Address to the United Nations

"Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum in Geneva, Switzerland, to address to the League of Nations an 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 organisation 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 covenent 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:
The 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 covenent, 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 transgressions 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 experiences. This organisation 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. Should we fail to achieve this goal, we shall have condemned the coming generation to inherit the tragedy of our time.
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 Asia, in Suez and in the congo. There is not one among us today who does not wonder about the reaction of this body when motives and actions are examined. The opinion of this organisation 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 serve 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 judgements of the United Nations have been and continue to be subject to frustration, as individual member states have ignored its pronouncements and disregarded its recommendations. The organisations sinews have been weakened as member states have shirked their obligations to it. The authority of the organisation has been mocked, as individual member states have proceded, in violation of its injunctions, to pursue their own aims and ends. The troubles which continue to plague us, virtually all arise among member states of this organisation, but the organisation remains impotent to enforce acceptable solutions. As the maker and enforcer of international law, what the United Nations has achieved still falls regretably 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 high-mindedness 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 stake, 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 with the subordination of national and local interests to the interests of mankind, or endanger man's future.
These are the objectives, yesterday unattainable, today essential, which we must labour to achieve.
Until this is accomplished, mankinds 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 organisation'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 judgements. Peace is not, it is "Becoming".
We cannot escape the dreadful possibility of catastrpohe 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 this is 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 organisation 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 which men now possess. Ever since the stone age, the production of arms has always been the source of man's own destruction. Even though the achievement of general and complete disarmament is time consuming, it is encouraging to note that great effort is being devoted to its attainment.
My country supports the treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere as a step towards this goal, even though it is 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 recognises 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 spell in which to act".
Full Text of Address By His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, Before The 18th Session of The General Assembly of The United Nations, New York, October 4 1963