YouSaid · the spoken record

Shaha

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS SHAHA

lines on the record
123
first
1957-09-24
most recent
1962-09-24
sittings or episodes
3
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un-general-debate

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  1. “But it will be a sad day indeed for the believers in the freedom of the smaller nations and the peace of the world if the United Nations, representing as it does the collective moral judgement of the world, feels compelled, for whatever reasons, to accept, without demur, the sacrifice of the freedom of a small Member nation as a pawn in the devilish chess game of international politics which has of late been played, without restraint or shame, out of selfish interests, by various blocs groups, acting and reacting on each other. 60. The cause of the freedom of the small nations has always been dear to us, because in our own history we have prized freedom more than anything else. Our hearts naturally reach out to the people of Hungary in the hour of their trial and suffering. Theirs has been a tragic plight indeed.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  2. “It is true that international politics does not always operate on the basis of morality, but if the United Nations does not abide by its faith in the force and efficacy of the collective moral judgement, it will certainly not be true to its own high principles and purposes. Individual countries, in spite of their profession of high principles, may still in practice be affected by considerations of fear and gain in their assessment of international issues.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  3. “In my opinion, such an attitude of timidity or inaction on the part of the United Nations would have seriously damaged its reputation as an organization pledged primarily to secure the freedom and rights of every Member nation. 58. Because we have failed, for the reasons discussed at length in the earliest part of my statement, to evolve a military arrangement for collective security, must we also desist from the unhindered expression of collective opinion and also from the limited exercise of collective influence and authority in the exclusively moral sphere of judgement and faith in the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter? 59.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  4. “But even with regard to the situation in Hungary, the Assembly has done all that it could to keep the question of Hungary before world public opinion. 57. To those who were inclined from the beginning to believe that the Assembly's action on Hungary would be altogether futile, may I pose a simple and direct question: If the Assembly had passed over in silence the intolerable situation that occurred in Hungary last fall as a result of foreign armed intervention, would it have redounded to the credit of the United Nations in any way? Would such a course of action have better served the cause of peace, humanity and the freedom of smaller nations?”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  5. “Thus, in the case of an armed attack falling under the terms of Article 51 of the Charter, the General Assembly may recommend that Member States come to the rescue of the victim in every possible way, even by means of economic sanctions and military aid. But it leaves to the option of the Member States to implement or not to implement the Assembly's recommendations, inasmuch as there is nothing that makes the Assembly's recommendations legally binding on them. 56. Judged in this context, the inherent limitations in the Assembly's action with regard to the crises of last fall in Egypt and Hungary can be better realized. We have already seen that the Assembly's resolutions on the Middle East did secure the cease-fire and bring about the withdrawal of foreign troops from Egypt.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  6. “Hammarskjold on his re-election as Secretary-General; this is, in itself, a proof of the growing confidence and esteem in which he is held by the peoples all the world over. 55. The Charter empowers only the Security Council to order the use of force for the maintenance or restoration of international peace. All that the "Uniting for peace" resolution seeks to do is to enable the General Assembly, in the event of the paralysis of the Security Council, to make appropriate recommendations to Member States "for collective measures, including in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and security".”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  7. “The concept of the Secretary-General has undergone a change, as clearly shown by the part he was called upon to play by the General Assembly on its behalf in the settlement of the crisis in the Middle East and Eastern Europe last year. He no longer remains an administrator charged merely with keeping the service operations of the Secretariat in a state of efficiency, but has also to afford initiative when the situation calls for it. 54. At the present moment, this Organization has been fortunate enough to have as the Secretary-General a man who combines the qualities of a diplomat and a statesman with a high sense of mission, thus producing a remarkable characteristic of complete detachment, coupled with a rare sensitivity of touch with events and persons. With the President’s permission, I wish to take this opportunity to felicitate Mr.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  8. “The creation of a permanent mechanism by which units of the armed forces of the Member nations can be endowed with the authority of the United Nations and made available at short notice will strengthen the hope and confidence of all peoples in the United Nations as an instrument for securing their rights and freedom. 53. The devolution of those new responsibilities to the General Assembly has made the role and function of the Secretary-General more difficult and complicated, but at the same time more important in the structure and activity of the United Nations. The General Assembly has to rely increasingly on the executive for the implementation of its decisions and even for the interpretation of the finer points and intentions of its recommendations.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  9. “Though it might not be possible for Governments to provide the United Nations with a fighting force so organized as to be employed on the decision of the Security Council, there does not appear to be any difficulty for them in apportioning a small section of their armed forces for use by the United Nations for peaceful and non-combatant purposes such as securing a cease-fire already agreed upon by the belligerents. 52. Let us hope that the lessons of last year's events will not be lost and that Member nations will not lightly dismiss the possibility of achieving something more concrete in this direction.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  10. “But, while it was not entirely based on a new concept of United Nations supervisory action, it certainly implied an enlarged concept. 50. Whatever might have been the criticisms, the intervention of the United Nations through an emergency force in November 1956 certainly brought about the acceptance of a cease-fire and the subsequent withdrawal of the Anglo-French and Israel forces from Egyptian territory. Its action also reinforced the need on the part of the United Nations to equip itself better to meet such contingencies in the future. 51.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  11. “The Assembly, not having any precedent or any appropriate organization, was ill-prepared to undertake this responsibility. It was in the midst of the excitement and anxiety caused by the crisis in the Middle East that it adopted a resolution [998 (ES-I)] empowering the Secretary-General to organize a United Nations Emergency Force within forty-eight hours. Thanks to the indefatigable energy and skill of the Secretary-General and his assistance, the Force came into existence almost at once. 49. It will be admitted on all sides that the Force proved to be very effective for the purpose for which it was created — the securing and supervising of a cease-fire. It was a Force which was created for limited purposes and, as such it was different in character from the kind of force envisaged in the Charter.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  12. “It is because of the failure of the Security Council that the General Assembly is being compelled to arrogate to itself functions for which it is not adequately equipped with powers in the Charter, and which it therefore can discharge only in a pragmatic and ad hoc manner. Nevertheless, in terms of moral force and effect, the Assembly’s recommendations, if made in a responsible spirit and if followed by all ~ of course, two big "ifs” — would carry as much weight as those of the Security Council, perhaps more. Hence the necessity for making available some machinery which might ensure their implementation. 48. The new role that has devolved upon the Assembly appeared in full light when the events that occurred in the Middle East and in Hungary last fall imposed on it the responsibilities for pea. e supervision.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  13. “In these circumstances, it would certainly be unfair to blame the equal voting right given to small nations in the Assembly, or their increasing numbers, for the ineffectiveness of United Nations action. 46. In this connexion, the remark of the Secretary-General, in the introduction to his annual report, merits special consideration: "The General Assembly is not a parliament of elected individual members; it is a diplomatic meeting in which the delegates of Member States represent governmental policies, and these policies are subject to all the influences that would prevail in international life in. any case." [A/3594/Add.1, p.3.] 47.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  14. “Certainly it is not the small Powers that are to blame for the veto provision in the Charter or for the failure of the Security Council to act for security purposes. The big Powers insisted on the right of veto for themselves at San Francisco, and the small Powers yielded in recognition of the influence of the greater Powers in matters affecting international security and well-being. Again, in subsequent years, it has been the attitude and the action of the big Powers that have rendered the Security Council almost incapable of performing the primary function assigned to it by the Charter. The Assembly has no power of enforcement and can only act by recommendation.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  15. “The review of the available collective security machinery by the Members of the United Nations against the background of the developments in Korea caused the adoption, in 1950, of the famous "Uniting for peace" resolution [377 (V)]. the potentiality of which was proved in meeting the challenge which the events in the Middle East and Eastern Europe provided to the United Nations last fall. Thus did the General Assembly come to be used for security purposes only after the Security Council had failed to perform its primary function on account of the use of the veto by one or the other of the permanent members. However, even now, there is nothing in the resolution that will interfere with the effectiveness of the action of the Security Council if only the Council shows itself capable of action. 45.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  16. “Since then, it has become increasingly clear to the world that he permanent members of the Security Council, or the great Powers, are not willing to make their decisions subservient even to a collective judgement when their own political interests are at stake. The veto has been used so very often that it has rendered the original plan of collective security through the Security Council almost impossible of realization. This has brought into vogue the method of referring to the General Assembly what the Council is unable to resolve, and has also given rise to the demand, on the part of many Member States, for other kinds of force than that provided for under Article 43 of the Charter. 44.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  17. “Still, the Council's interventions did help the situation and brought about happy results for peace in Iran, Greece, Indonesia, Kashmir and Palestine. The pattern of the United Nations action in Korea, though made effective by two accidents in history which might not occur again - absence of the most interested permanent member, with its veto, from the Security Council, and the earlier presence of a United Nations commission at the trouble spot — illustrates the possibility of using the United Nations for collective security, though in effect the use of the United Nations forces in Korea was more symbolic than real. 43.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  18. “The founders of the United Nations recognized the necessity of having military forces at its disposal, and it was this realization that led them to write into the Charter provisions which they hoped would bring into being a collective force. Over the years, however, the idea did not materialize because of the deadlock in the Military Staff Committee, as early as 1947, among the great Powers themselves. 42. Their lack of agreement on the question of individual contributions to the force spelled the end of the era of wartime co-operation, which was replaced by the distrust, suspicions and dissensions of the "cold war". No special agreements could be drawn up by the Security Council and other Members as envisaged in Article 43 of the Charter.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  19. “These and other kinds of criticism seem to make out a case for the re-examination of the inherent limitations and powers of the Organization in the light of its experience since the days of San Francisco. 40. It is to be remembered that, ever since its inception, the United Nations has been engaged in the task of supervising what may be described as an uneasy peace and what has been at best the absence of fighting, and sometimes not even that. For example, it has intervened in Korea, in Kashmir or in Gaza in the Middle East. True enough, the United Nations action in this field has been largely pragmatic and ad hoc, but it could not have been otherwise. 41. The Charter took for granted co-operation among the Big Five as a condition of the successful working of the United Nations, but such co-operation was only short-lived.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  20. “It is said that the equal weight of voting which is granted to small nations may lead to the abuse of this right on account of the apparent lack of responsibility on their part, and thus prevent a sort of representative solution of the problems in the real sense. Sometimes, too, it is said that the United Nations could have achieved much more in a positive way, had it only chosen to make full use of the opportunity offered by the creation of the United Nations Emergency Force to bring about the permanent settlement of the Palestine refugee question which lies at the root of Arab-Israel conflict. The United Nations is also accused of adopting double standards on the ground that it has been comparatively helpless against the bigger Powers that have so far been able to disregard its recommendations with impunity.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  21. “Now that the storm has passed and the passions it aroused have at least temporarily subsided, all kinds of opinion and criticism are being voiced about the record and achievement of the United Nations in handling the problems that confronted it last year. These opinions and criticisms have one characteristic in common: they do not quite seem to recognize the United Nations for what it is, and they seem to disregard completely the practical difficulties and limitations inherent in its very structure, as provided for in the Charter itself. They therefore predict a dark and dismal future for the Organization unless something is done to remedy the defects inherent in it. 39.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  22. “His long experience in the work of the United Nations, combined with his personal merit and ability, amply qualify him for the office he now holds. My delegation has not the slightest doubt that he will carry out his responsibilities and duties in a manner befitting the dignity of the office. I also wish to take this opportunity to put on record, on behalf of my Government and delegation, our warm appreciation of the memorable services of his predecessor in office, His Royal Highness, Prince Wan Waithayakon. Against the foreboding background of events that aroused fear, hatred and passions among nations, Prince Wan guided with great wisdom, restraint and skill the proceedings of the eleventh session which proved to be, in the opinion of many, the most onerous and exciting since the inception of the United Nations. 38.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)

  23. “It is my privilege to convey to the President and to my fellow representatives the greetings of my sovereign King Mahendra, of His Majesty's Government and of the people of Nepal, along with their best wishes for the success of this session of the General Assembly. It was the intention of my Prime Minister, Mi. K. I. Singh, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to come here to participate in the work of this session, but, due to the pressing duties of administration at home, he could not be here. He has asked me to convey his apologies to you on this account. 37. At the very outset, permit me to congratulate Sir Leslie Munro, on his election to the high office of President of the twelfth session of the General Assembly.”

    1957-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 12 (1957)