraw, was in itself a most cynical form of interference. Peace could not endure in the Near East in the absence of effective international guarantees against aggression.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Those problems would be perfectly manageable if they were not constantly put in the background by other more important matters. 99. Apart from economic development, the sense of deep injustice which rankled in the people’s hearts had to be removed. When that sense found expression in literature, poetry, folksongs and tales of horror handed down from parents to children, and when the situation was viewed as a world conspiracy between the great Powers and the Jews against the Arabs, the problem was clearly a very difficult one. Something had to be done to restore the balance of justice in the minds of the people affected and to convince them that the whole world was not against them. Mere economics, no matter how brilliant, would not restore the sense of justice, nor would prosperity alone remove a deep sense of loneliness. 100.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The Economic Survey Mission would make an historic contribution of the first magnitude to the cause of peace, progress and concord in the Middle East, and the injustice done to the Arab people would be partially redressed, if the former of those two approaches were strictly, understandingly and farsightedly adhered to. 98. The implementation of immediate and long-range schemes of economic development throughout the Middle East was undoubtedly one of the conditions of permanent peace in that part of the world. But economic development alone was not enough. Two other fundamental conditions were necessary for real peace. Those conditions were possible of attainment if only all the Powers concerned could come together and concentrate on their problems.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“It did not want to be isolated from responsible currents of opinion and action. The presence of genuine good will in many, quarters was fully recognized. But the Arab.States did require, and rightly, that no scheme, no matter how alluring, should be offered to them at a political price. It was one thing to attack economic and social problems on their own merits, without preconceived ideas and in a spirit of detachment, in the hope that once they began to yield to expert treatment, a favourable psychological climate would be created for tackling the formidable outstanding political issues. But it was an entirely different thing to proceed on the assumption that the economic and social approach could be substituted for the political, or that the basic political rights of the Arabs could be bought off by economic expedients.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“There again, the statement by President Truman which accompanied the setting up of the Mission had been encouraging. It appeared that the United States was going to lend both its moral and material support to the conclusions of that Mission, conclusions which, it had been asserted again and again by responsible authorities, would endeavour to steer as clear of politics as possible. The Assembly would have occasion, later in the session to examine and pass on the recommendations of the Mission. Every scheme that that eminent American would devise to help the countries of the Middle East face and solve their ultimate social and economic problems would be most carefully and sympathetically examined by the Lebanese delegation. 97. The Arab world had a positive approach to those problems.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“As long as that gap existed, and as long as the flow of capital from the advanced to the under-developed countries was not properly organized, economic development would be governed by the slow evolution of economic processes, with no prospect of any appreciable rise in standards of living for decades and even centuries to come. The Lebanese delegations would pursue its policy of emphasizing that not only in technical assistance, but also in the actual financing of schemes of development, the United Nations must play an original, active and constructive role for the promotion of one of the main purposes of the Charter, that of higher standards of living for all peoples. 96. Another important development was the establishment of the Economic Survey Mission headed by Mr. Gordon Clapp of the Tennessee Valley Authority.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Malik’s view, on a sufficiently large scale and lacked the boldness which the vast problem of under-development required, it was nevertheless an important step towards the practical realization of United Nations objectives in that important field. However, economic development required capital investment; without it, the productivity of the under-developed countries could not be increased and their standards of living could not be raised. No amount of technical assistance would bring about economic development if capital resources were not available for investment in productive undertakings in the under-developed countries. The United Nations had not yet fully faced the problem of the enormous gap between the capital resources of the industrialized countries on the one hand and of the under-developed countries on the other.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“During the four years of almost continuous consideration of the question by the Economic and Social Council, the delegation of Lebanon had played a very important role in the clarification of the purposes and principles of economic development. In fact, its contribution in that field could be regarded as second only to its contribution in the field of human rights. It was the Lebanese delegation which had sponsored and defended, against much discouraging scepticism, the first resolution adopted by the Assembly on technical assistance to under-developed countries, namely, resolution 52 (I) of 14 December 1946. 95. While the plan presented to the Assembly by the Council was not, in Mr.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“A new era might thus be beginning, an era in which increasing numbers of less developed peoples — whose lack of development was partly their own fault, partly the fault of certain historical contingencies, but in no event the unalterable imposition of doom — would be creatively swept into the historical orbit of responsibility and participation. The potential significance of President Truman’s idea could not be over-emphasized. 93. The second hopeful event had been the elaboration by the Economic and Social Council of a plan (A/983) for the organization and financing of an expanded co-operative programme of technical assistance for economic development to be carried out by the United Nations and the specialized agencies. 94.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Other United States leaders had also, in formal statements, associated the Middle East, among other regions, with the President’s programme. It was a principle as old as Aristotle that potentiality must depend on actuality for its own realization; what was possible could not, by itself, realize itself. Consequently, when vast areas of the world, with immense human and material resources, heard the voice of a great country such as the United States proclaim its determination to help in their development, without imperialistic motives, the peoples of those regions had every right to be heartened.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“If the Israeli representatives were to declare themselves prepared to honour in good faith what they had accepted four and a half months previously, there would be a new significant spurt of hopeful activity in the Conciliation Commission’s work. 92. Since the third session of the General Assembly, three developments had occurred which had cast new gleams of hope into the hearts of peoples of the Middle East. The first was the announcement by the President of the United States of his bold new programme for the development of the less developed areas of the world. Mr. Truman, in many of his subsequent statements, had expressly referred to the Middle East as one of the regions he had had in mind in connexion with point four of his inaugural address.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“At a certain stage in those conversations, the Arab and Israeli delegations had agreed — it was, perhaps, the first agreement between them — to a certain definite basis for any further useful continuance of the Lausanne discussions. Certain presuppositions had been agreed upon as forming the basis for further discussion through the good offices of the Conciliation Commission. That procedural agreement, bordering also on the substance of the issue, had been one of the most important events in the recent development of the Palestine question. The Israeli delegation had later shown itself disinclined to abide. by that agreement.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“In so far as the plan was vague on the questions of the restoration of property in Jerusalem and the surrounding area to its rightful owners, and the degree of authority to be exercised by the Arabs and the Jews within their respective zones, it required further clarification and precision. The Lebanese Government would, however, be willing to take it as a basis for discussion and consideration. 91. The Conciliation Commission had held a long session in Lausanne. The French, Turkish and United States members of the Commission deserved sincere congratulations for the tact, patience and detachment with which they had carried out their difficult task. The delegation of Lebanon had played an active and constructive role at the Lausanne conversations.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Any plan which concerned itself only with the internationalization of specific sites within Jerusalem was inconsistent both with the intentions of the Assembly as expressed in previous resolutions and with the wishes and interests of the three world religions. There could be no safety or security for the Holy Places within Jerusalem unless the whole city were removed from the sovereignty of either party currently occupying it. 90. The Lebanese Government’s attitude to the plan presented by the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (A/973) was governed by the extent to which that plan fulfilled those conditions.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Any plan for the internationalization of Jerusalem must fulfil the following conditions: it must eliminate the possibility that the area might again become a battleground; it must assure the protection of, and liberty of access to, all Holy Places and religious sites, buildings and institutions; and it must allow and make possible the restoration of private property and public trusts to their rightful owners in accordance with conditions prevailing before the termination of the British Mandate. 89. In order to fulfil those conditions, the elimination of sovereign authority wielded within Jerusalem by specific States was essential. In its place, the international community must exercise full, unrestricted, and inalienable sovereignty and authority.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The "City of Peace” was currently occupied by the forces of two sovereign States which only recently had been at war and which might perhaps be at war again in the near or distant future. Unless the entire city of Jerusalem with its surrounding areas were removed completely and permanently from the jurisdiction of that it would not again be damaged and perhaps altogether destroyed. 88.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“If at that historic moment the western Christian world were to allow itself to be overwhelmed by political considerations and, therefore, to falter in its determination to place Jerusalem above the struggle of Jew and Arab, history would one day reveal a tragic bankruptcy in Christian statesmanship. Jerusalem belonged to the whole world, not only to those who lived there. The Assembly would fail in its duty towards the international community if it did not grasp the opportunity to put into effect a regime in which the rights and interests of Christians, Moslems and Jews were made effective. 87. The past year had witnessed a war in Palestine in which Jerusalem itself had not been spared.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The current session offered what might be the last occasion to remove Jerusalem permanently from the danger of further damage or destruction, and to satisfy the deep desire of the Christian world, as expressed repeatedly in recent months by the Pope and many other Catholic spokesmen, as well as by the spiritual leaders of other denominations, for a truly international regime for the Holy City. If was also a unique occasion because, for the first time in history, the Moslem world was freely offering to share the custodianship of one of its most sacred places with the other great world religions.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Malik recalled that he had taken part, both in the Economic and Social Council and in the Third Committee, during the second part of the first session, in the elaboration of the constitution of the International Refugee Organization. The Lebanese delegation believed that some organ capable of taking full care of the needs of refugees, and especially of the children among them, should be set up at the current session of the Assembly to replace the International Refugee Organization. 85. Mr. Malik then turned to the question of Jerusalem. The task facing the Assembly in regard to Jerusalem was to give effect to General Assembly resolutions 181 (II) and 194 (III) of 29 November 1947 and 11 December 1948. Both those resolutions called for the establishment of an international regime for Jerusalem and the surrounding area. 86.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“It was therefore incumbent upon the General Assembly, at the current session, not only to reaffirm those principles, but also to give them concrete content and shape, and to set up adequate machinery for their implementation. To divert attention from those principles would serve only to prolong the agony of the refugees and to intensify the tension and potential struggle in the Near East. It would also bring about a serious deterioration in the social and psychological situation in that area. 84. The Lebanese Government’s deep concern for the Palestine refugees did not blind it to the situation of other refugees in other parts of the world. The International Refugee Organization was to be dissolved in 1950. Mr.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The ultimate fate of one million human beings should not remain indefinitely undecided; the dignity and self-respect of those men and women could not be preserved or regained by precarious international charity. 82. The General Assembly had already committed itself, in its resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, to the principles on which the permanent settlement of .the problem must be based; namely, repatriation for those refugees who desired to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbours, and compensation for those who chose not to return. There was also the implicit obligation that the General Assembly would guarantee to those who returned to their homes full observance of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. 83. But those principles had not so far been put into effect.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Acheson, Secretary of State of the United States, declare at the 222nd meeting that, as an interim measure, the General Assembly should make the necessary provision for the maintenance of those refugees until the time when they could again become self-sustaining members of the Near Eastern communities. The Lebanese delegation would place its full knowledge of the tragic problem of Palestine refugees at the disposal of the General Assembly when the matter came up for debate and decision. 81. While continuing the temporary relief measures, it was imperative for the General Assembly to take effective measures to apply the principles it had formerly affirmed. The problem of the refugees was much more than a humanitarian problem; it could not be adequately settled by measures of relief alone.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“But since the adoption of the Charter, the individual had also become the concern of the United Nations in that important domain. One important way of implementing that principle, which was fully embodied in the Charter and which had received further concrete expression in the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was for the United Nations to concern itself with any alleged specific violations of human rights. The tremendous significance of the item on the agenda was that the sovereign State was no longer the sole and final judge in the treatment of its citizens in the field of human rights; it was subject to the vigilance and to the moral judgment, at least, of the organized community of nations. 80. The Palestine refugees had been heartened when they had heard Mr.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Malik did not wish to commit himself in advance to any judgment as to whether the Bulgarian, Hungarian and Romanian Governments had or had not violated fundamental human rights in their respective countries. Indeed, he would be very happy if, as a result of the examination of the question; it became evident that no such violation had been committed. He emphasized, however, that the inclusion of that item in the agenda was a very significant fact, inasmuch as it constituted an historic precedent as far as the safeguarding of human rights was concerned. 79. The United Nations was bound by its own Charter to promote the universal and effective observance of human rights. Prior to the adoption of the Charter, the individual, as far as his fundamental human rights were concerned, had been exclusively the subject of his Government.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The Lebanese position on the question of the former Italian colonies Was the same as it had been at the third session of the Assembly. Lebanon desired that those territories should, in accordance with the wishes of their inhabitants, attain full self-government as soon as possible. With regard to Libya in particular, the Lebanese delegation was glad to note a general acceptance of the principle of granting unity and speedy independence. However, the mere political solution of that problem was not enough; Lebanon would also press for the inclusion of the former Italian colonies in any scheme of economic development under the United Nations. Political independence was a great-blessing, but it would not last where there was no sound economic organization having as its constant aim the raising of the standard of living of the people. 78. Mr.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The delegation of Lebanon would support every measure designed to strengthen Greece against any danger from the north and to restore to the Greek people their inalienable right to unity and security. 76. The struggle of the Indonesian people for freedom and independence had naturally elicited much sympathy in Lebanon. It was generally hoped that the conference which was being held at The Hague would culminate in the final solution of that problem, and that another free Asian republic might soon be welcomed into the family of nations. The Lebanese delegation therefore hoped that the natural rights of the Indonesian people would be satisfied by mutual consent in such a manner that the Indonesian question could be struck off the agenda. 77.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“Mr. C. MALIK congratulated the President on his election. There was a general hope among the President’s many friends that the United Nations might, under his leadership, set a landmark in the all important effort for the strengthening of peace. 74. Mr. Malik wished to indicate in general but precise terms the views of his delegation on those items on the agenda in which it was particularly interested. 75. The Greek question had again come up for consideration by the Assembly. Ever since the dawn of history, Lebanon had had intimate and fruitful relations with Greece. In recent years, it had endeavoured to re-establish a community of interest and intercourse with the brave Greek people; while Greece had still been under German occupation, the free Greeks had held a decisive conference in Lebanon.”
1949-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 4 (1949)
“The most important issue in the order of truth at the present time was what constituted the proper worth and dignity of man. That would be the central theme in the debate on the declaration of human rights. Unless that issue were rightly settled, there would be no meaning to any other settlement. Korea, Germany, Palestine and atomic energy could not be settled if that central issue were left unsettled, for a peace and a settlement in which man were left ambiguous, estranged from himself and from the truth, would be meaningless.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“All realized by now that the ultimate issues of the present were ideological, and it must therefore be clear that even the political excitement of the First Committee derived its pathos and significance from the underlying ideological conflict. Superficial people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had ridiculed the classical ages of faith. They were now paying the price of their faithless superficiality by living in the middle of the twentieth century in one of the most fearful ages of faith the world had ever known. Faith had thus come back on man with a vengeance; the vengeance of the dark and primitive. For it was dangerous to neglect the mind and spirit of man; it was dangerous to poke fun at the logos. The neglected logos would always avenge itself by perverting both itself and the world.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“If they belonged to the essence of man, should they not also be grounded in a Supreme Being who, as the lord of history, could guarantee their meaning and their stability? It was those final issues which would be explicitly or implicitly decided in the Assembly’s treatment of the draft declaration of human rights. There was no happier augury for the decision than the fact that it would take place in Paris, the matchless city of light and freedom. The topics to be examined by the First Committee were full of excitement, but such excitement came and went. What would abide was the final issue of principle in the present world situation.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“Could an individual ever be free if he belonged to a society where the intermediate grounds of freedom were not themselves free? Then there was the question of the order and structure of man’s rights. Had they all equal validity and equal importance, or was there an order of depth and hierarchy? Finally, there was the question of the nature and the origin of those rights. Were they conferred upon an individual by an external visible power such as the State — or now by the United Nations — so that what was now granted might some day conceivably be withdrawn, or were they part of the essence of man, so that if they were violated in any way, he ceased to be a human being at all?”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“Thirdly, there was the question of man’s relationship to society, of whether he was socially determined or whether he could criticize and rebel and refuse to conform. Fourthly, there was the question of relationship to the State. Was the State an original, uncreated, unanswerable absolute so that, in the determination of an individual’s rights and freedoms, he was wholly its creature, or was it answerable to something higher than itself? Fifthly, there was the question of the intermediate institutions between the State and the individual, institutions like the trade unions, the home, the church, the university and the intimate circle of friends. Did those intermediate institutions possess a certain autonomy of their own and were they totally overwhelmed by the determinations of the State?”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“It would complete the Charter itself by defining what had been intentionally left undefined in it, and, thus, the ordinary citizen throughout the world would be able to say, «Now the ambiguity is removed; this is what my Government at San Francisco pledged itself to have faith in and to promote, encourage, respect, observe and realize.» Decision on the declaration of human rights would entail decision on some of the deepest issues of the present day. There was first the proper dialectic between right and duty. The question arose whether man had only rights and no duties, or whether his freedom was precisely for the sake of certain essential duties which he ought to perform. There was next the question of material economic rights and of how far economic rights extended without upsetting other values.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“Roosevelt, who had brought to the task dignity, authority, understanding and an unusual breadth of sympathy, the Commission had laboured for two years on its assignment. The first fruit of its labours had been the draft declaration of human rights, now before the General Assembly, which he considered one of the most important fundamental texts thus far put out by the United Nations. After it had been reviewed and adopted by the General Assembly — which the Lebanese delegation thought should be done at the present session — it would not be an ordinary resolution like any other resolution; it would fill the void unavoidably left by the framers of the basic law of the United Nations.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“Nowhere did it define human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Charter reaffirmed faith in fundamental human rights; it pledged Members to promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It further spoke of «assisting in the realization» and «promoting the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms». But what were those rights and freedoms? On that crucial question the Charter was completely silent. The Economic and Social Council had been quick to perceive that lacuna in the Charter and to set about filling it. It had instructed its Commission on Human Rights to proceed at once to the elaboration of an international bill of rights which would give content and meaning to that pregnant phrase of the Preamble, «the dignity and worth of the human person». Under the inspiring leadership of Mrs.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“The Charter went even further than that, for, in Article 55, peace and war themselves were made functions of human rights. Furthermore, apart from the five principal organs of the United Nations and the Military Staff Committee, the Commission on Human Rights was the only other organ mentioned by name in the Charter. That Commission, therefore, enjoyed a unique statutory position. The Charter not only spoke in such vague terms as «promotion» and «encouragement» of human rights; it laid equal emphasis on their actual «observance». It was thus impossible for the United Nations to disown its origins; it was impossible for other issues, no matter how urgent and important, to displace the question of human rights from the centre of vision. But it was patent that the Charter in that respect was incomplete.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“To forget that cause of the war would be tragic, for then indeed the war itself would have been fought in vain. The United Nations was itself the outcome of a war the whole moral planning of which was imbued with the issue of human rights. Human rights were mentioned seven times in She Charter. The first few lines of the Preamble read: « We, the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small... » Thus, the determination concerning human rights came second only to the determination concerning peace and war.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“The problem of human rights was another matter which deserved special consideration. The Economic and Social Council was transmitting to the General Assembly three types of documents in that field: a draft declaration of human rights, three draft conventions concerning freedom of information (E/Conf. 6/79) and a draft convention on genocide. All three documents were of the utmost importance, but Mr. Malik would draw particular attention to the declaration on human rights. The problem of human rights certainly lay at the heart of the compact made by Members of the Organization. The previous war had been fought in part because fundamental human rights had been contemptuously trampled on by Nazi Germany. That particular cause of the war had been given classical expression in the four freedoms enunciated by the late President Roosevelt.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“Concentrating on a specific region, fixing their aims on two or three fundamental problems, drawing their zest from the community of interests and culture permeating their area, and bringing to bear upon their task the collective wisdom of the world Organization, the regional Commissions were the natural collective instruments whereby the United Nations could effectively discharge its obligations under the Charter, with, naturally, the full co-operation of the specialized agencies. It was true then that the unity of the United Nations, in so far as it existed, could make itself felt in a practical way by bringing about the wholesome, collective, unbiased development of large regions of the globe which would otherwise remain a pitiable prey to their own impotence or to the unchecked influence of some mighty Power.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“The Economic and Social Council would miss its greatest opportunities if it became only a forum where national policies met and clashed, or a passive recipient of proposals separately and diversely conceived. The Economic and Social Council should be an original, creative and effective agency, launching bold and responsible schemes of development. It was in that respect in particular that the regional Commissions would seem to have to assume a great responsibility.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“In economic and social matters that association should not be only an honorary title. Economic and social advancement was of the very essence of the Charter. Consequently, the United Nations, and especially the more fortunate of its Members, must feel creatively concerned for the material and spiritual welfare of their less fortunate fellow- members. Otherwise the present anomaly would continue, namely, that certain Non-Self-Governing Territories would be better looked after economically and socially than certain Members of the United Nations, and membership in the Organization would, so far as the less-developed nations were concerned, cease to have the high premium that ought to be placed upon it.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“Hitherto such assistance had come as a result of bilateral arrangements with the more-developed countries, and doubtless that method would always be available. The question should nevertheless be raised as to whether the United Nations as such had not some responsibility towards the less-developed among its own Members? Should those Members, already sufficiently unfortunate either by reason of their remoteness from the centre of things or by reason of their strategic position, be perpetually left at the mercy of their own impotence or — what was equally disabling — of the ruthless rivalry of the great Powers? Mr. Malik believed that the United Nations must assume basic responsibility for the welfare of its Members. Association with the United Nations must mean something positive, and not only in the field of security.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“It was clear that the economic and social welfare of the Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories was the sovereign responsibility of certain Members of the United Nations. But within the United Nations itself there were more and there were less economically and socially developed Members. It might be asked who was responsible for the development of the less-developed countries which were Members of the United Nations. That question obviously concerned considerably more than half the membership of the Organization. It was all very well to speak in that connexion of independence and of sovereign equality; it was all very well to say that each Member State would look after its own interests. But what if some could not do so? What if they required external assistance and advice?”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“The growth of regional economic commissions raised fundamental problems for international co-operation and for the structure and responsibilities of the United Nations. The development of economic regionalism had been feared, in certain quarters, as possibly leading to economic regional autarchy, and therefore interfering with the free movement of trade. The chief argument that ought to dispel that fear was that a development was taking place inside and not outside the United Nations. While fully concentrating on a particular region, a regional commission could and should be properly integrated into the total pattern of world economy. It was fully within the power of the Economic and Social Council to modulate, restrain and co-ordinate the activities of its subsidiary regional bodies.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“There was great tribulation in the Middle East at present but constructive and farsighted statesmanship would never allow such tribulation to stand in the way of economic, social and cultural development. In fact that great tribulation had arisen because the development had not taken place. Once that development took place, the unnatural and much exploited difficulties of the present moment would take care of themselves. If the proposed Economic Commission for the Middle East were established — and he thought that should be done immediately — and if its growth were wisely conceived and conducted, it might prove to be a far better agency for peace than many a decision by the Security Council or by the General Assembly.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“Seeking to attack its substantive problems with the co-ordinated assistance of the specialized agencies, it was moving cautiously and experimentally into such areas as agricultural prices, credit and capital investment, manpower and immigration, and the working out of a comprehensive economic survey of the entire region. The Middle East was one of the major underdeveloped areas of the world. It had untold natural resources; it occupied a unique strategic position; its peoples could rise to the highest attainments of culture and feeling, as they had repeatedly proved in their long and checkered history. The highest values in civilization owed an incalculable debt to the Middle East. It was not too much, therefore, if the United Nations should, in all sincerity and justice, help the peoples of the Middle East to develop their possibilities.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)
“Moreover, an important step in the direction of grappling with practical problems had been taken by the establishment of a Bureau of Flood Control for Asia and the Far East, which had been recently authorized by the Council. There were long-term plans, for annual surveys, for close co-operation with the specialized agencies, especially with the FAO in dealing with the food problem, for increasing the number of trained technicians and administrators, for the development of agriculture and industry, and for the rehabilitation and expansion of the transport system throughout that vast region. Youngest of the regional commissions was the Economic Commission for Latin America, in its session in Santiago de Chile, in June 1948, it had considered both its organizational and its substantive problems.”
1948-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 3 (1948)