21 September 1998
[*] MANDELA: Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, the honorable Kofi Annan, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
Mr. President, may I take this opportunity as president of the Republic of South Africa, and as chairperson of the nonaligned movement, to extend to you our sincere congratulations on your election to the high post of president of the General Assembly.
You will be presiding over this august assembly of the nations of the world at a time when its deliberations and decisions will be of the greatest consequence to the continuous striving (ph) of humanity at last to achieve global peace and prosperity.
The nonaligned movement, as well as my own country, which is a proud member of that movement, invests a great trust in this organization. But it will (OFF-MIKE) its responsibility to all nations, especially at this critical period of its existence.
Quite appropriately, this 53rd General Assembly will be remembered that through the ages, as the moment at which we met and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Born in the aftermath of the defeat of the Nazi and fascist crime against humanity, this declaration had the high -- the hope that all our societies would in future be built on the foundations of the glorious vision spelled out in each of its clauses.
For those who had to fight for their emancipation, such as ourselves, rule with you heart, had to free ourselves from the criminal apartheid system.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights served as the vindication of the justice of our cause. At the same time, it constituted a challenge to us that our freedom, once achieved, should be dedicated that with the implementation of the perspective (ph) contained in the declaration.
Today, we celebrate the fact that this historic document has survived a terrible and (OFF-MIKE) which have seen some of the most extraordinary developments in the evolution of human society. These include the collapse of the colonial system. The passage of a bipolar world. Breath-taking advances in science and technology and the achievement of the complex process of globalization.
And yet, at the end of it all, the human beings who are the subject of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights continued to be afflicted by wars and violent conflict. They have, as yet, not attained their freedom from fear of death that will be brought about by the use of weapons of mass destruction, as well as conventional arms.
MANDELA: Many are still unable to exercise the fundamentals and inalienable democratic rights that would enable them to participate in the determination of the destiny of their countries, nations, families and children. And to protect themselves from tyranny and dictatorship.
The very right to be human is denied everyday to hundreds of millions of people as a result of poverty and the unavailability of basic necessities, such as food, jobs, water and shelter, occupation, health care and a healthy environment.
The failure to achieve the vision contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights finds that dramatic expression in the confluence between wealth and poverty which characterizes the divide between the countries of the North and the countries of the South and within individual countries, in all hemispheres.
It is made especially poignant and challenging by the fact that this coexistence of wealth and poverty, the perpetration of the practice of the resolution of impr -- and intrastate (ph) conference (OFF-MIKE) and the denial of the democratic rights of many across the world all result from the acts of commission and omission, particularly by those who occupy positions of leadership in politics, in the economy and in other spheres of human activity.
What I'm trying to say is that all the social ills which constitute an offense against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are not (OFF-MIKE) result of the forces of nature, or the product of a curse of the deity. They are the consequences of decisions which men and women take or refuse to take, all of whom will not hesitate to pledge their devoted support for the vision conveyed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This declaration was proclaimed as universal precisely because the founders of this organization and the nations of the world we trying (OFF-MIKE) to fight the scourge of fascism, including many who still had to achieve their own emancipation, understood this clearly that our human world was interdependent on -- interdependent role necessarily, the value of happiness, justice, human dignity (OFF-MIKE) and prosperity have a universal application because its people and every individual is entitled to government.
Similarly, no people can truly say it is blessed with happiness, peace and prosperity where others, as human as itself, continue to be afflicted with misery and conflict and terrorism and deprivation. Thus, can we say that the challenge posed by the next 50 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the next century whose character it must help to function, convincing whether humanity, and especially those who occupy positions of leadership will have the courage to ensure that at last will build a human world consistent with the provisions for that historic declaration and other human rights instruments that have been adopted since 1948. Immediately, a world range of areas of conflict confront us in Africa, Europe and Asia.
MANDELA: All of us are familiar with this, which reigns from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Sudan on my own continent, to the Balkans in Europe and Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka in Asia.
Clearly this organization and especially the Security Council acting together with people of good will, in the countries and areas concerned, has the responsibility to act decisively to (OFF-MIKE) the determination of this destructive conflict.
Continuously, we have to fight to defeat such a primitive tendency towards the glorification of arms, the adulation of force. One of the illusions that injustice can be guaranteed by the capacity to kill or that dispute's unnecessarily best resolved by (OFF-MIKE).
As Africans, we are grateful to the secretary general for the contribution he has made to help us find the way towards ending violent strife on our continent. We have taken heed of his report, which will reinforce our efforts to banish war from our shores.
I have not yet read the report from page to page, but I'll try and do so.
(LAUGHTER)
The very first resolution of the General Assembly adopted in January 1946 started to address the challenge of quote "the elimination from national armament of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to much destruction" unquote.
We must face the fact that after countless initiatives and evolution, we still do not have concrete and generally accepted proposals, supported by a clear commitment by the nuclear weapons states to the speedy, final and total elimination of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons capability.
We take this opportunity to salute (OFF-MIKE) of Brazil for its decision to accede to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and ask all others that have not done so to follow this excellent example in an honest attempt to (OFF-MIKE) to the definition of the systematic and progressive steps required to eliminate these weapons and the threat of (OFF-MIKE).
South Africa, together with Brazil, Aegean, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia and Sudan, will be submitting a draft resolution to the first committee for consideration by this assembly. This is appropriately titled, towards a nuclear weapon free world. The name for a new agenda.
I call, with all humility, on all members of the United Nations, seriously to consider this important resolution and to give it your support. We must ask the question, which might sound naive, to those who have elaborated certain (OFF-MIKE), in Charter five their refusal to eliminate these terrible and terrifying weapons of mass destruction.
Why do they need them anyway? In reality, no racial answer can be (OFF-MIKE) to explain in a satisfactory manner what in the earth is the consequence of cold war in Aegean (ph). In a -- and an attachment to the use of the threat of brute force to assert to the (OFF-MIKE) of some states over others.
Urgent steps are also required to arrive at a just and permanent peace in the Middle East on the basis of the realization of the legitimate aspirations of the people of Palestine.
MANDELA: And respect for the independence and security of all the states of this important region. We also look forward to the resolution of the outstanding issues of western Sahara and Istanbul, convinced that it is possible to take these matters off the world's agenda on the basis of settlement that made the insults of all the peoples concerned.
Similarly, we would like to salute the bold steps taken by the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This supremely important country of Africa to enable it to return to democratic rule and a system of governance that renders its service to the interest of all its people.
Together we are also faced with the scourges of drug abuse and the illicit traffic in narcotics, organized transnational crime and international terrorism. We strongly support that the measures adopted have being discussed by the United Nations to deal with these challenges.
And commit our country and government to cooperate fully in all (OFF-MIKE) and international initiatives to ensure that the peoples of the world, including of our own, aspire that the destructive (ph) input of this (OFF-MIKE).
The world is (OFF-MIKE) by an economic crisis? Which, as President Clinton in this city only a week ago, has plunged and quote "millions into (OFF-MIKE) poverty and disrupted and disoriented the lives of ordinary people" unquote.
And he continued "have brought a deep personal disappointment to tens of millions of people around the world." Recent press reports...
COPYRIGHT © 1998 BY FEDERAL DOCUMENT CLEARING HOUSE, INC. Author not available, NELSON MANDELA PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA DELIVERS REMARKS TO THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY. Washington Transcript Service, 09-21-1998.