UN General Assembly
2008

and dignity. We should therefore use this anniversary period to strengthen our resolve to defend human rights. South Africa has also had the honour to be reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review mechanism of the new Human Rights Council. We were also honoured with the appointment of our own Justice Navi Pillai to lead that very important international institution. Mr. Siles Alvarado (Bolivia), Vice-President, took the Chair. We wish to reiterate our belief in the centrality of the United Nations. In the Millennium Declaration, we reaffirmed that the United Nations “is the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development” (resolution 55/2, para. 32). Leading South Africa’s delegation to the Millennium Summit was our former President, Thabo Mbeki, who reminded the Assembly that “Billions among the living struggle to survive in conditions of poverty, deprivation and underdevelopment ... as offensive to everything humane as anything we decry about the second millennium.” (A/55/PV.5, p. 18) It is that understanding that has correctly