UN General Assembly
1998

Mr. President, it is such a pleasure that a distinguished son of our region should preside over these proceedings. We wish you well and pledge our full support. This year we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of a Declaration which was predicated on the assumption that the right to development is a human right. The golden jubilee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights could not have occurred at a more timely juncture in the history of international affairs. Article 23 of the Declaration insists that everyone has the right to work, the free choice of employment and protection against unemployment. Article 28 boasts that everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. However, the trends that shape the international order today, the issues that are affecting the destiny of States, are running counter to the spirit of that Declaration, and are, in fact, threatening and hindering that right to development so nobly expressed 50 years ago.