UN General Assembly
1976

14. Many of the international problems which confront us are pressing and complicated. While some of these problems can wait, there are others which are more explosive and urgent. Procrastination in solving such problems would be tantamount to inviting a powder-keg to explode, thus threatening the peace and security of the world and the very existence of the United Nations, particularly as such problems affect the very principles and foundations on which the United Nations was established. 15. We cannot ask peoples in the last quarter of the twentieth century to be patient while their sovereignty is violated, while their territory is occupied, or while they are prevented from exercising their right to self-determination. We cannot ask peoples to accept the humiliation of apartheid and racial discrimination in all its forms, particularly since these peoples have given the international community several opportunities to redress the injustices inflicted upon them without avail. Serious action has to be undertaken by us now before it is too late.