UN General Assembly
2000

refugees and internally displaced persons, is a matter for profound concern. We are distressed also by the fact that thousands perish daily of starvation or easily curable diseases. We are concerned at the fact that thousands of persons are still persecuted or incarcerated because of their political opinions and that for those reasons hundreds are subject to the most degrading torture or are forced to live in extreme poverty. The persistence of war is the cause of inexcusable atrocities and recurrent humanitarian crisis. The true victims of war are not the fallen soldiers but the displaced or refugee children and elderly, the women who are raped, the young people who are murdered, the mothers who lose their incomes, the innocent workers whose workplaces are destroyed, the students whose schools are bombed, the sick who cannot go to hospital because there are no bridges and no medicines. In the contemporary world, every armed conflict, every civil war, every massive violation of human rights, every humanitarian emergency, caused either by man or by nature, calls for coordinated international action through this Organization.