ADDRESS
TO THE UNITED NATIONS Oct.
6, 1963
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 defenseless 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: abjuration 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 honor 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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 which 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 which
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."
|