UN General Assembly
1992

Either that, or we condemn ourselves and our children to perpetual strife. When we struggle together for justice for all and we learn to respect nature and humanity, we give ourselves the opportunity of creating a world in peace. But we cannot talk about creating a peaceful world unless we first acknowledge that the world is not in peace and identify the major causes of this situation. We consider it more important to prevent conflicts than to separate combatants after conflict has broken out. One cannot speak about keeping the peace when there is no peace to be kept. We believe, therefore, that the United Nations should concentrate much more on a new, expanded role of peace-building. However, we can work effectively together only if the structures we use to define and implement our common strategy are based on the very principles we proclaim. We cannot espouse democracy in our various countries while our own collective Organization is not only profoundly undemocratic but based on a world power relationship that is no longer valid.