SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN BANQUET TOAST, SALUTES TURKEY'S CONTINUING SUPPORT TO UNITED NATIONS
Press Release
SG/SM/5995
SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN BANQUET TOAST, SALUTES TURKEY'S CONTINUING SUPPORT TO UNITED NATIONS
19960530 Following is the text of a toast given by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali at a banquet hosted by the President of Turkey, Suleyman Demirel, in Ankara.I am honoured to be here today in this land of history and modern achievements. It is always a privilege for the Secretary-General to visit a founding member of the United Nations. In your eloquent phrase, Mr. President, it was Turkey and the other 50 original Members who saw, in the United Nations Charter, "the road map to a new international order".
The United Nations is at once the portrait of the global community and its mirror. It personifies the world and reflects the urging and mandate of its people. It affords to the weak and the dispossessed the same rights of representation and redress as it does the strong and secure.
As the leader of Turkey's delegation to the very first session of the United Nations General Assembly phrased it, "the establishment of future peace... must be built on new and solid foundations in tune with the rights and essentially human aspirations of nations".
The very first words of the United Nations Charter referred to "the peoples of the United Nations". It is they who determined to combine their efforts and empower their respective governments to establish an international organization.
Thus, while the Organization was established by governments, it was, from its very genesis, one of peoples. The cold war distorted that basic, essential truth and compelled a picture of international relations governed by the suspicions, antagonisms and hostilities between States.
In the process, the people were separated from the very institution given birth by their determination. Today, with the cold war behind us, the United Nations finally has the opportunity to redeem its commitments to peoples and to work with governments in the fulfilment of their own responsibilities.
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It has enhanced the quality of millions of lives through sustained programmes of development. It has put in the world's grasp an integrated vision of progress that derives, above all else, from the human factor.
Governments are preoccupied, and sometimes even overtaken, by immediate problems. Vocal demands for short-term remedies can inhibit longer-term development.
The United Nations is working to bridge the gap between immediate demands and the need for lasting, fundamental change. The continuum of global conferences, which culminates in the historic city of Istanbul, provides a model for linking practical steps today to a vision of a far better tomorrow.
The conferences at Rio on the environment, Cairo on population issues and development, Vienna on human rights, Copenhagen on social development, Beijing on the Advancement of Women and now Istanbul on Human Settlements have seen a process of decision-making which carries the authority of the world's mandate and impinges directly upon the rights and hopes of every woman and man.
In a sense, Habitat II has brought us back to the point of our most fundamental concern. The individual person.
We are seeking ways to assure each person on earth the right to domestic security and contentment in harmony with the rights of society, of the environment and the future.
The United Nations, and its Member States, owe the world no less. As you observed at the United Nations last year, Mr President, "there is a widespread revival now of the positive spirit that prevailed half a century ago. We should seize this moment to adapt the United Nations to the new challenges and demands of our times. And in this we must not fail."
Allow me now, distinguished friends, to propose a toast to the health of our host, a great leader, a man of wisdom, President Suleyman Demirel, and Madame Demirel; the Government and great people of the Turkey; and their continuing support and strength to the United Nations.
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