A/38/PV.90 General Assembly

It is for me a source of deep satisfaction that my term as President of the General Assembly coincides with the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it pleases me even more that the General Assembly is giving particular importance to this commemoration. 1. For Latin America the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has special meaning, for at the San Fran- cisco Conference, where the Charter of the United Nations was drafted, it was three Latin American nations -Panama, Mexico and Cuba-which proposed that the Charter should contain an international bill of human rights and, to this effect, presented a draft concerning such a declaration, introduced by the Panamanian jurist Ricardo J. AlfRro. 3. When the San Francisco Conference was unable, for lack of time, to consider the chapter on rights and guar- antees for inclusion in the Charter and decided that this should be one of the priority tasks of the new General Assembly, the Latin American nations pressed their cause in the Assembly and reintroduced the draft they had pre- sented at San Francisco, which was adopted as a working paper. The culmination of this initiative was the for- mulation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on 10 December 1948, as a corollary to the work of the Commission on Human Rights under the chair- manship of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. 4. It has been rightly said that, if one could say that the United Nations had an ideology, that ideology would, above all else, be that of human rights. This means in practice that the provisions of the Universal Declara- tion of Human Rights must be the primary consideration in everything that we do here at the United Nations. We should not forget in this connection the agreement adopted at the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights, held at Teheran, on the importance of the univer- sal enjoyment of the right of peoples and countries to self-determination and of the speedy granting of inde- pendence If.: colonial countries and peoples for the effec- tive guarantee and observance of human rights in general. 5. The Declaration should inspire and guide the policies and strategies of the Member States as well as the Orga- nization for dealing with specific issues and situations, for if we analyse every issue and situation confronting the Organization, we see that in almost every case there is an underlying issue of human rights. Millions of per- sons in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, NEW YORK and many of them perish of starvation. This is an urgent matter which has to do with the right to life. Every day millions of people go without adequate shelter, drinking water and medical and public health services. Here again, the right to life, the right to health and the right to dig- nified standard of living are involved. Many of the con- flict situations in different parts of the world arise from the relations between different national, ethnic, racial or religious groups. Regrettably the rights of minorities are often endangered in these conflicts. Good sense indicates that in order to address these situations properly, we need to take full account of their human rights dimension and to draw upon the knowledge and experience available to the United Nations in this sector. 6. The commitment to human rights stated in the Char- ter is a fundamental element which Member States cannot ignore. This means that we must face and deal appro- priately with flagrant violations of human rights, which, regrettably, are only too common nowadays. Every day we hear of a number of cases of arbitrary summary exe- cution, of forced and involuntary disappearance, of tor- ture, of thousands of persons held as political prisoners, of the inhuman and degrading treatment of persons detained in prison, and of excesses committed because of racial or religious intolerance. In South Africa an oppressive, racist regime denies millions of native inhab- itants recognition of their right to live as human beings and the elementary right to freedom and equality with the rest of their compatriots. It is a disgrace to mankind that such a situation continues in our time. We must also remember the difficult situation of the prisoners of con- science. It is certainly unacceptable that people should be persecuted because of their convictions, beliefs, race, opinions or religion. I hope that in honour of this anni- versary of the Universal Declaration all those detained for those reasons will be set free. 7. Together with the Universal Declaration, we have two admirable instruments designed to encourage Member States still more to amplify the enjoyment of human rights and basic freedoms. I refer to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex] and the International Covenant on Eco- nomic, Social and Cultural Rights [ibid.]. Those who follow the activities in the framework of those two instru- ments agree that serious work is being undertaken and that fruitful, healthy co-operation and dialogue are being developed between States parties and the international community. 8. So far the International Covenant on Civil and Polit- ical Rights has been ratified by 77 States and the Inter- national Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by 80 States. Should it not be one of the priorities of the General Assembly to promote further ratifica- tions of those two fundamental instruments go that they become universally binding and are observed by all States? Is there not a role here for the General Assembly, and should we not consider how we can assist in this task so that by the time we come to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Declaration we shall have made con- siderable progress along the road to universal ratification? ship and no restnctiOns on Ecuadonan or foreIgn JOur- nalists, who can enter and leave the country freely. 129. Ecuador has a noble tradition of respect for human rights consistent with the State structure. Over a hundred years ago the 1878 Constitution stated that the Ecu~­ dorian nation recognizes the rights of man as the baSIS and purpose of tne national institutions. 130. The Political Constitution, in its article 19, guaran- tees the rights of individuals, such as the inviolability of life, personal integrity and the right to full material and moral development. It prohibits torture and all inhuman or degrading treatment, prohibits all discrimination and guarantees equality before the law. 131. In article 44 of the Constitution, the Ecuadorian State "guarantees to all persons, man and woman, that may be subject to its jurisdiction, the free and effec- tive exercise and enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights stated in the declarations, cove- nants conventions and other international instruments in for~e". Therefore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its respective covenants have the status of law in our country. 132. Moreover, in the 1980 Riobamba Charter of Con- duct, Ecuador, inspired by the ideals of. Bolivar, and together with the Governments of <;olo~bIa, Ve!lezuela, Peru Costa Rica, Panama and SpaIn, reIterated In a very impdrtant step in the evolution of human rights, the pledge that' 'respect for human, political, e~onomicand social rights constitutes a basic rule of the Internal con- duct of the States of the Andean Group, that their defence is an international obligation for States and that, conse- quently joint action taken to protect those rights does not vioiate the principle of non-intervention".2 NOTES I Official Reccrds of the General Assembly, Twenty-fourth Session, Annexes, agenda item 106, document A17754, para. 4