UN General Assembly
1996

the Secretary-General to the reform process of the United Nations and can only hope that the entire membership will give him a second term in order for him to complete these reforms. This session of the General Assembly is distinctive because it is being held in the aftermath of the historic fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, which we observed last year. It will be recalled that in observing and celebrating that important event, we made solemn commitments to steer the world body towards the progressive development of a world community that would be cooperating effectively in dealing with global problems in the interest of humanity. We also agreed that the United Nations should be more democratic, transparent and responsive and should be the common property of all the people of the world, in whose name it was created in the first place. We went on to state that we wanted all citizens of the world to have real ownership of the Organization. We also set for ourselves economic and