Mr. President, allow me first of all to congratulate you on your election as President of this General Assembly. We are well aware of your remarkable career, your experience and your wisdom, because several times in the past few years my country has had the honour and the pleasure of working and co-operating with you. We are therefore particularly happy that we shall be able to count on your wise counsel and your great knowledge in the exercise of your new duties. Your election also expresses the respect and consideration of the international community for your country, with which Portugal is linked by relations of friendship and solidarity which I am happy to reaffirm today.
3.	I should also like to express our gratitude and pay a tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Indalecio Lievano, who, in discharging his functions, once again displayed his qualities as a diplomat and statesman.
4.	I should like to mention now the memory of the President of the People's Republic of Angola, Agostinho Neto, whose recent and unexpected demise has impoverished Africa and the family of nations who use Portuguese as their main language. By paying a sincere tribute to him, I associate myself with the Angolan people in their loss. I am convinced that that people will continue the work of national consolidation which President Neto was carrying out with lucidity and determination,
5.	In addressing this Assembly I am acutely aware that this session is taking place on the threshold of the 1980s and that this is a very significant fact.
6.	Chronology may be viewed as a simple convention with dates and continuity, but there may also be a break in continuity. There may be landmarks which warn us of the new nature of things, of an irruption of unwritten history, of a future created by the action of men and of peoples.
7.	These stimulate us to think of new borders and of new methods to free us from the accumulated sediment of the ages.
8.	They are also an invitation to conceive of new, viable alternatives and courageously to choose those that serve all men and the human being in all his aspects.
9.	They are a challenge to non-conformity and imagination, since we have exhausted the policies deriving from the projection of a past already undergone in which questions and bewilderments in the face of the unknown take shape.
10.	With the 1980s, the future is all around us. The present, in which we are comfortably installed, is shaken. Questions are asked about past history and we are asked in our turn what we are going to do and what we are preparing for.
11.	The meeting with the 1980s is thus a decisive meeting, affording the opportunity of building a future for the whole of mankind.
12.	We must look at the agenda of the present session of the General Assembly in this context. It is true that the agenda deals with matters which have been discussed over many years. If we were not confronted with the grave situations with which the agenda deals, we could almost say that the General Assembly is somewhat complacent and is only concerned with ceremony and repetitive intentions and preoccupations year after year. But we know that this is not the case. On the one hand, the apparently dispassionate character of the items on the agenda reflects the modesty of our community in the face of the tragedy of our human condition and the enormous difficulties that face us in seeking to resolve them in a creative way. Behind every item on the agenda there are human realities—involving human beings, groups, and nations of the world—which go beyond the scope of the bureaucratic apparatus, which in all systems tends to neutralize that which is vibrant and alive. On the other hand, the General Assembly is now able in a radically new way to tackle old questions and problems which have been left behind by time.
13.	In the last few years facts and events have ac-cumulated and the General Assembly has constantly analysed them in the shape of resolutions which have been adopted. The question that we inevitably ask today is the following. Is the impact of the Organization as a free association of sovereign States which is the ultimate international political forum really felt only in the exponential increase of declarations, resolutions, conventions and institutional machinery for their implementation?
14.	We are deeply convinced that the cumulative efforts of the various past activities of the United Nations are translated today in a qualitative jump forward in the functioning of this system and, what is more important, in the awareness the world community has of its solidarity.
15.	The General Assembly, we believe, is able to function as a point of distillation of what has been done and a groping but already perceptible manifestation of world solidarity. For this to appear with utmost clarity, it is essential that the General Assembly be the point of convergence for the aspirations of the masses of the people throughout the world, the total awareness of the solidarity uniting men and the peoples, and the decisions which should inspire the political leaders in their activities in the service of peoples and peace among nations.
16.	As we are about to enter into the 1980s, I have tried in a few words to explain what seem to me to have been the lessons of the 1970s as they relate to the United Nations system. I deliberately leave out of account the many items on the agenda which would alone warrant a statement in a plenary meeting. My delegation will not fail to deal with these matters in the appropriate committees.
17.	I wish to pin-point, among others, the situation in Cyprus and in South-East Asia, the proposals to create nuclear-free zones in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, the first steps towards the establishment of a new international order in the field of information, the convening of a world disarmament conference, and all questions dealing with the status of women, especially preparations for a world conference in 1980 within the framework of the United Nations Decade for Women, as well as the preparation of a convention on the elimination of discrimination against women.
18.	On this last point may I say that the obvious progress achieved in the world regarding the access of some women to key political positions should not make us lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of women are far from able to contribute, with full equality in rights and opportunities, to the creation of those new modes of life and society which the world so greatly needs.
19.	At the end of this decade we must view our adherence to the United Nations Charter not as a rigid and immutable—and therefore abstract and unrealistic— affirmation of principles but rather as a code of conduct enriched, in its interpretation, by the elements of the experience acquired in the 1970s.
20.	We consider that at each stage of the history of international relations, new types of rights and their corresponding duties as well as increasingly definite standards of behaviour take shape and give renewed vigour and a wider interpretation to the principles laid down in the Charter.
21.	In the 1970s the profound changes that have occurred in the social and economic order existing among nations as well as the unexpected nature of many conflicts have shown that the code of conduct laid down in the Charter indissolubly links all nations, large or small, powerful or weak, leading some to reconsider the weakness of their strength and others to measure the strength of their weakness.
22.	In this context the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as well as the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, are clear examples of the broadening of the code of conduct outlined in the Charter.
23.	The growing concern throughout the present system and the experience of the last few years, aimed at changing opposing positions into areas of common agreement conducive to negotiation through dialogue and mutual clarification, have gradually led to the re-placement of the tyranny of the vote by the wise practice of consensus. What is involved is a gradual movement from legal theory to the practice of solidarity.
24.	Through efforts at agreement the 1970s have, within the framework of the United Nations, left us with a clearer picture of what might be called political questions. Indeed, two fundamental components of this system are closely linked to the General Assembly, and both are concerned with political issues: the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council.
25.	The Security Council is the constitutional forum for assessing relations of force among the nations of the world, and for constantly renewed efforts to find peaceful solutions to important conflicts. It is easy to verify that the major issues raised in the Security Council—to which my country has the honour of belonging- concern not only the essentially political dimension of events but also the great world-wide problems of social injustice and the subhuman living conditions of a large part of mankind.
26.	At the same time, although the matters dealt with by the Economic and Social Council relate specifically to the economy, science, culture and information—in short, the social element, in its widest sense—they cannot be considered as non-political.
27.	General Assembly resolution 32/197 unequivocally requests the specialized agencies of the United Nations system immediately to implement the resolutions of the General Assembly.
28.	Economic, social and cultural problems have a political aspect which only the General Assembly has the competence to judge.
29.	The foregoing statements are not the result of a political interpretation of the United Nations system; or of an inadequate politicization of the entire system. Actually; the past decade has clearly confirmed that economic and political independence are very intimately and deeply linked.
30.	From the time that the raw-materials-producing countries became dramatically aware that their economic independence was the sole guarantee of their political independence to the time of the affirmation of the economic independence of countries which industrialization had seemed to make politically invulnerable, a profound change has taken place.
31.	The link between these two elements is so far- reaching that we can legitimately wonder about the basis of genuine independence today. Are we already at a stage of economic exchange which goes beyond the nation-State, perhaps reducing its political power? And if so, what safeguards can the nation-State find to ensure its own autonomy, freedom of choice and its options?
32.	Confronted with increasingly difficult situations, we are inundated with unfamiliar criteria and with aspirations from other climes. The great challenge before us is to free ourselves from the tangle of increasingly complex and even contradictory relations that the very term "world market" implies and that link States to one another politically, while affirming the autonomy of each people.
33.	What I have just stated is directly linked to another important legacy of the 1970s: it is the obvious political vacuum of science and technology when they do not serve development and do not contribute to good relations among people and to happiness.
34.	The real potential of these changes lies in the relationship between man and his natural and cultural environment, on the one hand, and the time and place in which he lives out his history, on the other. It is at that level that one may object to the imposition of a single model and instead create modes of cultural expression—that is to say, ways of living and of being, with the necessary strength to serve as incentives for more adequate technologies—as well as more flexible economic systems, and affirm a sovereignty that is both more rigorous and more tolerant.
35.	Such a development process is not, however, always compatible with the economic limitations often imposed from outside which sometimes even set the rate of inflation and unemployment, and even the rate of growth of a country's national wealth.
36.	Constraints of this type bring about, over large areas of the world or in peoples' lives, the irreversible adoption over a shorter or longer period of well-defined patterns of scientific, technical or commercial activities, and can prevent these activities from serving a particular people or a culture. They are, therefore, counter-productive to development. That is why one can say today that science and technology are often the Trojan horse of disguised domination.
37.	Science and technology can indeed serve as a vehicle for a certain way of thinking and a common language; but they can also give rise to a disintegration of the social fabric. For them to become the tools of true development, it is necessary to make scientific and technical activities less alienating, because, through an unrealistic concept of "pure science", they often develop outside the social movements and trends of the world of which they are a part.
38.	A strengthening of cultural values is today the necessary concomitant of any true national independence strategy not only to safeguard the legitimate sovereignty of every people but, above all, to defend a world community richer in its diversity and more able to contribute to the solution of problems through the contributions of all cultures and peoples.
39.	It is at that level that within the United Nations system one must envisage the systematic activity of its specialized agencies, especially UNESCO—with which I am personally associated as a member of its Executive Board.
40.	The development we are seeking for all peoples is an endogenous one. This does not mean development in closed conditions, in search of some mythical roots which might suddenly give rise to a new science and a new technology—not at all. There must be respect for the rate of growth of each region; there must be optimum production of raw materials and a better understanding of the relationship between mar and nature, between the present and past and future history. A society must also be able, in dynamic fashion, to come to grips with its own historical evolution through its own culture, technology and materials. In other words, each historical development must take its own original path,
41.	A clearer relationship has emerged at the end of this decade between the rights of individuals and of peoples: the rights of individuals are the foundation of the internal order of States; they relate to human freedom and to fundamental guarantees of human rights, to objective information and to the ability to enjoy cultural ties and participate in their creation. They relate, above all, to the opportunity given to every individual to forge his own destiny, to write his own history, express his thoughts and make his personal contribution to the world. This is the essence of a dynamic culture—in other words, the right to be different and to express that difference; the right to life as a fundamental right, and to the satisfaction of one's basic needs.
42.	These rights are not always or everywhere satisfied. They are linked to the rights of peoples.
43.	The inalienable right to sovereignty—as it has always been understood—is the right of a people to a territory, but also, and above all, to the natural resources and to the cultural legacy characterizing that people. It is the right of all peoples to devise a strategy for development and to define their political options and the dimensions thereof. It is the right of everyone not to be simply a subsidiary element which circumstances may link to more powerful forces but to be considered a full international partner.
44.	Otherwise, the efforts of those who in any society work and struggle for a better future, which for them is a cherished dream, but who see themselves only as pawns in a game of chess—of which they do not know the rules and which can have no effect on them, can only be futile.
45.	It is in this context that we see the complete illogicality of the arms race. In a world in disarray, disarmament raises questions of mere survival rather than questions of a moral order.
46.	Let us be clear. There is no development strategy for the 1980s that could be compatible with the present policy of continuation of the arms race. In these circumstances, either the greater part of the financial, scientific and technical resources are "diverted" to the solution of problems of development or the balance of the new world order will be only mythical. Disarmament also cannot be viewed as a pious wish which by itself would prevent the unleashing of a world war.
47.	In our days the arms race itself gives rise to war. Since the Second World War more than 125 wars have broken out in the world, directly affecting more than 60 countries and indirectly, more than 80. We must state that these localized wars have only perpetuated a system wherein recourse to violence has become a permanent element.
48.	That is why Portugal, while scrupulously respecting its alliances, is in favour of and will always defend all efforts towards global and controlled disarmament.
49.	Of course, we recognize the complexity and the difficulty of disarmament negotiations; nor do we forget the legitimate right of States to ensure their security. However, we proclaim again the moral imperative, which is at the same time pragmatic, that there must be created a spirit and a machinery which could replace the latent hostility which today is rampant in many parts of the world by a climate of confidence and mutual respect. Only thus shall we be able to place at the service of human progress the large portion of technical and financial resources now devoted to the arms industry.
50.	In this context, my country is happy to welcome the negotiations held within the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks [SALT] between the United States and the Soviet Union, the continuation and broadening of which could be an important step towards true international détente. In the same way, Portugal attaches particular importance to initiatives aimed at the establishment of regional security systems, such as the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, which have been encouraged by the United Nations.
51.	The growing awareness of the increased complexity of the struggle for human rights—the rights of all peoples—compels us to say a few words at this time about our particular concern over the situation in the Middle East.
52.	Linked by history and culture with the peoples of that area, my country has on many occasions stressed the need to find a comprehensive, just and lasting solution which would guarantee to all the States of that area the right to live in peace within recognized and respected boundaries, which would lead to the withdrawal of Israel from the territories occupied since 1967, as well as to the dismantling of the settlements which Israel has created, and which would finally give concrete expression to the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, unjustly broken up by a Diaspora so often accompanied by bloodshed, persecution and despair.
53.	Portugal, which presides over the Security Council Committee dealing with the Israeli settlements in occupied Arab territories, would like to stress here the growing concern and the determination with which the Palestinian people are fighting for the recognition of their inalienable right to create a homeland in which they can live freely so that an end may be put to their present condition, a condition that is intolerable to the conscience of the international community.
54.	Among the various tasks of the United Nations to ensure the effective exercise of the fundamental rights of peoples, decolonization and the defence of the right of self-determination have occupied an increasingly important place and have revealed the potential of the United Nations for moral intervention. Yet some colonial situations continue to exist threatening international stability and challenging the conscience of nations.
55.	Such is the situation in southern Africa, where in Namibia and Zimbabwe there are still illegal political systems which not only prevent the respective peoples from freely exercising the right to self-determination but also are the root-causes of attacks, which must be condemned, against neighbouring countries with which we are linked by close ties of solidarity.
56.	The Portuguese Government hopes that the diplomatic efforts undertaken within the United Nations to put an end to the illegal occupation of Namibia will soon lead the Territory to independence, with complete respect for its unity and territorial integrity and the freely expressed will of all its political forces.
57.	We have known, through our own painful experience in comparable circumstances, the dramatic negative cycle of political intransigence, and we entertain the hope that the present London Constitutional Conference will find a formula capable of restoring legality, equitably defending the various legitimate interests involved and restoring to the people of Zimbabwe the right freely to express their will without unjust domination on the part of internal minorities.
58.	Another negative aspect of the existing situation in the area has been made evident in the system of apartheid, whose continued existence has again been proved to us by the establishment of a new Bantustan which, significantly, has been recognized only by its creators.
59.	Portugal, whose people have always rejected any form of racial discrimination, firmly reiterates its condemnation of this political and social practice which is an insult to the universal conscience and an obstacle to the progress of mankind.
60.	Another people that of East Timor, which is directly linked by historical ties to my country, continues to see its legitimate right to self-determination rejected. Despite several condemnations in the United Nations, despite resolutions adopted by this General Assembly and by the Security Council, the people of East Timor have not so far been able effectively to exercise this right, and Portugal, as the administering Power, has not been able alone to change the unjust situation created in that Territory. Therefore we direct an appeal to the international conscience so that conditions may be rapidly created allowing for a progressive normalization of the life of the peoples of East Timor.
61.	Together with the recognition of the fundamental rights of peoples, in their various forms, there is an imperative that becomes clearer every day: that of creating and strengthening the right to express, equitably and legally, the actual independence of nations concerning the use and defence of their ecological factors and the physical resources of mankind.
62.	The inclusion in a future convention on the law of the sea of principles such as the common heritage of mankind" and of a system of exploitation of an important maritime zone on the basis of that principle, and the search for legal solutions aimed at a more equitable redistribution on a global or regional scale of natural biological or other resources are significant and important precedents for the future of standards which will have to govern international relations as well as a positive step forward towards the installation of a new world order. It was in that spirit that the Portuguese Government proposed that Lisbon become head- quarters of one of the institutions provided for by the future convention, since my Government wishes to do all in its power to contribute by all means available to it to the establishment of a more just maritime order.
63.	What we have said about the 1970s enables us to view with hope the next decade of the 1980s. As far as we are concerned, we believe that the great task for these coming years is the establishment of anew international order which would transcend the purely economic and political dimension and also encompass the social, cultural and information fields. This would not be simply a more or less technocratic reorganization of the system of trade and economic exchanges among nations. At that level, it would be an urgent matter to discover bold and imaginative approaches and to transform structures in such a way as to integrate the factors which have been left aside while the ideology of industrialism was dominant.
64.	On two counts, such attitudes and transformations seem necessary.
65.	First, we must discover new models for post- industrialized societies. Contrary to some ideas, which may seem generous in the short run but are rather Malthusian in long-range terms, we believe that the specific contribution of wealthy and highly industrialized countries is indispensable today to the evolution of humanity. Just as the steam engine led to a new understanding of the phenomena of energy and work, by the same token we should today, not necessarily discover something new, but conceive of a new model of social and cultural relations, and preserve the most important discoveries of the industrial era.
66.	Such a model presupposes the abandonment of institutionalized selfishness, and a deliberate search for social and cultural objectives which might be on a different level from that of mere economic growth,
67.	We are deeply convinced that this is a vital contribution that the rich countries can make to the world at the present stage of civilization. Some movements, even though they may seem marginal today, whether in the field of technology—in particular in that of energy— or in the field of human relations, and especially in the feminist movement, already point in that direction. We must lay stress on human and social discoveries, over and above those of science and technology.
68.	The change of attitude which the new international economic order assumes on the part of poor countries is just as radical and as demanding. We shall have to look for a greater capacity to engage in dialogue, not without firmness in the defence of just positions. We must choose a sound pragmatism, which would not be limited at the outset by verbal radicalism behind which, very often, we conceal our impotence. We must, above all, rediscover the fact that a more just order does not depend solely upon toleration, understanding, and "concessions" which the rich make to the poor, and which every poor country wishes in its own way to obtain for itself. On the contrary, this order must be predicated upon the clarity of our intentions and upon the conquests and achievements we have made in our own lands.
69.	We shall have lost any capacity for dialogue within the international community if, when speaking of a new and more just international order, we are at the same time building a more unjust internal order.
70.	We can state here and now that the expression "world solidarity" which is used so often translates as the expression of a new sensitivity towards international co-operation, and implies a new type of relations between peoples and nations.
71.	It is high time to put an end to the injustice involved in not making good use of the enormous creative capacities of so many peoples who, having lived for so long at a bare subsistence level, are still far from being able to take advantage of the legacy of intellectual, scientific and technological knowledge of mankind.
72.	To move towards human development, peace, security, and economic justice, we cannot forget the difficult objective reality which, in its various guises, forms part of the concrete and divided world of today. Nor can we fail to note that the community of nations is still very far in spirit, in practice and even in intent from the goal of genuine goodwill. But while excessive idealism is out of place here, we think none the less that there is a wide field for a convergence of interests and profits which might, in a climate of flexibility and free exchange, make it possible to begin to translate into reality legitimate aspirations for a more just and better structured international life. And it is precisely this decisive task which the present era seems to impose upon the United Nations. Avoiding isolation and radicalism, it will have to set up a machinery for meeting and for discussion; it will have to perfect the systems and the principles which can give it structure and tangible force; it will have to concert political wills and make them more dynamic, which would make progress possible; and it will have to proceed to the critical examination of present or future models of development.
73.	Thus the United Nations must take up the challenge of this new era; otherwise it will play out its role on the sidelines and will find itself incapable of carrying out its historic task, which today demands of nations their utmost lucidity and wisdom.
74.	Although it is difficult to find a consensus it is not impossible because—as we all know—the alternative is neither morally clear nor reassuring. This is why the awareness of the need for a new international order- political, economic, social and cultural—although it is only beginning, is gaining ground. Although its aim is still far away, almost Utopian, we must not abandon it or give it up. Other battles have been started by this Organization—like decolonization—which at the beginning seemed impossible or senseless, and hardly more than a wager for the future.
75.	What is at stake is not just a change in our way of life, nor just a new pragmatism in the relations between peoples and countries, nor even a simple strategy for international survival. What is at stake is above all the imperative need for all of us together, with patience and brotherliness and in the light of our condition as human beings, to shape the moral image which is so lacking in relations between nations.
76.	It is in that image that we shall then find the profile of the man of the new era, who will be able to justify the hope that human civilization will enter into a new era.
77.	It is therefore impossible to speak in world terms without explicitly speaking of man in the singular. It is he who is the alpha and omega of all development, of any cultural act and of any political concept. The guarantee of the freedom of each man is no longer a limited problem, but a world one.
78.	I come from a poor and small country which, since 25 April 1974, has indissolubly linked the freedom of each Portuguese citizen to active solidarity with all the peoples of the world.
79.	The centuries when Portugal experienced this solidarity beyond the seas and the continents are lost in time. Today the ambiguities of history are left behind and my country lives its daily life in its own place and time, and it is there that it tries out and builds its part of the new world solidarity which is still being formed. It is therefore not surprising that one of its contemporary poets should thus express metaphorically the links which bind the Portuguese people to the rest of man-kind. Allow me, in conclusion, to read the following poem as a testimony of our feelings:
"The sun illuminates my village from several different angles. A new angle brings a new idea, other degrees bring other reasons. For the men of my village are numbered in hundreds of millions. My village is the whole world. The whole world belongs to me. That is where I meet and mingle with people from everywhere for I belong to the whole world."


On behalf of my country and my delegation, I am pleased to extend to Mr. Salim our most cordial and sincere congratulations for the well-deserved tribute paid to him by the international community represented here on his election to the presidency of the present session of the General Assembly. We are confident that under his able guidance the present session will bear abundant fruit for the good of all our peoples.
284.	The 24th of this month will mark one more anniversary in the history of the United Nations, just as the end of this year will mark one more decade in the life of this century. Both dates significantly bring to a close another chapter in mankind's history and oblige us to turn our gaze back over this short period of the past to see whether we have made any real progress along the path of international peace and co-operation or whether we should renew our efforts, to the utmost of the spiritual capacity of our peoples and Governments, to reach the goals which we set for ourselves when we ratified the Charter and, in particular, to spare mankind from a new conflagration which this time would carry the threat of the elimination of human life from the face of the earth.
285.	My Government has reviewed the most significant developments in international relations during the present decade and has made the most earnest efforts to draw optimistic conclusions. However, we have had to bow before the facts of the current world situation.
286.	These facts are not as auspicious as they should be. To the contrary, they cast a strong shadow of doubt upon the ability of the leading members of this Organization to preserve the international community from the grave crisis that can be glimpsed on the horizon.
287.	The report on the work of the Organization by the Secretary-General, to whom I pay a grateful tribute for his dedication in averting grave international conflicts and for his tireless fight to give substance to the values on which our Organization is based, discloses the grave difficulties standing in the way of international society in its advance towards a state of permanent justice that will make possible peace among men.
288.	The political conflicts which have arisen during the decade which ends this year, together with the worsening of such problems as the imminent exhaustion of hydrocarbon energy sources and the concomitant disproportionate rise in the price of petroleum and its derivatives, have added new elements to the uncertainty, mistrust and pessimism in international life.
289.	If we add to this the fact that the great Powers still do not seem to understand that man in his progress has reached a stage at which he should be seen as a truly free being rather than as a pawn in the chess-game of international politics, a being whose own dignity entitles him to chart his destiny, we have to conclude that it is the realities of life today which lead us to pessimism.
290.	Like the Secretary-General of the United Nations, my Government continues to place its faith in the inexhaustible spiritual resources of the human race. Although in absolute terms mankind has not made satisfactory progress in areas vital for international harmony—such as respect for human dignity, improved living conditions for developing peoples, and a fair exchange of raw materials and finished products— the relative achievements of this decade, particularly of recent years, in some measure do offset that grave imbalance. They at least hold out a hope that, by mobilizing the goodwill of peoples and Governments to overcome the obstacles to mankind's aspirations, we may yet restore man's confidence in his destiny.
291.	In his report to the present session of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General asserts that although the cause of human rights has suffered substantial setbacks during the year, this has been accompanied by the growth of a powerful and stimulating awareness conducive to their observance and from which positive results may be expected,
292.	Peoples and Governments such as mine, who have taken as their gospel the observance and furtherance of human rights, are well aware that the best antidote to subversion and social and institutional dislocations is respect for the attributes of the human person.
293.	To the extent that men are assured of respect for their inherent rights—among which the right to liberty holds pride of place—and to the extent that they are treated justly and afforded the means and resources to develop their spiritual potential, to that extent will harmony and peace among men prevail.
294.	Unfortunately, the progress of the United Nations in developing effective institutional machinery for the furtherance and protection of human rights has not yet attained an acceptable level.
295.	My country feels that the time has come for us to fulfil the legal and moral commitment which we undertook as Members of this Organization to respect and promote the fundamental rights of man.
296.	It is my country's endeavour to have no debts to pay where the observance and protection of human rights are concerned, and we find no excuse for the systematic opposition raised by some in this Organization, for political motives, to any initiative which seeks effectively to guarantee respect for the dignity and essential rights of human beings.
297.	The proposal, which Costa Rica advanced, for the creation of a high commissioner or a like authority to monitor respect for human rights, continues to be shunted from one committee to another, a waiting a final decision. We hope that decision will ultimately be favourable, in view of the goal which the proposal seeks to achieve.
298.	The peoples who make up international society cannot continue to endure the privations which are being heaped upon them with no justification whatsoever.
299.	This Organization would be remiss in the performance of one of its highest duties if it did not resolutely bend itself to the task of improving the inadmissible political and social conditions to which not a Few of the Governments of its Members subject their peoples. It is most gratifying for my delegation to note that very promising changes have begun to take shape in the Americas, signalling a new awareness along the lines I have just indicated.
300.	At the height of the grave crisis endured by the noble people of Nicaragua, the crucial decision of the Meeting of Consultation of the Organization of American States [OAS] to request General Somoza to relinquish power in view of the danger to which his genocidal practices had exposed the peace and security of this continent, constitutes a true revolution in the process of improvement of our inter-American system.
301.	The debate that the events in Nicaragua prompted in the First Committee of the General Assembly in December 1978 also underscored the fact that the cause of human rights is intimately linked to international security. The United Nations can therefore ill afford to disregard the human rights violations that continue to occur in countries held under the implacable rule of regimes of the extreme right and the extreme left.
302.	On 3 September last, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was officially established in San Jose, Costa Rica, pursuant to the Pact of San Jose, which was drafted and signed in my country's capital in 1969.
303.	The members of the OAS that have acceded to this Convention have given eloquent proof of their readiness to comply faithfully with the international commitments all of us have made to protect and defend the fundamental rights of all human beings.
304.	The Court is endowed with effective means to guarantee the life and security of any person victim of persecution who may appeal to it for justice, from which we may infer that this will mark the beginning of a new and stimulating period in the life of America's peoples.
305.	In conformity with a long-standing national tradition, one that reaches back to the humanistic spirit of the founding fathers of our nation, my Government has taken up the cause of human rights as the heart of its foreign policy,
306.	Costa Rica cannot make great material contributions to the improvement of international relations. Therefore we feel highly honoured in offering our solidarity and our spiritual support to all persons and peoples suffering persecution, imprisonment and exile because of their wish to be free.
307.	In this spirit our delegation to the United Nations will continue to sponsor any initiative that may tend to liberate peoples still subject to colonialism and to seek the introduction of all possible and necessary improvements to secure for those living under oppressive regimes the fullest guarantees of respect for their fundamental rights.
308.	In conformity with my Government's conviction that peace is not a natural and spontaneous boon but the complex product of factors that are very diverse in character, the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Mr. Rodrigo Carazo Odio, on 27 September 1978 presented to this forum the initiative relating to the creation of a university for peace, a university at which there could be elaborated a programme of disciplines whose common aim would be the attainment of peace.
309.	President Carazo put forward the idea that peace is neither a free gift nor the mere absence of war and that, just as human progress is achieved only through sacrifice; peace cannot be won without a firm resolve to strive for that goal.
310.	I should like to recall here that the university of peace would be a great centre for higher education open to all peoples and to all men of goodwill.
311.	The proposal also contemplates the establishment of seven areas of inquiry, research, dissemination and analysis pertaining to different aspects of the problems of peace.
312.	The longing for peace resides in man's soul, but history leaves no doubt that mankind has not learned how to look for it, let alone find it.
313.	If people go to military academies to study war, should they not go and learn peace in a university devoted to that purpose?
314.	My delegation hopes that the support shown for the proposal of the President of Costa Rica by UNESCO, UNITAR, the United Nations University, a large number of countries and the Secretary-General himself will open the way for final approval of this initiative.
315.	One of the most disturbing facts in the world today, one that darkens the future of international relations and places grave demands upon the capacity of this Organization, is the continuing deterioration of the world economy and the convergence of a number of very different factors that for poor countries such as mine have become insuperable.
316. The economic and financial imbalance between the rich countries and the poor countries is of such a magnitude that history provides few examples of so deep and rapid an impoverishment for the majority of States and such disproportionate enrichment for the few.
317.	If the United Nations was founded in order to bring about a better world in which the human being could live in material and spiritual conditions consonant with his dignity, those of us who have become the sacrificial victims in this state of affairs cannot remain impassive concerning the fate being meted out to us.
318.	The international economy, and consequently the development of our countries, cannot be left to the cunning games of the economically powerful nations. The most elementary sense of human solidarity demands that we put a halt to this escalation, which can plunge international society into indescribable chaos.
319.	Since the time when the school of Spanish theologians and jurists laid the basis of our economic society, the inequality in the economic and social conditions of the peoples is the most vicious of the germs that sooner or later cause wars.
320.	Moreover, it was by no mere accident that the founders of the United Nations ascribed a role of particular importance to the maintenance of international peace and security to a just economic and trade equilibrium between all States. We can therefore see that it is unethical and completely irrational that our Organization should not mobilize as though preparing for a holy war in order to overcome the dangers that now face our international society.
321.	The poor countries have been asking for justice for many years.
322.	The terms of trade work more and more against the most elementary principles of equity, while our raw materials, our commodities, are being paid for at prices that are lower than the cost of producing them. The manufactured goods that we must acquire from the industrialized nations are being sold to us at impossible prices, prices that cannot be met because of the poor countries' lack of foreign exchange. Our capacity to pay, if not yet exhausted, is on the verge of exhaustion, and our economies are thus headed for irrevocable ruin.
323.	In the present state of affairs our peoples have begun to perceive that there is a new kind of servitude weighing upon them. The inability to service the astronomical debts accumulated against our underdeveloped societies has given rise to a feeling of frustration which runs counter to the harmony which should characterize relations among all members of the international community.
324.	Our Organization is bound by the lofty values on which it was founded to give urgent attention to this situation and to support and encourage the worthy efforts of the Secretariat to find a satisfactory solution to the critical condition of the world economy before it is too late.
325.	It is fair to recognize that our developing countries bear a substantial share of the blame for the dislocation of the world economy. Under the sway of consumer society, imposed on us for the benefit of large-scale industries which are not our own, we have grown accustomed to a kind of life which is not in Keeping with our insufficient development or, consequently, with our capacity to pay. Whatever may be the solution to the existing disorder in the world economy, we may expect that it will call for major sacrifices on our part if we wish to guarantee future generations the means to survive.
326.	I said earlier that the exhaustion of hydrocarbon deposits, upon which the growth of the world economy and hence the progress of the whole international community have in large measure relied, not only has had a grave impact on the world economy but raises very serious doubts about the means to be used in future to replace petroleum and its derivatives as a source of energy.
327.	In the realm of facts the steep rise in fuel prices in recent years has disrupted my country's economy so drastically that we have had to make enormous sacrifices to alleviate its effects and ensure that it will not be the poor classes that, as is usually the case, should have to bear burdens for which they are not responsible.
328.	Costa Rica is essentially an agricultural country and depends basically on a few agricultural products whose prices are continuously declining on the international market. Add to this the rising cost of petroleum and its derivatives and the prospects for our ability to maintain some degree of development become minimal, not to say entirely negative.
329.	My country recognizes the" legitimate right of the petroleum-producing countries to demand a fair price for their product, but we hope at the same time that preferential treatment will be granted for its purchase by developing countries, since our paying the same price as the industrialized countries is not only contrary to equity but hampers the economic possibilities of our populations.
330.	There can be no question that a new international economic order will have to reconcile, on equitable terms, the prices of the commodities which are the life-blood of our peoples and the other elements of the world economy.
331.	Costa Rica welcomes with particular interest the proposal made to this Assembly by the President of the United Mexican States, Mr. Jose Lopez Portillo, to establish a world energy plan, My Government enthusiastically supports this excellent initiative by Mexico, as we are convinced that it would provide an effective contribution to the solution of the serious problem of energy which faces all mankind.
332.	The situation in the Middle East continues to occupy our attention, as it does that of all members of the international community, in view of the positive or negative influence it has on the maintenance of international peace and security.
333.	In relation to this regrettable conflict between two peoples to whom we feel linked by spiritual and even historical affinities, through the cultural heritage left to us by Spain, my country aspires to take an impartial and equitable position.
334.	We believe that it is Israel's right that its existence as a State be respected and guaranteed; and we believe that the Palestinian people also have the right to be allowed to organize themselves with all the attributes proper to sovereign parties in an international order.
335.	My delegation deeply regrets that no common ground has thus far been found between the aspirations of these two communities and that the necessary conditions have not yet appeared for these two noble people to resolve their differences in an atmosphere of harmony, peace and tolerance.
336.	For the good of all, without exception, the international community urgently needs to see an end to the state of permanent belligerence in the Middle East. The area is a source of trouble which threatens at any time to break out into a conflagration of unforeseeable consequences and which daily claims the lives of innocent victims to no purpose.
337.	My delegation is grateful to all who have participated directly or indirectly in the effort to find the longed-for solution to the Middle East question and hopes that the progress achieved in improved relations between two of the States parties to this dispute will prompt renewed efforts to restore peace to the whole of the Middle East, so that the peoples that are today suffering the 'scourge of hostilities can look towards a brighter future.
338.	My country, which lacks the most elementary experience in the domain of armaments, proclaims itself disqualified, to its credit, from pronouncing upon the complex plans and programmes that have been discussed in this international forum with a view to halting the escalation of the arms race. It therefore holds the moral credentials to express its most vehement repudiation of the senseless armament policy of the great majority of members of the international community. The arms race is an outrage against mankind and an offence against the rational and spiritual nature of man.
339.	That those who say they love peace should proceed to accumulate means of mass destruction on a scale exceeding many times that required to annihilate the entire human race is an act devoid of reason, one which casts doubt upon the true intentions of its authors.
340.	When we think of the great benefits which mankind stands to gain by reallocating to altruistic ends the astronomical sums earmarked today for the manufacture of weaponry, we cannot help being overcome by a deep feeling of frustration and disappointment.
341.	Those of us who trust in international law and in respect for treaties as a guarantee of the sovereign rights of States find it paradoxical that the developing countries themselves should collaborate in this race without reason.
342.	Our experience of having abolished the institution of the army—which had existed only exceptionally during the 150 years of our nation's independent life— has taught us that this is the wisest of all political measures to promote peace and harmony.
343.	In the present state of international order it is superfluous for poor States to acquire arms beyond what is indispensable for the normal maintenance of their internal security. My country will never tire of appealing to the goodwill of all Governments to devote these resources to the betterment of the material and spiritual conditions of the world's peoples.
344.	The new currents of international law have made it possible for coastal States on all the world's oceans to harbour the hope of claiming preferential rights in respect of the conservation and exploitation of the living resources of the sea, and in respect of the riches of its subsoil.
345.	My delegation commends the sustained effort made by this Organization, through the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, to try to regulate this important activity which, for obvious reasons, is becoming daily more vital for the survival of many of our nations.
346.	Both through our direct knowledge of the matter and through our reading of the illuminating report of the Secretary-General, we have become aware that the United Nations is very close to finding a definitive and general solution to all the problems pertaining to the use of the sea in all its aspects, as well as the conservation and exploitation of its animal, vegetable and mineral riches.
347.	My Government looks forward to celebrating that achievement, not only because of its importance for Costa Rica's interests, for also because it will be an equitable and civilized way to put an end to the abuses of which the developing countries are today the victims.
348.	In his report, the Secretary-General regrets that the United Nations is not receiving all the moral support it deserves from world public opinion. This fact, indicative of the scepticism that has gained a hold on the minds of ordinary men faced with very serious problems to which they see no solution, deserves the careful attention of all Members of this Organization.
349.	The United Nations will survive insofar as its nations mirror the trust of the world's peoples and their hope for a more just society. To keep that faith without faltering is a task incumbent upon us all, especially upon those of us who believe that this is the last chance the Almighty has granted us to find peace and ensure the survival of the human race.
350.	My delegation extends its warmest congratulations to the newest Member of the United Nations family, our Latin-American sister Saint Lucia, and expresses its thanks to that legion of quiet servants of this Organization in the technical, administrative and political domains who, by dedication and sacrifice, are contributing to the worthy task of building a better world for us all.


Mr. President, on behalf of Ecuador, I greet that distinguished citizen of the United Republic of Tanzania, Mr. Salim Ahmed Salim, the President of this session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. I take this opportunity to reaffirm the solidarity of my country with the peoples of Africa and, in general, with all the peoples of the third world, who will in the not-too-distant future constitute the most representative international forum in the history of mankind. I also greet that eminent Colombian, Mr. Indalecio Lie'vano Aguirre, who so skilfully presided over the work of the General Assembly at its thirty-third session. And I extend a most cordial welcome to the new State of Saint Lucia which, as a member of the Latin American group of States, has joined in the activities of our Organization.
196.	I express our condolences on the death of the President of Angola, Agostinho Neto, a man of letters and a statesman of great significance in the history of the liberation of the peoples of Africa.
197.	I am pleased to mention the solid democratic position which Ecuador has been enjoying since 10 August 1979, following an overwhelming popular vote in which the participation of the youth and the women of the country was extremely high. The new Government guiding the destiny of my country has, at the culminating point of a long period of transition from dictatorship to freedom, not only re-established the full validity of political rights but also opened up an era of authentic popular participation in Ecuadorean democratic institutional life.
198.	The Constitutional President of Ecuador, Jaime Roldos, governs under the guidance of the 21 philosophical and pragmatic points advocated in his electoral campaign, thus bringing into play the full authority of the State in the cause of national economic development without impairment of any kind but, rather, with a considerable enhancement of social justice always in keeping with the full respect of human rights. This is as befits a pluralistic democracy which is living through a process of change and for that very reason requires international justice in harmony with the principles of the United Nations.
199. In order to provide delegations here with more information, I should like to quote the following paragraphs from the message to the nation delivered by the President of the Republic of Ecuador upon assuming his high office:
"The State in isolation has no destiny. The international policy of the country will be based on the principles of non-intervention, self-determination, the legal equality of States, the defence of human rights, respect for ideological pluralism, the opening of relations with all countries, the repudiation of all forms of aggression and intervention and the use of force, the rejection of colonialism and neo-colonialism and the peaceful settlement of disputes. My Government will so animate its foreign policy as to make it an instrument that will effectively help internal development and, within the framework of international organizations and instruments, I will advocate the exercise of justice and freedom.
"While acknowledging the fundamental differences that may separate us, my Government intends to strengthen our international relations, since it is by learning to coexist with different countries and thus discovering beneficial elements of progress, cooperation and friendship that we gain a better understanding of the world we live in.
"The violation of human rights and constitutional guarantees creates focal-points of resistance at home and threatens peace in the hemisphere. Peace-loving Ecuador therefore sought a way of solving an epidemic political problem—that of dictatorship— which is alien to the true democratic vocation of the Latin American peoples. The experience of history teaches us that regimes of force make economic development and social justice impossible. On the contrary, rather do they become factors of stagnation or retrogression, which we democratic men must do away with. I am aware—and my country knows it— of the great challenge that lies ahead , not only facing us but also the other peoples of America, My Government will prove that economic development and social justice are the fruits of the orchard of democracy and not of terror."
200.	Having just quoted President Roldos, I must say that, in connexion with the defence of the historic and irrevocable rights of my country over the Amazon, I shall try to give practical effect to the guidelines that he has enunciated. In its present friendly relations with Peru, Ecuador will not cease in its search for a peaceful solution to its rightful claim.
201.	I believe—and I do so most firmly—that there is no problem in international relations which cannot be solved by peaceful and legal means. The use of violence, which international law strictly prohibits, is resorted to only when a party or parties to a dispute lack any real desire to ensure harmonious coexistence and friendly co-operation among peoples. I feel that I have a particular responsibility in giving effect to this principle in relations with the countries of the Latin American region and particularly with those that are closest to us geographically.
202.	The principle of the peaceful settlement of disputes is closely related to the matter of continental constancy in the field of human rights, since violence in the domestic political life of a country is nearly always the result of social inequities and tensions and tends to spill over national borders, as history has shown a hundred times over.
203.	With a just concern for such constancy, the Presidents of Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela and the Prime Minister of Spain, along with the Foreign Ministers of Peru and Bolivia, signed the Declaration of Quito on 11 August 1979, in which they reiterated their purpose of continuing to strive for the Latin American institutionalization of freedom and democracy, because—in the words of the Declaration, such a purpose
". . : invigorates our own institutional life, stimulates recognition of freedom and the continent and contributes to the establishment of the most desirable method for realizing the aspirations of our peoples for social justice."
204.	It is necessary that, on the principle of inescapable solidarity, the international community respond swiftly to the need for participation in programmes for the reconstruction of Nicaragua so that that country, a victim of brutality and genocide, may receive both the emergency bilateral humanitarian aid it needs and the contributions to the International Solidarity Fund for the Reconstruction of Nicaragua, as well as the technical co-operation it requires to solve its present dire predicament and spur its development.
205.	However, the distressing conditions in which the peoples of the third world live are not merely the results of the rather unfortunate workings of their internal policies; they are also, and more specifically, due to the injustice of an international economic order that is daily making the rich countries richer and the poor countries poorer, particularly now under the spiralling inflation brought about by the industrialized nations.
206.	I do not believe that nowadays, in the latter part of the twentieth century, anyone disagrees with the establishment of a new international economic order that entails deep changes in social life, in technological and scientific life and profound alterations in the sphere of information and communications. Above all, it implies that the large industrialized countries of the world must come to a new awareness of what is beneficial to all mankind and of the urgent need for justice and solidarity among all the inhabitants of the earth. This is the only available way to avoid the catastrophe that seems to be drawing nearer with the approach of the coming century. That century is already present in our fears, but also in our hopes, if only human conduct can manage to adapt personal wishes to collective needs.
207.	With the vision of a future that must be described as uncertain, Ecuador maintains the urgent need for countries to take concrete steps in the framework of the North-South dialogue and for that dialogue, within the United Nations to be continuous, however laborious it may be; for I believe that the countries of the third world are prepared to carry on the discussion and the struggle for positive forms of universal justice.
208.	In another area, my country trusts that the negotiations of UNCTAD will continue in the most effective way possible in the climate that has been created by the now universal feeling that the new order is beginning to attract the best minds of our time. Indeed, this climate has sprung from the yearnings of all the peoples that form the undercurrent of history, but who are left outside it as far as surface events are concerned.
209.	In connexion with the new international economic order, I cannot fail to mention the problem of energy that so besets the world, and particularly the poor countries with no fuel. My country is a small producer of oil and its rate of domestic consumption is increasing from year to year, which means that the already reduced exports of today will be notably affected. Yet Ecuador has suffered less than other sister countries. In any event, the problem of high fuel prices marked the first step on the road to the recovery of the developing countries that produce raw materials, above all non-renewable resources. Even so, whatever benefits such an increase may have brought fell into the traditional pattern of a blatantly unequal distribution of income. There can be no doubt of the fact that stable and fair prices for the commodities of the developing countries represent the soundest basis for the safeguarding of universal peace and international justice.
210.	There must not be the slightest hesitation, either in thought or in deed, about making certain that the coming years of economic development are beneficial to the countries of the third world. This will only be possible, however, through the establishment of the new international economic order, which must reflect the increasing interdependence of peoples. I should like to think that in the end the developed countries will be unable to avoid responding to this historic challenge of justice, since such a response implicitly involves their own sense of survival and their moral duty to participate in building an equitable world. It is the only way of reducing tensions and of at least attenuating the overwhelming economic and social contrasts that prevail, as stipulated in the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, for this is the only means of ensuring the maintenance of peace,
211.	My country does not believe in miracles, and for its part it is making the necessary efforts on the domestic front to gear the conditions of its economic and social life to the times. This is being done within the provisions of a strict planning process designed to mobilize its natural resources in order to assimilate the transfers of technology and to benefit from cooperation with developing countries, as well as from such co-operation as the developed countries may offer.
212.	For these reasons, Ecuador has great hopes for the new methods of UNDP, the universality of which must be preserved, while taking due account of less favoured countries.
213.	It is an incontrovertible truth that the world possesses more than enough resources in active circulation to eliminate starvation and want. Some resources, however, are improperly distributed; others are being squandered on the arms race, euphemistically called a ‘’system of defence". It is totally incomprehensible that the innocent citizen should be shown the astronomical figures that are being invested at every minute in funds for slaughter, when with lesser amounts we could prevent an enormous number of children from dying of perfectly curable diseases, prevent old people from living in solitude and poverty, prevent young people from suffering the pangs of hunger and cultural deprivation, and in general keep human beings from treading the road of life totally without the material and spiritual goods they were born to enjoy. Add to this immense sorrow the nightmare of nuclear arsenals, and the least perceptive eye, the least attentive ear, will clearly discern the gigantic proportions of that most useless of catastrophes—the disappearance of the human race.
214.	It is comforting to recall the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (Treaty of Tlatelolco), which prohibits nuclear weapons in Latin America, and the signature and ratification of the Declaration of Ayacucho, which promotes the peaceful settlement of disputes and arms limitation, thus allowing for greater resources to be devoted to the economic and social development of the countries of the region.
215.	The sea and outer space are inherent dimensions of the well-being of mankind. Whereas the former holds the greatest reserve of resources of our planet, the other is essential for life to continue. That is why we must preserve them for peaceful uses. Ecuador reiterates its inalienable right to its 200-mile territorial sea, but that does not mean any disregard for the jus communicationis, or other legitimate uses by third States, nor any breach of international norms. Consequently, we reject any threat directed against our sovereignty.
216.	The exploitation of the sea-bed and ocean floor beyond national jurisdiction must strictly conform to the principle of the common heritage of mankind proclaimed by the General Assembly. Likewise, the exploitation of outer space must not be allowed to serve military purposes or those of cultural alienation.
217.	As regards the synchronous geostationary orbit, Ecuador reaffirms its right to the corresponding segments and hopes their utilization will open up wide possibilities for co-operation for the benefit of developing countries.
218.	Consistent with the wishes for peaceful coexistence professed by the Government and people of Ecuador, I express the hope that tensions will be reduced in the Middle East so that Israelis and Arabs, with whose countries Ecuador maintains cordial relations, may share in exemplary accord in the urgent task of peacefully developing the region. To this end, my country believes that it is indispensable to recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the restitution of the territories occupied by force, and to reaffirm the legal existence of the State of Israel, which was brought into being by the United Nations.
219.	Likewise, Ecuador hopes that the occupation by force may cease to mar the coexistence of the sorely tried population of Cyprus and that the negotiations between the Cypriot groups concerned may progress, with the presence and co-operation of the United Nations.
220.	My country is also concerned at the defiant behaviour of the rulers of the Republic of South Africa, and as a signatory to the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid it once again places on records its repudiation and rejection of all forms of racial discrimination.
221.	In like manner, I believe that the problem of Namibia should have been solved by now and consider it is high time that the self-determination of its people should have swept away the last traces of colonialism in that area, which is, moreover, being maintained in defiance of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council. Ecuador also hopes for the successful outcome of the efforts aimed at giving Zimbabwe a legal regime, with the participation of the Patriotic Front in the negotiations, so that the regime that emerges may be truly representative of the will of the people.
222.	It remains for me to say that Ecuador attended the Sixth Conference of non-aligned countries held in Havana and that, together with the other nations of the Andean Group, it declared its support for the principles which inspire the non-aligned movement.
223.	On this occasion, the Government of Ecuador, which I represent, reaffirms its faith in the United Nations and the hope which the peoples have vested in it that it will be possible to establish the new international economic order and give effective validity to a right that is truly in keeping with the times in which we live—for it is now quite useless to try to mask injustice and aggression with any kind of euphemism. Thus will nations be able to fulfil the foremost of their duties: human solidarity.