"Today, I stand before
the world organization which has succeeded to the mantle discarded
by its discredited predecessor. In this body is enshrined the
principle of collective security which I unsuccessfully
invoked at Geneva. Here, in this Assembly, reposes the best --
perhaps the last -- hope for the peaceful survival of mankind.
"In 1936, I declared that
it was not the Covenant of the League that was at stake, but
international morality. Undertakings, I said then are of little
worth if the will to keep them is lacking.
"The Charter of the
United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: the
abjuration of force in the settlement of disputes between states;
the assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all
without distinction as the race, sex, language or religion; the
safeguarding of international peace and security.
"But these, too, as were
the phrases of the Covenant, are only words; their value depends
wholly on our will to observe and honour them and give them content
and meaning.
"The preservation of
peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights
require courage and eternal vigilance, that the least transgression
of international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied.
These lessons must be learned anew by each succeeding generation,
and that generation is fortunate indeed which learns from other than
its own bitter experience. This Organization and each of its members
bear a crushing and awesome responsibility: to absorb the wisdom of
history and to apply it to the problems of the present, in order
that future generations may be born, and live, and die, in peace.
"The record of the United
Nations during the few short years of its life, affords mankind a
solid basis for encouragement and hope for the future. The United
Nations has dared to act, when the League dared not -- in Palestine,
in Korea, in Suez, in the Congo. There is not one among us today who
does not conjecture upon the reaction of this body when motives and
actions are called into question. The opinion of this Organization
today acts as a powerful influence upon the decisions of its
members. The spotlight of world opinion, focused by the United
Nations upon the transgressions of the renegades of human society,
has thus far proved an effective safeguard against unchecked
aggression and unrestricted violation of human rights.
"The United Nations
continues to serve as the forum where nations whose interests clash
may lay their cases before world opinion. It still provides the
essential escape valve without which the slow build-up of pressures
would have long since resulted in catastrophic explosion. Its
actions and decisions have speeded the achievement of freedom by
many peoples on the continents of Africa and Asia. Its efforts have
contributed to the advancement of the standard of living of peoples
in all corners of the world.
"For this, all men must
give thanks. As I stand here today, how faint, how remote, are the
memories of 1936. How different in 1963 are the attitudes of men. We
then existed in an atmosphere of suffocating pessimism. Today,
cautious yet buoyant optimism is the prevailing spirit.
"But each one of us here
knows that what has been accomplished is not enough. The United
Nations judgments have been and continue to be subject to
frustration, as individual member states have ignored its
pronouncements and disregarded its recommendations. The
Organization's sinews have been weakened, as member states have
proceeded, in violation of its commands, to pursue their own aims
and ends. the troubles which continue to plague us virtually all
arise among member states of this Organization, but the Organization
remains impotent to enforce acceptable solutions. As the maker and
enforcer of international law, what the united Nations has achieved
still falls regrettably short of our goal of an international community
of nations.
"This does not mean that
the United Nations has failed. I have lived too long to cherish many
illusions about the essential high-mindedness of men when brought
into stark confrontation with the issue of control over their
security, and their property interests. Not even now, when so much
is at hazard, would many nations willingly entrust their destinies
to other hands.
"Yet, this is
the ultimatum presented to us: secure the conditions
whereby men will entrust their security to a larger
entity, or risk annihilation; persuade men that their
salvation rests in the subordination of national and
local interests to the interests of humanity, or
endanger man's future. These are the objectives,
yesterday unobtainable, today essential, which we
must labor to achieve. Until this is accomplished,
mankind's future remains hazardous and permanent
peace a matter for speculation.
"There
is no single magic formula, no one simple step, no
words, whether written into the Organization's Charter or into a treaty between states, which can
automatically guarantee to us what we seek. Peace is
a day-to-day problem, the product of a multitude of
events and judgments. Peace is not an "is",
it is a "becoming." We cannot escape the
dreadful possibility of catastrophe by miscalculation.
But we can reach the right decisions on the myriad
subordinate problems which each new day poses, and we
can thereby make our contribution and perhaps the
most that can be reasonably expected of us in 1963 to
the preservation of peace. It is here that the United
Nations has served us - not perfectly, but well. And
in enhancing the possibilities that the Organization may serve us better, we serve and bring closer our
most cherished goals.
"I would
mention briefly today two particular issues, which
are of deep concern to all men: disarmament and the
establishment of true equality among men. Disarmament
has become the urgent imperative of our time. I do
not say this because I equate the absence of arms to
peace, or because I believe that bringing an end to
the nuclear arms race automatically guarantees the
peace, or because the elimination of nuclear warheads
from the arsenals of the world will bring in its wake
that change in attitude requisite to the peaceful
settlement of disputes between nations. Disarmament
is vital today, quite simply, because of the immense
destructive capacity of which men dispose. Ethiopia
supports the atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty as a
step towards this goal, even though only a partial
step. Nations can still perfect weapons of mass
destruction by underground testing. There is no
guarantee against the sudden, unannounced resumption
of testing in the atmosphere. The real significance
of the treaty is that it admits of a tacit stalemate
between the nations which negotiated it, a stalemate
which recognizes the blunt, unavoidable fact that
none would emerge from the total destruction which
would be the lot of all in a nuclear war, a stalemate
which affords us and the United Nations a breathing
space in which to act. Here is our opportunity and
our challenge. If the nuclear powers are prepared to
declare a truce, let us seize the moment to
strengthen the institutions and procedures which will
serve as the means for the pacific settlement of
disputes among men. Conflicts between nations will
continue to arise. The real issue is whether they are
to be resolved by force, or by resort to peaceful
methods and procedures, administered by impartial
institutions. This very Organization itself is the
greatest such institution, and it is in a more
powerful United Nations that we seek, and it is here
that we shall find, the assurance of a peaceful
future.
"Were a
real and effective disarmament achieved and the funds
now spent in the arms race devoted to the
amelioration of man's state; were we to concentrate
only on the peaceful uses of nuclear knowledge, how
vastly and in how short a time might we change the
conditions of mankind. This should be our goal. When
we talk of the equality of man, we find, also, a
challenge and an opportunity; a challenge to breathe
new life into the ideals enshrined in the Charter, an
opportunity to bring men closer to freedom and true
equality. and thus, closer to a love of peace.
"The
goal of the equality of man which we seek is the
antithesis of the exploitation of one people by
another with which the pages of history and in
particular those written of the African and Asian
continents, speak at such length. Exploitation, thus
viewed, has many faces. But whatever guise it assumes,
this evil is to be shunned where it does not exist
and crushed where it does. It is the sacred duty of
this Organization to ensure that the dream of
equality is finally realised for all men to whom it
is still denied, to guarantee that exploitation is
not reincarnated in other forms in places whence it
has already been banished. As a free Africa has
emerged during the past decade, a fresh attack has
been launched against exploitation, wherever it still
exists. And in that interaction so common to history,
this in turn, has stimulated and encouraged the
remaining dependent peoples to renewed efforts to
throw off the yoke which has oppressed them and its
claim as their birthright the twin ideals of liberty
and equality. This very struggle is a struggle to
establish peace, and until victory is assured, that
brotherhood and understanding which nourish and give
life to peace can be but partial and incomplete. In
the United States of America, the administration of
President Kennedy is leading a vigorous attack to
eradicate the remaining vestige of racial
discrimination from this country. We know that this
conflict will be won and that right will triumph. In
this time of trial, these efforts should be
encouraged and assisted, and we should lend our
sympathy and support to the American Government today.
"Last
May, in Addis Ababa, I convened a meeting of Heads of
African States and Governments. In three days, the
thirty-two nations represented at that Conference
demonstrated to the world that when the will and the
determination exist, nations and peoples of diverse
backgrounds can and will work together in unity, to
the achievement of common goals and the assurance of
that equality and brotherhood which we desire.
"On
the question of racial discrimination, the Addis
Ababa Conference taught, to those who will learn,
this further lesson: That until the philosophy which
holds one race superior and another inferior is
finally and permanently discredited and abandoned:
That until there are no longer first-class and second
class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the
color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights
are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race;
That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and
world citizenship and the rule of international
morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be
pursued but never attained; And until the ignoble and
unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in
Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman bondage
have been toppled and destroyed; Until bigotry and
prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest
have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and
good-will; Until all Africans stand and speak as free
beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in
the eyes of Heaven; Until that day, the African
continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight,
if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we
are confident in the victory of good over evil.
"The
United Nations has done much, both directly and
indirectly to speed the disappearance of
discrimination and oppression from the earth. Without
the opportunity to focus world opinion on Africa and
Asia which this Organization provides, the goal, for
many, might still lie ahead, and the struggle would
have taken far longer. For this, we are truly
grateful. But more can be done. The basis of racial
discrimination and colonialism has been economic, and
it is with economic weapons that these evils have
been and can be overcome. In pursuance of resolutions
adopted at the Addis Ababa Summit Conference, African
States have undertaken certain measures in the
economic field, which, if adopted by all member
states of the United Nations, would soon reduce
intransigence to reason. I ask, today, for adherence
to these measures by every nation represented here
that is truly devoted to the principles enunciated in
the Charter. I do not believe that Portugal and South
Africa are prepared to commit economic or physical
suicide if honorable and reasonable alternatives
exist. I believe that such alternatives can be found.
But I also know that unless peaceful solutions are
devised, counsels of moderation and temperance will
avail for naught; and another blow will have been
dealt to this Organization which will hamper and
weaken still further its usefulness in the struggle
to ensure the victory of peace and liberty over the
forces of strife and oppression.
"Here,
then, is the opportunity presented to us. We must act
while we can, while the occasion exists to exert
those legitimate pressures available to us, lest time
run out and resort be had to less happy means. Does
this Organization today possess the authority and the
will to act? And if it does not, are we prepared to
clothe it with the power to create and enforce the
rule of law? Or is the Charter a mere collection of
words, without content and substance, because the
essential spirit is lacking? The time in which to
ponder these questions is all too short. The pages of
history are full of instances in which the unwanted
and the shunned nonetheless occurred because men
waited to act until too late. We can brook no such
delay. If we are to survive, this Organization must
survive. To survive, it must be strengthened. Its
executive must be vested with great authority. The
means for the enforcement of its decisions must be
fortified, and, if they do not exist, they must be
devised. Procedures must be established to protect
the small and the weak when threatened by the strong
and the mighty. All nations that fulfill the
conditions of membership must be admitted and allowed
to sit in this assemblage. Equality of representation
must be assured in each of its organs.
"The
possibilities which exist in the United Nations to
provide the medium whereby the hungry may be fed, the
naked clothed, the ignorant instructed, must be
seized on and exploited for the flower of peace is
not sustained by poverty and want. To achieve this
requires courage and confidence. The courage, I
believe, we possess. The confidence must be created,
and to create confidence we must act courageously.
"The
great nations of the world would do well to remember
that in the modern age even their own fates are not
wholly in their hands. Peace demands the united
efforts of us all. Who can foresee what spark might
ignite the fuse? It is not only the small and the
weak who must scrupulously observe their obligations
to the United Nations and to each other. Unless the
smaller nations are accorded their proper voice in
the settlement of the world's problems, unless the
equality which Africa and Asia have struggled to
attain is reflected in expanded membership in the
institutions which make up the United Nations,
confidence will come just that much harder.
"Unless
the rights of the least of men are as assiduously
protected as those of the greatest, the seeds of
confidence will fall on barren soil. The stake of
each one of us is identical - life or death. We all
wish to live. We all seek a world in which men are
freed of the burdens of ignorance, poverty, hunger
and disease. And we shall all be hard-pressed to
escape the deadly rain of nuclear fall-out should
catastrophe overtake us.
"When I
spoke at Geneva in 1936, there was no precedent for a
head of state addressing the League of Nations. I am
neither the first, nor will I be the last head of
state to address the United Nations, but only I have
addressed both the League and this Organization in
this capacity. The problems that confront us today
are, equally, unprecedented. They have no
counterparts in human experience. Men search the
pages of history for solutions, for precedents, but
there are none. This, then, is the ultimate challenge.
Where are we to look for our survival, for the
answers to the questions which have never before been
posed? We must look, first, to Almighty God, Who has
raised man above the animals and endowed him with
intelligence and reason. We must put our faith in Him,
that He will not desert us or permit us to destroy
humanity, which He created in His image. And we must
look into ourselves, into the depth of our souls. We
must become something we have never been and for
which our education and experience and environment
have ill-prepared us. We must become bigger than we
have been, more courageous, greater in spirit, larger
in outlook. We must become members of a new race,
overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate
allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men
within the human community."
October 6, 1963
