UN General Assembly
1998

synthesis of the various legal traditions in the world and strikes a balance between the Court’s competences and the powers of the Security Council that is in keeping with the spirit and calling of the United Nations. We hope that those countries that still have reservations will be able to join us. In another field of law, the International Labour Organization has taken a historic step towards universal compliance with basic labour standards through the declaration adopted at its eighty-sixth conference, which is a commitment on the part of the 174 member States of the Organization. On 11 November 1997 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization adopted the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights. This is the first normative framework to guide the international community in an area of scientific research where advances are already shaking our traditional concepts of life and social organization. France is submitting a draft resolution calling on the General Assembly to endorse this Universal Declaration. Ninth, we must contain and reduce the scourge of