UN General Assembly
1985

"There is a danger that by 1990 800 million human beings will live in a state of absolute poverty, in other words, below the level of any rational definition of human dignity. Thousands of men, women and children throughout the world die every day of hunger, if not of diseases that could have been avoided if they had been better fed. Entire nations in the southern hemisphere are not able fully to exercise their sovereignty because, with their pathetic incomes, which are often completely unrelated to their true resources and the tremendous efforts made by their people, they are stagnating." At this time of political and economic crisis, as we commemorate 40 years of common endeavor, we should ask ourselves: is this the world we pledged to build?