UN General Assembly
1978

235. In other areas, too, we must strengthen and develop the institutions of the United Nations. This applies also to the task of the United Nations in establishing an independent institution for the protection of human rights. The stronger the United Nations, the stronger each Member State will feel in exercising its right of self-determination and the stronger every individual will feel in exercising his human rights. The United Nations must be the citadel of equality of rights in the face of hegemony and power politics in any form; it must be the champion of the poor against the rich, the weak against the strong. The United Nations will attain this goal only if it keeps itself free from sweeping judgements, propaganda and agitation, if it is a forum in which reason and the desire for justice prevail. We want to help the United Nations achieve its great aims: to preserve peace, to promote economic and social progress and to protect the human rights of all individuals and the right of self-determination of all nations.