UN General Assembly
1967

27. The fault is not in our institutions. Admittedly, the Charter has its gaps and shortcomings. Basically, however, it establishes a proper balance between the principal organs and a realistic distribution of powers. Yet there have been very few cases in the past twenty-two years which were dealt with as the founders had hoped they would be. At a time when opposing blocs confronted each other, during the period of the cold war, the situation with regard to the outside remained ambiguous for a long time, because the General Assembly, in which there was a solid majority for a definite point of view, served as a recourse. Today, now that so many new States have joined us, there is no longer a built-in majority for anything, save perhaps for the feeling of disenchantment I mentioned earlier. Thus, the true situation can no longer be dissimulated. Surely no more eloquent demonstration is needed of division that leads to impotence than the spectacle offered by the recent emergency special session, which was split almost equally on the substance of the matter before it and adjourned without having arrived at a conclusion, if not without bitterness?