H.I.M. Haile Selassie address to the Unted 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."