UN General Assembly
1995

In the aftermath of the Second World War the idea of an international body such as the United Nations may have seemed utopian, especially in the light of the failure of the League of Nations and of the tragedies and crimes that resulted from the pursuit of power politics, the kind of politics that led the world into war and its horrors. While avoiding utopianism, the United Nations was designed to provide actual instruments of diplomatic interaction capable of replacing power politics by ethical values and of promoting conflict prevention and conflict resolution through negotiation and dialogue. With a pledge to peace and security on the one hand and to development on the other, the United Nations helped to write important chapters of contemporary history, such as the building of a new pattern of relationship between developed and developing countries, the search for development, disarmament, the protection of human rights and human dignity, decolonization, the struggle against apartheid and the condemnation of tyranny and oppression. In this process important organizations such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development