UN General Assembly
2007

We further call for the United Nations system to refrain from interfering in matters that are clearly the domain of Member States and are not a threat to international peace and security. Development at country level should continue to be country-led and not be subject to the whims and caprices of powerful donor States. Zimbabwe won its independence on 18 April 1980 after a protracted war against British colonial imperialism that denied its people human rights and democracy. That colonial system which suppressed and oppressed us enjoyed the support of many countries of the West who were signatories to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Even after 1945, it would appear that the Berlin Conference of 1884, through which Africa was parcelled out to colonial European powers, has remained stronger than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is, therefore, clear that for the West, vested economic interests and racial and ethnocentric considerations have proved stronger than Western adherence to principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The West still negates our sovereignties by