UN General Assembly
1994

In closing, let me emphasize my fundamental point: the credibility of the authority exercised by Governments and by the United Nations. In the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere, the world community has failed to stop the breakdown of civil society and the descent into barbarity. Such failures undermine people’s belief in the authority of the United Nations, in the authority of regional organizations, in the authority of Governments, and indeed in public authority as such. The authority of a national Government does not depend only on its own credibility; it also depends on the credibility of the wider international authority in which it participates. Therefore, it is in our own national interest to uphold that wider 23 authority. We can only do this if we provide the United Nations with the tools it needs to face its daunting task.