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ADDRESS TO THE UNITED NATIONS |
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Speech delivered by |
His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, 1968 |
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Mr.
President, Distinguished Delegates:
Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of
Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the
League of Nations and to appeal for relief from the destruction which had
been unleashed against my defenceless nation, by the Fascist invader. I spoke then both to and for the conscience of the world. My words went unheeded, but history testifies to the accuracy of the warning that I gave in 1936. 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: abjugation of force in the
settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights and
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to 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: courage to speak and act - and if necessary, to suffer and die - for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shad 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 sense
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 ad 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 shirked
their obligations to it. The authority of the Organization has been
mocked, as individual 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 the Organization, but the Organization remains impotent
to enforce acceptable solutions. As the maker and enforcer of the
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 highmindedness 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 labour 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
contnbution 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 precedures 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 realized 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 dunng
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. 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 Afnca 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 which 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
honourable 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. |
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