UN General Assembly
1966

187. I must in a special way reaffirm my country's stand in favour of respecting and upholding human rights and our complete support for the completion and implementation of the covenants designed to safeguard them. We are also favourably disposed towards the proposal to setup international machinery which will guarantee respect for those rights. The adoption last year by the General Assembly of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination marked a further important step towards the attainment of this objective. That instrument, which is open for signature and ratification or accession by Member States, represents the most significant advance in the last eighteen years on behalf of human rights and the dignity of the human person. I am very happy to announce that Ecuador is the first Latin American country, and the fourth in the entire Organization, to have acceded to this Convention, I express the hope that other States will do likewise, so that this instrument may come into force.