Mr. MARSHALL after expressing satisfaction that the Assembly was meeting in Paris, recalled that France had, through the centuries, nourished the arts and sciences for the enrichment of all mankind, and that its citizens had striven persistently to expand freedom for the individual. It was entirely fitting that the General Assembly, meeting in France, which had fired the hearts of men with the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789, should consider in 1948 the approval of a new Declaration of Human Rights for free men in a free world.
Not only was it appropriate that Members should re-affirm their respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms but they should renew their determination to develop and protect those rights and freedoms. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, the right of a people to choose their own government, to take part in its work, and, if they became dissatisfied with it to change it, the obligation of Governments to act through law, those were some of the elements that combined to give dignity and worth to the individual.
The Charter of the United Nations reflected those concepts and expressly provided for the promotion and protection of the rights of man as well as for the rights of nations. That was no accident, for, in the modern world, the association of free men within a free State was based upon the obligation of citizens to respect the rights of their fellow citizens. The association of free nations in a free world was based upon the obligation of all States to respect the rights of other nations.
Systematic and deliberate denials of basic human rights lay at the root of most of the world’s troubles and threatened the work of the United Nations. It was not only fundamentally wrong that millions of men and women lived in daily terror of secret police, subject to seizure, imprisonment or forced labour without just cause and without fair trial, but those wrongs had repercussions in the community of nations. Governments which systematically disregarded the rights of their own people were not likely to respect the rights of other nations and other people, and were likely to seek their objectives by coercion and force in the international field.
The maintenance of those rights and freedoms depended upon adherence to the abiding principles of justice and morality embodied in the rule of law. It would therefore always be true that those Members of the United Nations which strove with sincerity of purpose to live by the Charter, and to conform to the principles of justice and law proclaimed by that Charter, would be those which were genuinely dedicated to the preservation of the dignity and integrity of the individual.
Mr. Marshall urged that the General Assembly, at its third regular session, should approve by an overwhelming majority the Declaration of Human Rights as a standard of conduct for ail; and that Members of the United Nations, conscious of their own shortcomings and imperfections, should join their efforts in good faith to live up to that high standard.
The aspirations of Members of the United Nations must take into account man’s practical needs: improved living and working conditions, better health, economic and social advancement for all, and the social responsibilities which those entailed. The United Nations was pledged in the Charter to promote higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development.
The Secretary-General had devoted a considerable part of his annual report to the nature of the progress made thus far in that field. It was evident from the record that everyone could be encouraged by what was being done. The United Nations was directly engaged in efforts to alleviate the social and economic disorder and destruction resulting from the war. The International Refugee Organization was giving assistance to displaced persons. The International Children’s Emergency Fund was providing emergency aid to children and mothers over wide areas. As a part of the United Nations’ efforts to increase productivity by applying new and advanced techniques, the Food and Agriculture Organization was broadening the use of improved seeds and fertilizers. The tuberculosis project jointly sponsored by the World Health Organization and the International Children’s Emergency Fund represented another example of the constructive wort of the Organization.
Through the United Nations, Members were seeking to combine their efforts to promote international trade, to solve the difficulties of foreign exchange, to facilitate the voluntary migration of peoples, and to increase the flow of information and ideas across national boundaries. The Charter of the International Trade Organization would establish procedures for expanding multilateral trade, with the goal of raising living standards and maintaining full employment. The Conference on Freedom of Information had been responsible for three conventions now before the Assembly which embodied principles and procedures for expanding the exchange of information. It was to be hoped that the Assembly would give those conventions thoughtful and favourable consideration.
Mr. Marshall stated that while the United Nations and its related agencies were increasingly helpful in the economic and social field, primary responsibility for improving standards of living would continue to rest with the Governments and peoples themselves. International organizations could not take the place of national and personal effort, or of local initiative and individual imagination. International action could not replace self-help nor could there be a move toward general co-operation without maximum mutual help among close neighbours.
The United Nations was not intended to preclude co-operative action among groups of States for common purposes consistent with the Charter of the United Nations. It had been disappointing that efforts at economic recovery consistent with that concept had been actively opposed by some who seemed to fear the return of stability and confidence. Members must not be misled by those who, at the present time, in the name of revolutionary slogans, would prevent reconstruction and recovery or hold out illusions of future well-being at the price of starvation and disorder.
A year ago he had expressed the view to the General Assembly that a supreme effort was required from all if they were to succeed in breaking through the vicious circles of deepening political and economic crises. He believed that most members of the Organization had sought to make such an effort and that that was beginning to bring results.
Despite the co-operative action of most nations in rebuilding the peace and restoring wellbeing, tension during the past year had increased. The leaders of the other nations were creating a deep rift between their countries and the rest of the world community. That rift should not be allowed to widen any further and efforts to find a common ground should be redoubled. He referred Members to the Preamble of the Charter, to words that were solemnly written by the peoples of the United Nations while the tragedy of war was vividly stamped on their minds: « We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war... and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours...»
Three years later the United Nations was confronted with the need of saving not only succeeding generations, but its own.
The first purpose of the United Nations was to maintain international peace and security, and to that end all Members were pledged to settle their international disputes by peaceful means and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law.
Members were also pledged to seek an accommodation by which different cultures, different laws, different social and economic structures and different political systems could exist side by side without violence, subversion or intimidation.
An elementary requirement was that international obligations should be respected and that relations among States should be based on mutual confidence, respect and tolerance. How could the United Nations establish among Governments and peoples the confidence which was necessary to a just and stable peace and which was basic to the work of the United Nations? The need at the present session of the General Assembly and in subsequent months was to achieve, or at least to move nearer to, a settlement of the major issues which now confronted Members. For its part, the United States of America was prepared to seek in every possible way, in any appropriate forum, a constructive and peaceful settlement of the political controversies which contributed to the present tension and uncertainty.
Mr. Marshall did not wish to deal at the present time with the details of any particular issue, but there were broad lines along which a just and equitable settlement of each of those questions might be reached. Some of those matters were on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly; others, such as those dealing with the peace settlements, were to be dealt with in other forums. Nevertheless, whatever the forum, as Members of the United Nations, they were all subject to the principles of the Charter.
If peace were desired, the issues arising out of the last war must be settled. The Charter was written with the expectation that the solution of the problems before the United Nations would not be made more difficult by long delay in completing the peace settlements.
Every effort should therefore be made to achieve an early and just peace settlement so that Japan and Germany might exist as democratic and peaceful nations, subject to safeguards against the revival of military or economic means of aggression, and so that they might, in due course, demonstrate their qualification for admission to membership in the United Nations. In Austria the United Nations’ aim was the restoration of its political and economic freedom within its 1937 frontiers, and its immediate admission as a Member of the United Nations.
Other questions affecting world peace were now before the United Nations, some of them before the present session of the General Assembly. His delegation believed that the ends to be sought as regards those matters might be briefly summarized as follows
A Palestine free from strife and the threat of strife, with both the Jews and Arabs assured the peaceful development envisaged by the actions of the General Assembly and of the Security Council; an early demobilization of armed forces to permit the return to conditions of peace and normal living in Palestine; the repatriation of refugees who wished to return and live in peace with their neighbours; economic aid to Jews and Arabs so that they might restore and strengthen their economic wellbeing; the admission of Transjordan and Israel to membership in the United Nations.
A unified and independent Korea, accepted as a Member of the United Nations, acting under a constitution and a government selected by the Koreans themselves through free elections, and receiving the economic and political encouragement it would need as it embarked upon its new life as a Korean nation.
A Greece made secure from aggressive and unlawful interference from without, enabled to order its political life by the democratic process and by respect for the law, enabled to rebuild its economy and to provide its people with the essentials for a decent life of which they had been deprived for so long.
A negotiated settlement without further bloodshed in Indonesia, along the broad lines of the Renville Agreement, providing, within a brief period, both the sovereign independence sought by the peoples of Indonesia and the continued co-operation between them and the people of the Netherlands.
Continuation of the mediation and negotiation between the great nations of India and Pakistan with respect to Kashmir, in order that the processes of peaceful settlement might bring to a conclusion an issue charged with great dangers.
The early adoption of an international system for the control of atomic energy, providing for the elimination of atomic weapons from national armaments, for the development of atomic energy for peaceful purposes only, and for safeguards to ensure compliance by all nations with the necessary international measures of control.
Under an adequate and dependable guarantee against violation, a progressive reduction in armaments as rapidly as the restoration of political confidence permitted.
Other situations or problems might be mentioned, but if constructive steps were taken toward the settlement of those which had been indicated, new hope would arise among men and new confidence among the nations of the world. It would readily be seen that the above-mentioned pattern was toward peace. No Governments or peoples working toward such ends could be held to be seeking war, or imperialist expansion, or disorder and strife.
The United States delegation had noted with particular interest that part of the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the United Nations relating to the millions of people who were not yet fully self-governing; it was mindful of the obligations undertaken in the Charter for the political, economic and social development of those peoples. His delegation believed that all possible assistance and encouragement should be given to them, to the end that they might play their full part in the family of nations, either as independent States or in freely chosen association with other States.
In endeavouring to achieve a political settlement, it was necessary to continue to improve the functioning of the machinery of the United Nations. He hoped that the Security Council would recommend, during the present session of the General Assembly, the admission of additional new Members. There were a number of fully qualified States now awaiting admission, whose election had been supported by the United States of America but had been blocked for reasons not consistent with the Charter. The most recent applicant, Ceylon, one of the new States to emerge in Southern Asia, had been denied the membership to which it properly aspired.
The report of the Interim Committee on the problem of voting in the Security Council represented the first comprehensive study of that vital problem since San Francisco, and contained the views of an overwhelming majority of the members. The work of the Security Council would be greatly facilitated if the recommendations of the Interim Committee could be accepted by the members of the Council.
The Interim Committee itself had worked usefully and effectively during the past year and could continue to render an important service to the General Assembly. He hoped that the General Assembly would agree to its continuation for another year in order that more experience might be gained before a final decision was taken as to whether the Committee should become a permanent part of the Organization.
The United States delegation joined in expressing great appreciation of those individuals who during the past year had served on United Nations missions, with great courage and devotion to duty, either as members of national delegations or of the Secretariat. Their services had been rendered under conditions of great hardship and personal danger. Members had been given a particularly solemn reminder of those conditions by the tragic death of Count Folke Bernadotte and Colonel Sérot at the hands of assassins. The people of the United States of America joined in tribute to the man who worked brilliantly and courageously as the United Nations Mediator in Palestine, and also paid tribute to those others who had lost their lives in the service of peace.
The United States delegation believed that the General Assembly should give sympathetic consideration to the suggestions of the Secretary-General for the establishment of a small United Nations guard force to assist United Nations missions engaged in the pacific settlement of disputes. The fate of the Mediator in Palestine and the experience of the several commissions already working in the field had already demonstrated the need for such a group. This great world Organization should not send its servants on missions of peace without reasonable protection. The guards would be entirely distinct from the armed forces envisaged under Article 43 of the Charter and would not carry out military operations. They could, however, perform important services in connexion with United Nations missions abroad not only as guards but as observers and as communications and transportation personnel.
One of the principal purposes of the United Nations, according to Article 1 of the Charter, was «to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of» the «common ends » set forth in the Charter. The problem of making and keeping the peace involved many Governments and many peoples. On the issues which called for settlement, the large Powers as well as the small must submit their policies to the judgment of the world community. For that purpose appropriate forums had been established for the adjustment of differences through the impartial opinions of society. That process had been seriously hampered by the refusal of a group of nations to participate in certain of the important commissions established by the General Assembly, such as the United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans, the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea and the Interim Committee.
More important than that boycott, however, was the disturbing lack of co-operation which the United Nations had received in its efforts to resolve such questions as Korea and Greece and to bring about the international control of atomic energy. That persistent refusal of a small minority to contribute to the accomplishment of United Nations agreed purposes was a matter of profound concern.
There was no plot among Members of the Organization to keep any nation or group of nations in a minority. The minority position was self-imposed. The record showed that there were no mechanical majorities at the disposal of any nation or group of nations. Majorities formed quickly in support of the principles of the Charter. Nations consistently in the minority would be welcomed among the ranks of the majority — but not at the price of compromise on basic principles.
The United Nations had sought to promote the free exchange of ideas on a basis of full reciprocity. The effort was of the greatest political importance. Any Government which, by deliberate action, cut itself and its people off from the rest of the world became incapable of understanding the problems and policies of other Governments and other peoples. It would be a tragic error if, because of such misunderstandings, the patience of others were to be mistaken for weakness.
The United States of America did not wish to increase the existing tension. It was its wholehearted desire to alleviate that tension, but it would not compromise on essential principles. It would under no circumstances barter away the rights and the freedoms of other peoples. It earnestly hoped that all Members would find ways of contributing to the lessening of tensions and the promotion of peace with justice. The peoples of the earth were anxiously watching the efforts of the General Assembly in Paris. They must not be disappointed.