A/31/PV.81 General Assembly

The Assembly will now consider the report of the Fifth Committee on agenda item 102 [A/31/358]. The Assembly will proceed to take a decision on draft resolutions I and II recommended by the Fifth Committee in paragraph 52 and the draft decision in paragraph 53 of its report. 7. It is my hope that the recommendations contained in these five reports will meet with the approval of the General Assembly. 14. Draft resolution I is entitled "Composition of the Secretariat". A separate vote has been requested on operative paragraph 2 of the draft resolution. Pursuant to rule 66 of the rules of procedure, it was decided not to discuss the reports of tM"Fifth Committee.

May I nowinvite members to turn to the report of the Fifth Committee on agenda item 91 fA/31/351]. Since the Fifth Committee adopted the draft resolutions without objection, may I take it that the General Assembly decides to adopt withoutobjection draft resolutions A through J contained in paragraph 8 of its report?

I shall now put draft resolution I, asa whole, to the vote.

We now turn to draft resolution 11, entitled "Implementation of personnel policy reforms". Since this draft resolution wasadopted by consensusin the Committee, may I take it that the General Assembly also wishes to adopt it by consensus?

The Assembly will now turn to the reports of the Fifth Committee on agenda items 101 (a), (c) and (e), regarding appointments to fill vacancies in the membership of subsidiary organs of the General Assembly.

In paragraph 53 of its report [A/31/358] , the Fifth Committee recommends the adop- tion of a draft decision recommending that the Assembly take note of the amendments made by the Secretary- General to the Staff Rulesof the United Nations during the period from I July 1975 to 30 June 1976. I take it that the General Assembly adopts the draft decision without objec- tion. ID. The first report under agenda item 101 (a) relates to the vacancies in the membership of the Advisory Com- mittee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. The draft resolution recommended by the Fifth Committee appears in paragraph 5 of document A/31/311. May I take it that the General Assembly decides to approve that draft resolution, which recommends the appointment of the following persons as members of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions for a three-year term beginning on I January 1977: Mr. Andrzej Abraszew- ski, Mr. C. S. M. MseIle, Mr. Tillba Ouattara and Mr. Chris- topher R. Thomas. Report of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization I!. The PRESIDENT: We turn now to the draft reso- lution dealing with a vacancy in the Board of Auditors, which appears in paragraph 5 of the Committee's report fA/31/313]. May I take it that the General Assembly decides to approve that draft resolution?

The Assembly will now consider the report of the Sixth Committee on agenda item lID [A/31/347}. Thedraft resolution IWS adopted(resolution 31/24).

Weshall now take a decision on the draft resolution recommended by the Sixth Committee in paragraph 7 of its report. The report of the Fifth Com- mittee on the administrative and financial implications of that draft resolution is contained in document A/31/350. Since the Sixth Committee adopted that draft resolution by consensus, may I consider that the General Assembly wishes to do likewise? The draft resolution wasadopted (resolution 31/28).

The Personal Representative of the Head of State of the Republic of the Philippines, Her Excellency Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Marcos, has requested to make a statement. I invite Her Excellency to come to the rostrum.

At this moment of tragedy and sorrow for the people of Turkey, permit me, as the Personal Representative of the President of the Philip- pines, to express the profound sympathy of the Govern- ment and people of the Philippines for the victims of the disastrous earthquakes that have struck their country. Our grief springs not only from our friendship with the Turkish people but also from our deep sense of solidarity with all mankind. 22. Mr. President, I am sincerely grateful to you, and to the Secretary-General, for havingmade it possible for me to address the General Assembly at this plenary meeting on the report of the Sixth Committee, which has just been adopted. 23. My Government desired to emphasize in this manner its profound and enduring interest in the review of the Charter and in improving the workings of the United Nations, an undertaking which it initiated with other like-minded Governments and with which it has pressed forward despite many objections, doubts and misgivings. 24. I am happy to note that the work of the Special Committee has proceeded at an accelerating pace and that Governments have been making constructive suggestions and proposals. These are no doubt valuable and, if eventually implemented, should improve the machinery of the Organization and make it more responsive to the needs of its Members. My delegation will in due course respond to the invitation in the resolution just adopted "to submit, or to bring up to date, their observations and- proposals" in accordance with the pertinent resolution. 25. But I do not intend now to discussstructural changes or procedural reform, important as they may be. Instead, I should like to recall and reaffirm the basic principles of our collectivity, the ethics of our humanity. 26. Last year, when I had the privilege of addressing the thirtieth session of this Assembly in the name and on behalf of the President of the Republic of the Philippines, President Marcos,' I said that the problems facing us today had moral roots and that international relations should be 27. If I have sought to speak at this late stage of the Assembly's deliberations it is because I feel that that proposal has gained in urgency and pertinence, for a storm is gathering overour heads, whichever of the three so-called worlds we belong to, a storm that threatens to destroy us all, whatever our present condition, if we do not return and hold fast to the essentialsof this Organization, which was founded in all faith and hope on the oneness of man. 28. There was a generosity of spirit in the Charterwhen it was written in 1945 that now seems beyond our reach. Somehow, in the past 31 years, we seem to have lost our way, to have lost sight of our originalobjectives. 29. It is already a commonplace to say that we are more and more dlvided-edivided into military alliances, divided into ideological, economic, racial and cultural blocs, each and every bloc begetting a rivalbloc, until we have reached the extremity of a bloc against any bloc, intensifying and magnifying confrontation. 30. Even the very principle of the equality and self-deter' mination of peopleshas raised windsof fear and hatred, for the liquidation of the colonial empires, a process that is now coming to a close, has had unforeseen consequences. 31. Many of the new, nations that have emerged into international life eager to fulfil the expectations of emanci- pation and to exploit for their own benefit the natural resources recovered from alien dominion have been thwarted in these legitimate aspirations by forces beyond their control and, in their anger and frustration, have pitted the strength of numbers against the arroganceof wealth, 32. On the other hand, the very magnitude of their destitution has made the rich and powerful among us fear the loss of their possessions and advantages and has driven them to a subtle but none the less resolute defence of the old economic order. 33. Mustit be so, and why is this so? 34. It seems to me that, in the pursuit of our separate national goals, we have all too often ignored the funda- mental ethical principles to which we all subscribe, even if only subconsciously, at the back of our minds. We have too often fallen back on the old selfish concept of "reasons of State" to justify whatever ends we seek and haveforgotten the simple human being, the common man, for whom the State exists and in whose interests all States must, in the last and most valid analysis, interact with one another. 35 We shall be told that the United Nations, this Organization, deals with political questions, with'national interests and with the balance of forces, that the powerful cannot be expected meekly to surrender their privileged positions and that the weak must resign themselves to the fate of the weak. And we shall be told that it is simply a question of economics; that the i~efficie?t must pay the price of their inefficiency;that the lITIprovldentmust suffer 36. But I submit to the Assembly in all earnestness that these are not simply questions of politics and economics: these are moral questions; tha t is to say, they have to do, not with the intelligence or the will alone, but with the conscience of humanity itself. Human beings alone have the faculty of feeling that it is unethical for the powerful to exploit the weak. A pride of lions would never arrive at such an awareness. These examinations and conclusions of conscience are what distinguish man; they are what raise human beings to their noble category; indeed, they consti- tute the essence of humanity. 37. It is in the very nature of human beings to be aware of the rightness or wrongness of their actions, to pass judgement on their own acts and those of others, and to make the decisions we call ethical. For, indeed, what we know as, or have learned to call, ethics is nothing more than our consciousness of human values; it is nothing more than a sense of our humanitas, our own humanity, for to be human is to be moral. 38. It is in the light of these reflections that I express the hope that, in the review of the Charter, and in particular in considering its provisions on the purposes and principles of this Organization, and in the Chapter on international economic and social co-operation, the following principles will be constantly borne in mind. 39. The first principle is that every human being has a right to life and therefore to the means to sustain life: food, shelter, clothing and work; and that the obligation to satisfy this right rests primarily with national Governments, but that it is shared by the whole world community, particularly by the countries enjoying economic advantages. 40. The second principle is that in extending assistance in the fulfilment of that obligation Governments shall refrain from seeking in exchange political, economic or any other concessions against the will of the beneficiaries or to the detriment-of their sovereignty and independence. 41. The third principle is that economic aggression is as much a breach of the peace and is as much in contravention of the Charter as any other form of aggression, and that there is a consequent need for effective collective measures for its prevention and removal. 42. The fourth principle is that any form of racism or racial discrimination is a denial of fundamental human rights and freedoms and a threat to international peace. 43. The fifth principle is that the original purpose of religion as a unifying force in the service of mankind should be recovered, restored and reinforced. 44. The sixth principle is that all peoples and communities in their search for identity have a prior right to the cultural treasures inherited from their own past. 45. The seventh principle is that this earth-its lands, its seas, its skies-is the common heritage of mankind and that, 46. The eighth principle is that science and technology should benefit all mankind and that its transfer 011 just terms to developing countries should be facilitated. 47. The ninth principle is that mass communication media should be used to disseminate the truth, to educate and to promote understanding and constructive co-operation among nations. 48. The tenth principle is that outer space-indeed, the cosmos-is beyond the dominion and jurisdiction of any State or group of States. 49. The eleventh and last principle is that all States pledge to promote and achieve general and complete disarmament as the best security against the holocaust of war, and that the financial and economic resources thus saved should be used in great measure to provide assistance to disadvantaged nations. 50. I trust that the Members of this Organization will find it possible to achieve unity in the service of the ideal standards of conduct enunciated in those principles. For too long we have been divided by selfish materialist drives, pursuing advantage without regard for the legitimate rights of others, brewing the storm of greed, anger, fear, hatred and improvidence that now hangs over all of us. 51. Indeed, we must often stop short and ask ourselves in wonder. Why do we call ourselves the United Nations? On what and for what were we united when this Organization was born 31 years ago? Were we united then or afterwards in the service of this or that ideology or economic system? Granted that the origins of this Organization may be found in a political coalition to wage global war, was it our true purpose to perpetuate a system of mutually hostile military alliances? Did we unite to ensure the predominance of one race-be it black or white or yellow or brown-over all others? Has our union been dedicated to the propagation of anyone faith or religion or culture? Is this our Organization to be devoted to the advancement of the impoverished at the expense of the wealthy among us, or of the industrialized States to the detriment of the developing countries? Surely not. But, then, what were we united for at the time of the foundation, and what are we united for now? 52. We are united-or, better still, we united ourselves-for humankind, for all humankind; for the Charter, in that bring spring of 1945, was written for man, for the human being. And what a wondrous thing that human being is! Compounded of good and evil, capable of committing the most grievous atrocities, but also of making sublime sacrifices and of reaching up to the stars. 53. In my travels all over the world in the service of my country and people, I have seen what human beings are capable of and what they are worth. I have seen them turning liabilities into assets, problems into solutions, even tragedies into triumphs. From this wondrous power of the 54. Let us come together then-States, Governments, peoples, blocs-in a great movement for humanitas, for humankind, for the promotion of the common welfare through the promulgation and practice of those principles in the relations between States and Governments and-even more important and fundamental-between man and his fellow man. This can dispel the storm that, as I have said, is gathering all over the world. 55. Beyond all the isms that divide and plague us, let us go forward to the ultimate ism, which is humanism. There is the ultimate universality of man which demands from all of 56. There is no condition in life, whether political, economic or cultural, which makes a nation or a people less human or less deserving of human rights than another. Let us, therefore, pledge to fulfil our common obligations. to one another to the whole of humankind, and to posterity I so that the Charter shall in time be the solemn declaration, not of us "the peoples"-separate peoples pursuing indi- vidual interests without regard for others-but of us "the people of the world", united in one world, one and indivisible.