UN General Assembly
1985

To a great extent, today's world is a product of our organization. It was thanks to the support of the United Nations that many of the countries represented here today achieved their sovereignty. The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted in 1960, was a political event of decisive importance. Without it self-determination would have exacted a heavier price in blood and worsened existing world tensions. We owe it to the United Nations that development is today an essential concern of the community of nations. The system provides the most appropriate mechanism for channeling economic and technical co-operation to the benefit of the less-favored countries. The Organization's work of furthering the evolution of the international juridical order is a similar soiree of unanimous recognition. Its contribution to the cause of universal respect for human rights is particularly outstanding.