Uruguay, 1969

1. Madam President, I congratulate you, and through you,

your great country, on the unanimous election which

entrusted to you the task of guiding the debates of the

General Assembly of the United Nations at its twenty-fourth

session.

2. We welcome this election because it underlines your

outstanding qualifications and also because it is proof of

the growing participation in the world community of a

great continent, which strongly reflects the deep-rooted

aspirations of the peoples gathered here: to be free, to live

in peace and to have productive relationships that will

promote the spiritual and material development of mankind.

3. Still fresh in our minds is the vivid memory of Mr.

Emilio Arenales, our brother from Guatemala, whose

achievement during the twenty-third session of the General

Assembly provides a message that is relevant to our

work—that is, that we must all make the same controlled

and silent sacrifice so that in times of~trial we may

overcome the obstacles, both personal and collective, to the

attainment of the goals we have set ourselves, however

difficult and arduous the road may be. Having said this, I

should now like to touch on the matter which is of deepest

concern to us.

4. Many voices are being raised, both within and outside

this forum, to express scepticism about the work of the

United Nations. A pessimistic attitude is now being adopted

towards the destiny of our Organization. We must react

energetically against this unhealthy trend, which could

destroy the world community and involve us in the

uncertainty of an international policy dictated by events,

outside the framework of the agreed and freely accepted

law.

5. On behalf of Uruguay, I must make it plain that I have

not come to this Assembly to attend the funeral of the

United Nations. On the contrary, we have come here to

make a healthily realistic examination of the growing

difficulties that affect the Organization’s effective

functioning, with the firm and unwavering intention of finding

solutions that will strengthen the Organization and increase

its competence and suitability as an instrument in the

service of the lofty ideals for which it was established in

San Francisco.

6. But I wish to make it very clear that Uruguay stands

within the Organization, not outside it. I now propose to

enlarge upon this statement. The policy of balance of

power, which took the form of alliances and covenants, led

to the First World War.

7. In the light of previous experience, the League of

Nations advocated and formulated the system of the legal

equality of States. Yet it failed to achieve its peace

objectives because, outside and apart from the League, the

same fatal system of balance of power continued in force

and finally led to the most recent world war.

8. The horrors of that terrible war brought forth a new

policy, which Uruguay described at the time as a potential

risk to the nascent Organization established in San Francisco:

unity of power to preserve peace. Unity of power

implied—as events later proved—that it is effective for that

purpose as long as unity exists; but when unity is broken,

the policy of balance of power reappears, today in the

form of antagonistic blocs.

9. This is the picture we have before our eyes. Outside the

Organization, or at least beyond its framework, the force of

events determines the fate of this world community, which

today appears to be merely a forum for denunciation and

protest and no longer a tool for the preservation of peace,

our common and indispensable task. This is why, at the

very beginning of this Assembly session, we wish on behalf

of Uruguay to put forward a different view and to do

something constructive to strengthen the United Nations.

That is why we have come here.

10. I should like to repeat today what the Chairman of the

Uruguayan delegation, Mr.Secco Garcia, the Under-

Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, said at the

twenty-third session of the General Assembly:

“We are happy to say that in international law there has

been steady even if slow and difficult progress.” [1686th

meeting, para. 5.]

He added:

“This parliament seems to us slow to establish the rule

of law in practice and to create awareness of its benefits.

We know that there are factors beyond its control, but we

have a common duty to correct them, because they not

only endanger freedom and justice, but also raise problems

which affect intelligence itself.” [Ibid.]

Nevertheless, and in spite of these difficulties, we trust in

the instruments offered to us by the present Charter of the

United Nations.

11. The conflicts that exist in the Far East and the Near

East, and the painful problems affecting parts of the

African continent can and must find a solution within the

framework of the Organization that unites us. However

disquieting and ominous the symptoms may be in those

regions, there is still time to face them with resolution and

vigour, with the indispensable goodwill, in order to achieve

honourable agreements that will build a stable and lasting

peace.

12. Uruguay condemns the use of force and terrorism,

recourse to reprisals and, in short, any act of violence. We

believe that our Organization, through its competent

organs, is still able to arbitrate and find solutions that are

acceptable to the parties in conflict and that will lead to

future co-operation and harmony.

13. In this connexion, my delegation feels compelled to

mention the regional policy of the inter-American system.

The inter-American Pact, inspired by genuine regional

solidarity and strengthened by long years of existence, has

recently proved its effectiveness. A policy of promoting and

implementing the law, with a brotherly and friendly

understanding of the factors of a dispute, is, in the long

run, the best policy.

14. We hope the world Organization will realize that, as

the provisions of the Charter indicate, might does not make

right or place anyone in a better position to negotiate peace,

and that peace is based on justice and justice on international

morality, and ultimately the conduct of States must

be adapted, not to the prevailing interests of the hour, but

to the permanent values of law, because law, regulating

peaceful coexistence, is the only instrument capable of

diminishing the policy of balance of power and restoring

the legal equality of those same States.

15. As a small State, but one inspired by its devotion to

international law, Uruguay comes to the work of this

Assembly with faith and hope in the Organization and in

the solution that may stem from it. The success of our

meetings rests on the contribution of all to the supreme

blessing of world peace. By using our energies, our

co-operation and all the other means at our disposal, by

supporting the existing organs and means in order to

overcome the grave problems of the world, and by

co-operating with the family of nations on a regional and

world-wide scale, we must make the utmost effort to sweep

away the tight barriers that prevent us from reaching the

common goals which unite us.

16. We are not unaware of the fact that an appropriate

amendment of the Charter which governs our work may be

the most feasible means of achieving these objectives, but

we must not await that event. In the meantime we must

make the best of the imperfections of the existing system,

and work with confidence and faith to maintain peace,

which all mankind needs and is asking of us.

17. But peace cannot be achieved without an appropriate

hierarchy of values, international social justice requires an

equitable balance and a better distribution of wealth. The

specialized agencies of the United Nations are useful

channels for contributing to this vital equalization between

the rich and the poor countries.

18. At present the unstable and precarious peace in which

we live appears to be the result of our fear of a nuclear war.

But the strategic recourses for war include a weapon more

dangerous than this terrible power, and that is the power of

hunger, the power of the dispossessed, the power of those

who have been insulted and injured by the mighty of the

earth.

19. History teaches us that all empires pass away. No

matter how vast their material resources, how immense

their technological capacity, they will fall because of the

violence unleashed by injustice and because of the despair

generated by hunger. And hunger does exist on earth.

Therefore, it is for their own good and for the good of all

mankind that those who possess such power should realize

that power implies not privilege, but service, and that this

same power imposes greater responsibilities upon them in

these anxious times in which mankind is living.

20. I shall leave the specific items on the agenda for

discussion in the Committees. The particular instructions

given to the delegation of Uruguay with respect to those

items will be made known at that time, and we shall then

indicate the responsibilities of those who can and should

act, and offer our co-operation in seeking possible solutions.

21. I should now like to invoke the protagonist of our

endeavours. States and frontiers do not exist for the States

themselves, nor for the frontiers themselves; they exist for

man.

22. At a time when the substance and realm of the atom

have been laid bare by human intelligence, at a time when

man, following the plan of creation, has walked on the

moon and achieved mastery of outer space, at a time when

our entire technology indicates that man himself is capable

of achieving what he was created for, namely, of governing

the earth, at this very time man seems unable to govern his

own passions.

23. Acting through nations or communities, man seems to

and in opposition and contradiction to his fellow man.

Invisible but no less real, the man from all latitudes is

nevertheless present in this Assembly, calling upon States

and Governments not to forget his real existence, his

anguish and his fear, his hope and his faith, his ultimate

destiny.

24. Therefore, the primacy of spiritual values over the

material contingencies of the moment must govern our

work. The words of the Old Testament make themselves

heard among us today as they did at the time of the landing

on the moon: “What is man, that thou art mindful

of him?”.

25. The Assembly’s answer to the question that has been

asked since the beginning of time must be the one given us

by that same Old Testament: "Except the Lord build the

house, they labour in vain that build it".

26. On behalf of Uruguay, I express the hope that these

permanent spiritual values will guide our work, and that

when we return to our countries the common man who

suffers and hopes and has his eyes fixed upon us will know

that we have not laboured in vain because we have built on

the solid rock of ultimate values: law based on justice,

justice based on morality, and peace as the fruit of

international social justice uniting all men in a single

people, a single family, and abolishing all frontiers, so that

we may be bound together by brotherhood and love based

on a profound faith.