UN General Assembly
1956

46. The preamble to the United Nations Charter and Chapter XI of the Charter deal extensively with peace, justice, human rights and dignity and the right of peoples to exercise their fundamental right of self-determination. The delegations from different countries, year after year, have contributed to the literature of the United Nations on these subjects, and we do not intend to add to that great literature. Indeed it would not be possible to make an original contribution. But if we are serious about a change in international relations, then such words as “peace,” “equality,” “liberty,” “freedom,” “self-determination” and “justice” must be given their full intrinsic values, and not merely used to disguise motives of cupidity and selfishness. These noble principles and aims cannot be effectively implemented while paragraph 7 of Article 2 of the Charter is still capable of being interpreted to mean that the nationalists’ conflict with the colonial Powers in African and Asian possessions are matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of the colonial Powers. Paragraph 7 of Article 2 therefore calls for an immediate amendment to remove this ambiguity.