UN General Assembly
1995

past 50 years yield any ground whatsoever for complacency. However, while disappointment has been frequently expressed at the Organization’s performance, no credible alternative is offered by those who criticize it. Moreover, little regard is given to the innumerable constraints under which it operates, as well as to the fact that it can be only as effective as Governments allow it to be. The United Nations has indeed structural deficiencies, which it urgently needs to overcome. But it is too often a useful scapegoat for the mistakes, the failings and the unfulfilled promises of Member States. The Secretary-General, in his highly acclaimed and very timely report entitled “Supplement to an Agenda for Peace'”, issued earlier this year, has underlined the great problems presented to the United Nations by the new generation of post-cold-war conflicts, for which the Organization was obviously unprepared. He has pointed out that, for instance, in the framework of its peace- keeping activities, the Organization has had, in some cases, to juggle efforts to combine mandates, including the use of force under Chapter VII of the Charter, with