ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT STRESSES STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH FOR ORGANIZATION TO CREATE SOCIETY WHERE STRONG WILL BE JUST AND WEAK WILL FEEL SAFE

22 October 1998

Press Release
GA/SM/70
OBV/72

ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT STRESSES STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH FOR ORGANIZATION TO CREATE SOCIETY WHERE STRONG WILL BE JUST AND WEAK WILL FEEL SAFE

19981022 In Message on Occasion of United Nations Day

Following is the message, translated from Spanish, of the President of the General Assembly, Didier Opertti (Uruguay), on the occasion of United Nations Day, 24 October:

Today we are celebrating another United Nations Day. The Organization is 53 years old. At that age, human beings have reached full maturity and, thanks to their personal experiences, have begun to acquire the serenity they need to face the future.

In the life of our Organization, which was established to endure -- since it is intended "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war" -- time is measured by other parameters. Upon reaching the age of 53 the United Nations, far from entering a period of calm maturity, is experiencing an anguished and anxiety-ridden adolescence, whose existential problems have not yet been solved. The Organization is passing through a stage in which it is still seeking to reaffirm its identity, refining the skills and tools that enable it to participate in the conduct of international affairs and trying to adapt to the conditions of existence imposed on it by the outside world, in order to respond to the ever-increasing demands of its constituent peoples and Governments. This is an arduous and endless task, recalling the Greek myth of the Danaides, who were condemned to pour water into a leaking vessel, for the world which the United Nations must serve, and to which it must adapt, is a world of permanent change and growing diversity.

One need only glance at the items included in our agenda to realize the extraordinary scope of the international panorama: globalization, international criminal courts, economies in transition, World Solar Programme, global implications of the computer date conversion problem. How disoriented a delegate to the Assembly would have felt only a few years ago upon being confronted with an agenda including these items!

In these turbulent and uncertain times, when the United Nations is engaged in a process of internal restructuring and external consolidation, I feel that taking an inventory of the past or formulating projects for the

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future is not the best way to mark a new anniversary. Inventories and projects are not lacking in this case. On this occasion, it seems more appropriate to reflect on the present, which is certainly more difficult than judging the past or predicting the future, since it entails examining the extent to which we are fulfilling our commitment as Members to support and strengthen the Organization and do all we can to help it perform its tasks.

I think we should ask ourselves whether we are giving the Organization the resources it needs to play the role we have assigned to it; whether the changes we propose to make in its structure and functioning are really conducive to greater efficiency; whether we are acting with a sufficient sense of collective responsibility, with the "spirit of cooperation and compromise" we invoke so often and with the flexibility and tolerance needed to reach the agreements without which the Organization cannot attain its goals.

Above all, we must ask ourselves whether we have made this Organization not only a tool for managing and solving major international political problems, but also a sounding-board -- as it should be -- for the problems and afflictions affecting the daily lives of millions of people. For if not, we would be shirking the duty, laid down in the preamble of the Charter, "to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom".

When we consider the lengthy debates involving questions of secondary importance, which are sometimes insignificant and sometimes purely formal or grammatical, we feel that only too often we lose sight of the basic reason why we meet here year after year, namely to examine and solve collective problems. Collective interests are usually overshadowed or upstaged as a result of short- term approaches, often leading to the predominance of national objectives of low priority and limited significance or simply of personal preferences generated by excessive professional zeal.

I believe we sometimes forget that by participating in the work of the United Nations each of us, individually, has accepted the responsibility of contributing to the work of translating into reality the generous ideals and principles embodied in the San Francisco Charter.

Undoubtedly, we shall do what we can do at the slow pace that has characterized most of our undertakings and is so irritating both to impatient Utopians of good faith and to critics suffering from "UNophobia". But history teaches us that major goals can only be attained through a step-by-step approach. And it is step by step that we shall draw nearer to the establishment of a society in which the strong will be just and the weak will feel safe.

Lastly, I invite you on this occasion to look beyond this glass hive in the heart of Manhattan, towards the vast horizon of the world where the presence of the Organization and its agencies is becoming more visible as a result of the admirable work of tens of thousands of its staff, self-sacrificing men and women, civilians and soldiers, professionals and workers who at this very moment, in every region of the world, often in hostile territories and climates and at the risk of their lives, are bringing a measure of hope to the daily lives of the needy, the helpless, the oppressed, and those who have no opportunity to make their voices heard. Thanks to these workers for peace, this planet has become a better and a safer place for millions of human beings.

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