Mr. President, We are beginning our consideration of an issue which has far-reaching implications for the future of our Organization. In recent years this Organization has come under serious critical examination as the safety net of the Cold War on which most of its actions were based, slowly wound down, and then disappeared altogether.
Every organization needs constant review, and self-examination, and reform.
The United Nations needs that perhaps more than any other organization, because it crystallizes within itself the hopes and aspirations of a humanity, seeking not only to rid the world of the scourge of war, but also to create the economic and social and human conditions under which we can all aspire to better standards of life in greater freedom. There is, therefore, an urgent need to make the Organization more responsive to the contours of our times. The Organization has to critically review its role in the domains of peace and security, and in economic development, and re-visit its structural strengths and weaknesses dispassionately. Reform could well be the central focus of our deliberations in the General Assembly this year. But reform cannot be hasty or ill-considered, nor can it be based on anything other than the most widely held consensus on this floor.