UN General Assembly
1953

59. I am in a position to repeat this, since the principles laid down in Article 73 of the Charter have been written into the preamble of my country’s Constitution, and since France has long repudiated the objectionable and obsolete notion that States responsible for administering dependent territories should enjoy discretionary rights. Where do we find the true spirit of the Charter? In the labour code of Overseas France, which is a full and guaranteed declaration of the social rights of the individual and the citizen? In the policy of association, which encourages the development of indigenous communities as well as of their individual members? Or in a sort of mixture of xenophobia, racialism and reactionary nationalism directed awards nonsensical fragmentation? To answer that question we have only to remember the perils threatening peace and civilization on every side of this second half of the twentieth century.