UN General Assembly
1995

peoples ridding themselves of totalitarian rule alternated with the miserable anguish of occupation and “ethnic cleansing”; rays of hope were paralleled by violent explosions of civil strife; nuclear non-proliferation was countered by a devastating spread in the traffic in conventional weaponry; peace for some was matched by wanton slaughter for others. Never have mankind’s aspirations been so great, yet never have they been so formidably challenged. Such events cannot but impact on our concept of security. The primary mandate of the United Nations is “To maintain international peace ..., and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace”. How can we ensure and implement this commission? Five years ago, in the General Assembly, I had the honour of calling on the United Nations to implement the provisions of Chapter VIII of the Charter with regard to regional arrangements. Later, at the Helsinki follow-up meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), Malta proposed that the CSCE declare itself a regional arrangement, in terms of Chapter VIII of