UN General Assembly
1987

The United Nations must take the lead in reversing the worsening global economic situation. Our hope for enduring global peace, harmony and security cannot be realized in a world beset with glaring economic inequity and injustice, which create serious instabilities in many areas of the world. What is required is for us to go beyond rhetoric and take action. We are after all, not starting from scratch. There are principles and courses of action that have long been embodied in many declarations, joint communiqués, resolutions and decisions of the United Nations, we already have the Programme of Action for a New International Economic Order, the United Nations International Development Strategies# the Vienna Programme of Action for Science and Technology, and many more. However, there has been some unwillingness to give practical application to those instruments. If the international community had done what is called for in those instruments, we would be living in a better world than we have today.