Haile Selassie
Ier
with Jackie and John F. Kennedy, Address to the United Nations
Mr. President,
Distinguished Delegates, Twenty-seven years ago, as Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the League of Nations and to appeal for relief from the destruction which had been unleashed against my defenseless nation, by the Fascist invader.I spoke then both to and for the conscience of the world. My words went unheeded, but history testifies to the accuracy of the warning that I gave in 1936. Today, I stand before the world organization which has succeeded
to the mantle discarded by its discredited predecessor. In this body is
enshrined the principle of collective security which I unsuccessfully invoked
at Geneva. Here, in this Assembly, reposes the best - perhaps the last -
hope for the peaceful survival of mankind. In 1936, I declared that it was not the Covenant of the League that
was at stake, but international morality. Undertakings, I said then, are
of little worth if the will to keep them is lacking. The Charter of the
United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: abjuration of force
in the settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights
and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language
or religion; the safeguarding of international peace and security. But these, too, as were the phrases of the Covenant, are only words;
their value depends wholly on our will to observe and honor them and give
them content and meaning. The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing
of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance:
courage to speak and act - and if necessary, to suffer and die - for truth
and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international
morality shall not go undetected and unremedied. These lessons must be learned
anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed
which learns from other than its own bitter experience. This Organization
and each of its members bear a crushing and awesome responsibility: to absorb
the wisdom of history and to apply it to the problems of the present, in
order that future generations may be born, and live, and die, in peace.
The record of the United Nations during the few short years of its
life affords mankind a solid basis for encouragement and hope for the future.
The United Nations has dared to act, when the League dared not in Palestine,
in Korea, in Suez, in the Congo. There is not one among us today who does
not conjecture upon the reaction of this body when motives and actions are
called into question. The opinion of this Organization today acts as a powerful
influence upon the decisions of its members. The spotlight of world opinion,
focused by the United Nations upon the transgressions of the renegades of
human society, has thus far proved an effective safeguard against unchecked
aggression and unrestricted violation of human rights. The United Nations continues to sense as the forum where nations
whose interests clash may lay their cases before world opinion. It still
provides the essential escape valve without which the slow build-up of pressures
would have long since resulted in catastrophic explosion. Its actions and
decisions have speeded the achievement of freedom by many peoples on the
continents of Africa and Asia. Its efforts have contributed to the advancement
of the standard of living of peoples in all corners of the world. For this, all men must give thanks. As I stand here today, how faint,
how remote are the memories of 1936.How different in 1963 are the attitudes
of men. We then existed in an atmosphere of suffocating pessimism. Today,
cautious yet buoyant optimism is the prevailing spirit. But each one of
us here knows that what has been accomplished is not enough. The United Nations judgments have been and continue to be subject
to frustration, as individual member-states have ignored its pronouncements
and disregarded its recommendations. The Organization's sinews have been
weakened, as member-states have shirked their obligations to it. The authority
of the Organization has been mocked, as individual member-states have proceeded,
in violation of its commands, to pursue their own aims and ends. The troubles
which continue to plague us virtually all arise among member states of the
Organization, but the Organization remains impotent to enforce acceptable
solutions. As the maker and enforcer of the international law, what the
United Nations has achieved still falls regrettably short of our goal of
an international community of nations. This does not mean that the United Nations has failed. I have lived
too long to cherish many illusions about the essential highmindedness of
men when brought into stark confrontation with the issue of control over
their security, and their property interests. Not even now, when so much
is at hazard would many nations willingly entrust their destinies to other
hands. Yet, this is the ultimatum presented to us: secure the conditions
whereby men will entrust their security to a larger entity, or risk annihilation;
persuade men that their salvation rests in the subordination of national
and local interests to the interests of humanity, or endanger man's future.
These are the objectives, yesterday unobtainable, today essential, which
we must labor to achieve. Until this is accomplished, mankind's future remains hazardous and
permanent peace a matter for speculation. There is no single magic formula,
no one simple step, no words, whether written into the Organization's Charter
or into a treaty between states, which can automatically guarantee to us
what we seek. Peace is a day-to-day problem, the product of a multitude
of events and judgments. Peace is not an "is", it is a "becoming."
We cannot escape the dreadful possibility of catastrophe by miscalculation.
But we can reach the right decisions on the myriad subordinate problems
which each new day poses, and we can thereby make our contribution and perhaps
the most that can be reasonably expected of us in 1963 to the preservation
of peace. It is here that the United Nations has served us - not perfectly,
but well. And in enhancing the possibilities that the Organization may serve
us better, we serve and bring closer our most cherished goals. I would mention briefly today two particular issues which are of
deep concern to all men: disarmament and the establishment of true equality
among men. Disarmament has become the urgent imperative of our time. I do
not say this because I equate the absence of arms to peace, or because I
believe that bringing an end to the nuclear arms race automatically guarantees
the peace, or because the elimination of nuclear warheads from the arsenals
of the world will bring in its wake that change in attitude requisite to
the peaceful settlement of disputes between nations. Disarmament is vital
today, quite simply, because of the immense destructive capacity of which
men dispose. Ethiopia supports the atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty as a step
towards this goal, even though only a partial step. Nations can still perfect
weapons of mass destruction by underground testing. There is no guarantee
against the sudden, unannounced resumption of testing in the atmosphere.
The real significance of the treaty is that it admits of a tacit
stalemate between the nations which negotiated it, a stalemate which recognizes
the blunt, unavoidable fact that none would emerge from the total destruction
which would be the lot of all in a nuclear war, a stalemate which affords
us and the United Nations a breathing space in which to act. Here is our opportunity and our challenge. If the nuclear powers
are prepared to declare a truce, let us seize the moment to strengthen the
institutions and procedures which will serve as the means for the pacific
settlement of disputes among men. Conflicts between nations will continue
to arise. The real issue is whether they are to be resolved by force, or
by resort to peaceful methods and procedures, administered by impartial
institutions. This very Organization itself is the greatest such institution,
and it is in a more powerful United Nations that we seek, and it is here
that we shall find, the assurance of a peaceful future. Were a real and effective disarmament achieved and the funds now
spent in the arms race devoted to the amelioration of man's state; were
we to concentrate only on the peaceful uses of nuclear knowledge, how vastly
and in how short a time might we change the conditions of mankind. This
should be our goal. When we talk of the equality of man, we find, also, a challenge and an opportunity; a challenge to breathe new life into the ideals enshrined in the Charter, an opportunity to bring men closer to freedom and true equality. and thus, closer to a love of peace. The goal of the equality of man which we seek is the antithesis of
the exploitation of one people by another with which the pages of history
and in particular those written of the African and Asian continents, speak
at such length. Exploitation, thus viewed, has many faces. But whatever
guise it assumes, this evil is to be shunned where it does not exist and
crushed where it does. It is the sacred duty of this Organization to ensure
that the dream of equality is finally realized for all men to whom it is
still denied, to guarantee that exploitation is not reincarnated in other
forms in places whence it has already been banished. As a free Africa has emerged during the past decade, a fresh attack
has been launched against exploitation, wherever it still exists. And in
that interaction so common to history, this in turn, has stimulated and
encouraged the remaining dependent peoples to renewed efforts to throw off
the yoke which has oppressed them and its claim as their birthright the
twin ideals of liberty and equality. This very struggle is a struggle to
establish peace, and until victory is assured, that brotherhood and understanding
which nourish and give life to peace can be but partial and incomplete.
In the United States of America, the administration of President
Kennedy is leading a vigorous attack to eradicate the remaining vestige
of racial discrimination from this country. We know that this conflict will
be won and that right will triumph. In this time of trial, these efforts
should be encouraged and assisted, and we should lend our sympathy and support
to the American Government today. Last May, in Addis Ababa, I convened a meeting of Heads of African
States and Governments. In three days, the thirty-two nations represented
at that Conference demonstrated to the world that when the will and the
determination exist, nations and peoples of diverse backgrounds can and
will work together. in unity, to the achievement of common goals and the
assurance of that equality and brotherhood which we desire. On the question of racial discrimination, the Addis Ababa Conference
taught, to those who will learn, this further lesson: That until the philosophy
which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently
discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and
second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin
is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic
human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That
until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the
rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be
pursued but never attained; And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that
hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Africa in subhuman
bondage have been toppled and destroyed; Until bigotry and prejudice and
malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding
and tolerance and good-will; Until all Africans stand and speak as free
beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven;
Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will
fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident
in the victory of good over evil. The United Nations has done much, both directly and indirectly to
speed the disappearance of discrimination and oppression from the earth.
Without the opportunity to focus world opinion on Africa and Asia which
this Organization provides, the goal, for many, might still lie ahead, and
the struggle would have taken far longer. For this, we are truly grateful.
But more can be done. The basis of racial discrimination and colonialism
has been economic, and it is with economic weapons that these evils have
been and can be overcome. In pursuance of resolutions adopted at the Addis
Ababa Summit Conference, African States have undertaken certain measures
in the economic field which, if adopted by all member states of the United
Nations, would soon reduce intransigence to reason. I ask, today, for adherence
to these measures by every nation represented here which is truly devoted
to the principles enunciated in the Charter. I do not believe that Portugal and South Africa are prepared to commit
economic or physical suicide if honorable and reasonable alternatives exist.
I believe that such alternatives can be found. But I also know that unless
peaceful solutions are devised, counsels of moderation and temperance will
avail for naught; and another blow will have been dealt to this Organization
which will hamper and weaken still further its usefulness in the struggle
to ensure the victory of peace and liberty over the forces of strife and
oppression. Here, then, is the opportunity presented to us. We must act
while we can, while the occasion exists to exert those legitimate pressures
available to us, lest time run out and resort be had to less happy means.
Does this Organization today possess the authority and the will to
act? And if it does not, are we prepared to clothe it with the power to
create and enforce the rule of law? Or is the Charter a mere collection
of words, without content and substance, because the essential spirit is
lacking? The time in which to ponder these questions is all too short. The
pages of history are full of instances in which the unwanted and the shunned
nonetheless occurred because men waited to act until too late. We can brook
no such delay. If we are to survive, this Organization must survive. To survive,
it must be strengthened. Its executive must be vested with great authority.
The means for the enforcement of its decisions must be fortified, and, if
they do not exist, they must be devised. Procedures must be established
to protect the small and the weak when threatened by the strong and the
mighty. All nations which fulfill the conditions of membership must be admitted
and allowed to sit in this assemblage. Equality of representation must be assured in each of its organs.
The possibilities which exist in the United Nations to provide the medium
whereby the hungry may be fed, the naked clothed, the ignorant instructed,
must be seized on and exploited for the flower of peace is not sustained
by poverty and want. To achieve this requires courage and confidence. The
courage, I believe, we possess. The confidence must be created, and to create
confidence we must act courageously. The great nations of the world would do well to remember that in
the modern age even their own fates are not wholly in their hands. Peace
demands the united efforts of us all. Who can foresee what spark might ignite
the fuse? It is not only the small and the weak who must scrupulously observe
their obligations to the United Nations and to each other. Unless the smaller
nations are accorded their proper voice in the settlement of the world's
problems, unless the equality which Africa and Asia have struggled to attain
is reflected in expanded membership in the institutions which make up the
United Nations, confidence will come just that much harder. Unless the rights
of the least of men are as assiduously protected as those of the greatest,
the seeds of confidence will fall on barren soil. The stake of each one of us is identical - life or death. We all
wish to live. We all seek a world in which men are freed of the burdens
of ignorance, poverty, hunger and disease. And we shall all be hard-pressed
to escape the deadly rain of nuclear fall-out should catastrophe overtake
us. When I spoke at Geneva in 1936, there was no precedent for a head
of state addressing the League of Nations. I am neither the first, nor will
I be the last head of state to address the United Nations, but only I have
addressed both the League and this Organization in this capacity. The problems
which confront us today are, equally, unprecedented. They have no counterparts
in human experience. Men search the pages of history for solutions, for
precedents, but there are none. This, then, is the ultimate challenge. Where
are we to look for our survival, for the answers to the questions which
have never before been posed? We must look, first, to Almighty God, Who
has raised man above the animals and endowed him with intelligence and reason.
We must put our faith in Him, that He will not desert us or permit us to
destroy humanity which He created in His image. And we must look into ourselves,
into the depth of our souls. We must become something we have never been
and for which our education and experience and environment have ill-prepared
us. We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in
spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming
petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our
fellow men within the human community."
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