UN General Assembly
1996

anniversary of our Organization, which we commemorated last year, gave us an opportunity to look at the progress made and to define the priorities on which we should focus. Among those priorities is joint action by the international community to reduce the economic imbalance between the nations of the North and the nations of the South. Unfortunately, the map of economic 24 and social development of the world contains a geography of contrasts and disparities, although there were reasonable hopes that the end of the cold war would facilitate the mobilization of the international community for development. Everywhere, and more specifically in the countries of the South, poverty is the greatest threat to political stability and social cohesion. The destitution of the shanty towns, the destitution of the street children, and absolute poverty are a disgrace to us all, and they will be as long as we see marginalization as inevitable. As the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Frederico Mayor, stated so well: “From poverty to marginalization, from