A/40/PV.1 General Assembly

I should like to congr8tulate most warmly my distinguished predecessor, Ambassador Paul Firaino Lusaka, President of the thirty-ninth session. Bis outstanding performance, marked by objectivity and impartias. !ty, will be remembered by us all for a long time to come. I am deeply grateful to this Assembly for the confidence it has reposed in me by c:hooaingme to serve as its President this year, the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the united Nations. This is a great honour and represents the pinnacle of my long career, nearly 30 years of which have been spent in the United Nations. On the strength of these many years, I should like to make a number of remarks. The United Nations has reached maturity. At 40, it is old enough to have the good judgement and prudence which are necessary to turn its attention and project itself towards the future. But such maturity is not enough. It should be recalled that when this kind of international organization first appealred the world, weary of all the fighting, of so much war and destruction, was seeking peace, eoonomic recovery and stability. And so the suspicion and the distrust which marked the period before the war gave way to trust and hope. The world made a SPectacular economic recovery, but at the same time suspicion and distrust returned. It is hardly a secret that the United Nations is going through a crisis of prestige. The Organization has apparently not lived up to the hopes which the world placed in it when it was founded and indeed we ought to reflect on the reasons why the Organization has been such a disappointment to those who placed ..... their trust In it. The main reason is perhaps the widespread ignorance about what the United Nations is, what it represents and what it can do. (The President) Drawing on my own experience, I can recall 'the great prestige which the United Nations enjoyed in the 1960s, when it captured the interest of the media in this country and throughout the world, in large measure as a result of the news generated by the international Organization, which was involved in a great many positive activities. However, by the late 1960s it seemed that the media were no longer as interested in what was going on in the Ur.ited Nations or were more critical of it, and not because it was doing less. It is unlikely that all the decisions of the United Nations a~e supported by all Governments or, of course, by all segments of world public opinion, but there can be no denying that they reflect the general view of the international community, which considers that the appropriate steps have been taken to remedy the situation. But while those undoubtedly reflect the feeling of the majority in the General Assembly, the position is not the same in one of the other main org~ns. I am referring, of course, tc ~~l'~ Security Council. What does the United Nat~,cms do when a crisis occurs? That is what everyone asks. Well, the United Nations does neither more nor less than its Member States want it to do. Let us not forget, moreover, that the United Nations has no executive power to enf~rce its decisions and that, if a conflict is referred to the security Council and the Council fails to take a decision, either because the necessary votes are lacking or because someone exercises the veto., the Organization should not be faulted for ineffectiveness or impotence. The Organization was created that way and that is how it must be accepted, at least as long as its structure is not changed - something which would be neither easy nor, perhaps, advisable at the present time. We must face the fact that either we take the united Nations as it is or it will disappear, It must also be recognized that the major Powers, particularly the supe~-Powers, although they have used the Org~,ization as a forum in the past and may even do so today, do not seem to regard (The President) it as essential for the defence of their interests, whereas it is plain that the rest of us do need it. Despite the Organiza.tion's shortcomings, substantii!ll progress has been made in many areas. The list of its achievements is endless; there are the United Natims emergency forces and its activities in the social, economic, legal, administrative and other spheres. I would cite the example of decolonization, the liberation of peoples and the reaffirl\lltion of the pr inciple of self-dete"mination or territorial integrity, as the case may be. This year we are celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of resolution 1514 (XV), accepted as the basis fOl deco1onization. Moreover, the United Nations is extremely valuable. It has channelled some conflicts and ended others, but has become bogged down in many. Yet it cannot be that bad - far from it - when the commemoration of its fortieth anniversary this year coincides with that of two other events which occurr~d the same number of years ago: the dawning of the atomic age, with its attendant horrors, and the end of the Second World War - 40 years without a global conflagration. Does this mean that we have enjoyed peace during these 40 years? Can we feel complacent because we have avoided a third world war? Absolutely not. So many major or minor conflicts have arisen since the second World War that there are absolutely no grounds for complacency. Even in periods of calm, when conflicta have been reduced to a minimum, we cannot say that peace has prevailed. For those who die or are wounded or disabled at the hands of their eneMY or adversary, not to mention the victims of terr( dsm and apartheid, the scale of the conflict or the re~sons invoked to justify it are not important. For those who suffer, including those who have been forced to abandon their homes, the extent of the conflict is irrelevant. In fact, these have been frustrating years because periods of calm have not been used to resolve conflicts or, at least, initiate mediation that might resolve them. Attempts have been made but, thus far, efforts have failed. The world is living in a state of perpetual uncertainty brought about by the lack of security. In order to be able to enjoy peace, we need to have security, which means that we must always have the means to guarantee it this security. This has led to a conventional and nuclear arms race of such alarming proportions that weapon stockpiles continue to grow and no one knows when they will stop. We are already spending over $1,000 billion, i.e. one million million dollars, a year on an arms race which is truly terrifying. And to think that if even part of these resources were released, we could put an end to all the hunger and misery in the world. Is it that the United ~'ati1)ns is unable to rise to events? I do not think that the United Nations is unequipped for the job. On the contrary, I believe that the Charter remains a valid instrument today. The truth is that the United Nations o~ght to return to the idea that prevailed in its early years. The opening paragraph of the preamble to the Charter reads: ~e 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, ••••• The next paragraph reaffirms fundamental human rights, the dignity and worth of the human person, the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small and a subsequent paragraph calls for respect for the obligations arising from treaties. Again, when the Charter refers specifically to the "purposes and principles of the Organization·, the first reference it makes is to the maintenance of international peace and security and to ·collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace". Here then we have the essence of the United Nations and, if we do not return to it, that is, to the maintenance of peace and security and to the adoption of measures to prevent and remove threats to peace and security, we shall be frustrating the aims of the Charter and the objectives that we pursue through it. Thus, if instead of waiting for events to happen we were to take steps to prevent them from happening, we would be strengthening this Organization and, of course, fUlfilling our obligations under the Charter. I remember how, on a past occasion when one of :he conflicts which have remained with us the longest first arose, at the most critical moment someone highly placed in th~ Organization said to ~-. (The presideni;). this incipient conflict may have to get worse before it can begin to get better. And so it was and so it continues to be. What a tragedy: so let us return to the origins of our Chart·,: and let us respect it. But let us do more preventive work before confliots Q~~elop. As long as we fail to achieve those objectives and to see" mean~ of preventing conflicts, we will always be de0med to poverty, hunger and m...sery. The Charter is not a bad document, though it could not have been anticipated that the Organization's original membership of 51 States would in time glOW to today's membership of 159 - and there are still some more to be admitted. The sad thing is that the Charter ls often not adhered to. How many periodic meetings have been held by the Security Council? Only one, with Spain as President, incident.ally. Now another one has been convened at the ministetial level. Could there not be some high-level meeting of the Ec~nomic and SOcial Council to solve various economic and social problems? How many conferences have been held to review the Charter? Not one, even though the Charter is clear on that point. Has full use been made of Chapter VII of the Charter? Nevertheless, when the Members of this Organization understood, for example, the incongruity of Article 27, under which the affirmative vote of all the permanent members is required fo, decisions of the security Council, they realized that this was a double veto, which the authors of the Charter had not intended to grant. In other words, the Charter was being reviewed because the letter was not \ in keeping with the spirit. Would it not be possible also to control not the use, but the abuse of the veto? Let us abide by the provisions and let us remember, above all, the position of the Secretary-General within the framework of the Charter, for his role is (The President) extremely valuable. And if, as i~ now the case, we are fortunate enought to have the ability, expertise, skill and tack of a Perez de Cuellar, let us make good use of him and of the Secretariat in the interest of international peace and security and in the interest of the Organization. ·United Nations for a better world· is the theme 9f our fortieth anniversary. Let us indeed hope that the year 1985 will mark the beginning of an era of durable and global peace and justice. This entire session will be considered to be in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary, and specifically, we hope that 24 OCtober 1985 will also coincide with the proclamation of the International Year of Peace. But we must not mere~y pro~laim it; let us put an end to existing conflicts. Let us use this important anniversary to restore to the United Nations the prestige it needs in order to be viewed not with irritation or with suspicion, but rather as an organization primarily committed to maintaining peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, and achieving international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or humanitarian character, as an organization which serves as a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of those common ends. In short, let us commit ourselves to multilateralism. If Member States stopped giving frae rein to their self-interest in certain situations and made an effort to subordinate it to the common good of mankind, we would be on the way to finding solutions to many conflicts. To try to make might right or to make self-interest take precedence over the interests of others would mark a major step backwards in the ongoing quest for peace. Let us put aside self-interest for the good of all and let us seek a better world through the united Nations. Let us be stinting in our efforts. Present and future generations will thank us for it. ORGANIZATION OF WORlt The PRESIDENT (interpretation from Spanisb~: As announced in the Journal, 1JImediately follOllil19 this ~lenary meeting we shall bold consecutive laeetings of the Main CotmIittees for the purpose of electing their Chairmen and, thereafter, the second plenary lHeting will be convened for the election of the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly. At this point and before adjourning tt-e first plenary meeting, I should like to draw the attention of representative..! to th~ fact that no candidate has been nOllinated for the chairunahip of the Special Political COIIlllittee. Hence I propose that the other Main Committees of the AsseDOly proceed first to· the election of their respective Chairmen after which the first meeting of the Special Political COBmittee will be convened for the purpose of electing the Chairman of that Ca.aittee. It was so decided. The meeting rose at 4.10 p.m.