The circumstances in which this session of the General Assembly is being held seem to be less unfavourable than those which preceded and accompanied the eleventh session that recently came to an end. Nevertheless, the world scene does not offer any consolation. The great problems remain: disarmament; the situation in the Middle East; the occupation of Hungary; the domination of many peoples by a foreign Government — a domination which in some cases accounts for the arbitrary division of a State into two States, one subject and the other independent — the efforts of the peoples of former colonies and other territories yearning to exercise their right to self-determination; disregard for and violation of human rights in many areas; and so forth.
19. Twelve years after the signature of the Charter, and despite persistent and often successful efforts, the United Nations has not yet found effective or adequate methods of solving these problems. This may be explained by two fundamental reasons: first, as sociology teaches us, there is nothing so changeable or so complex as relations among human beings, more specifically, relations among human communities; secondly, at the present time, mainly on account of the impressive technological advances, these relations have become increasingly frequent, closer and therefore more complex.
20. This Organization, praised by some and reviled and opposed by others, has been doing all that is humanly possible to avoid war, to maintain and strengthen peace, and to enable men and women throughout the world to enjoy a dignified, healthy, pleasant and hopeful life, free from fear, humiliation and suffering. Like any other human enterprise, the United Nations is imperfect and liable to error and is moving forward only very slowly towards the attainment of its purposes; yet, despite all this, no one can deny that the annals of the Organization contain glowing pages of lasting value, which I shall not speak of now as I do not wish to make a very long statement.
21. My delegation wishes to reaffirm on this occasion the faith of the Government and people of El Salvador in the United Nations. El Salvador, one of the founder Members of this Organization and also a founder member of important regional bodies such as the Organization of American States and the Organization of Central American States, has at all times distinguished itself by its spirit of solidarity and by its support of the great moral and legal principles on which the coexistence of nations is based — the principles of the juridical equality of States, the right of peoples to self-determination and the principle of non-intervention by one State in the affairs of another.
22. It is noteworthy that whereas these and many other principles are recognized in the Charter, particular emphasis is placed on the first, in Article 2, which states that the Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members. This equality is particularly evident in the work of the General Assembly and is clearly incompatible with the privileged voting procedure enjoyed by the permanent members of the Security Council.
23. We were therefore greatly surprised by the ideas expressed a short time ago by Sir Winston Churchill, that illustrious British statesman and author, one of the architects of the United Nations, a prominent figure in contemporary history and the distinguished chronicler of the most important events of our century.
24. In the address he delivered at the Guild Hall in London at a dinner in honour of the 1957 Convention of the American Bar Association, the distinguished former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, recognizing that differences between the great Powers had thrown responsibility increasingly on the General Assembly, said that it was anomalous that the vote or prejudice of any small country should affect events involving populations many times its own number, and that the situation should be improved. He went on to say that there were many cases where the United Nations had failed; he mentioned the case of Hungary and added that he did not want to suggest an elaborate new Charter for the United Nations, but simply felt that all agreed that its present conception was imperfect and must be changed.
25. These ideas expressed by Sir Winston contain unfair criticism of small States, or rather of those States Members of the United Nations which are not great Powers. His criticism is unfair because the votes of these States are not based on, or are not usually based on prejudice, but on the political and juridical convictions of their Governments, and find their justification precisely in the principle of the sovereign equality of all States. His criticism is unfair because the reason why certain important problems relating to peace — whether they concern the Suez Canal or the invasion of Hungary — are referred to and considered by the General Assembly is that the Security Council, owing to the lack of unanimity of its permanent members, is unable to discharge its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. His criticism is unjust, lastly, because it was the great Powers at the Yalta Conference, where none of the smaller States was present, which established the voting procedure for the Security Council and which later stipulated that system at San Francisco as a condition sine qua non for the establishment of the United Nations.
26. No doubt it is exasperating that, whereas the United Kingdom, France and Israel complied with the recommendations of the General Assembly in the case of Egypt, neither the Soviet Union nor the regime in Hungary made the slightest attempt to obey the Assembly's recommendations in the heartbreaking case of the Hungarian people; yet the venerable British warrior-statesman will surely agree that the Charter authorizes the General Assembly to make only recommendations in cases of this kind, and that if the Security Council is unable to adopt a binding decision, even though it is empowered under the Charter to do so, it is because the great Powers deliberately intended it to be thus when they proposed a voting system which enables any one of them to act as judge and party in the Council when the latter deals with serious political problems, such as threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression.
27. Yet there is another, more interesting point; the veto also applies to the amendment of the Charter. No amendment of the Charter can come into force unless it is ratified by all the permanent members of the Security Council in accordance with their respective constitutional processes. Upon the proposal of the Latin American delegations, certain items relating to the review of the Charter and designed to increase the membership of the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and the International Court of Justice, were included in the agenda of the eleventh session and also appear on the agenda of the present session.
28. These proposed changes, however, were not accepted, and doubtless they will not win acceptance for some time to come, owing to the opposition of the Soviet delegation, for the Soviet Government will neither approve nor ratify any amendment of the Charter so long as the representatives of Communist China have not taken the place of the representatives of the Government of the Republic of China both in the General Assembly and in other United Nations organs. Will Sir Winston also blame the small States for this?
29. My delegation deeply regrets that the London conversations concerning disarmament did not produce an agreement that could have smoothed the way for the General Assembly's consideration of the disarmament item, which is the most important of the political items we discuss year after year and which is of particular urgency now that the danger of a third world war haunts mankind with the prospect of the catastrophic devastation that could be caused by the use of nuclear weapons.
30. Without indulging in excessive optimism, we think that the strenuous and sound efforts made in the recent months may lead here, in the General Assembly, to discussions more constructive than those of past years on this question, all of which have merely resulted in a procedural resolution recommending that the Disarmament Commission and its Sub-committee should continue to study this vast problem and the various proposals submitted in connexion with it.
31. El Salvador’s position with respect to disarmament will remain unchanged. We shall support any suggestion or proposal which in our view is prompted by good intentions and which tends to reduce as much as possible the danger of war by means of a real limitation and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments, and by means of the prohibition of the use of atomic, hydrogen and other weapons of mass destruction.
32. We shall also adhere to El Salvador’s traditional position with respect to the problem of peoples who aspire to independence or to the exercise in any other form of their right to self-determination. We are in particular interested in the fate of countries such as Germany, Korea and Viet-Nam, each of which is unjustly divided into two parts owing to foreign domination over one of these parts. My Government, like the great majority of the Governments represented here, would like the General Assembly to take an active interest in measures for the early reunification of Germany, Korea and Viet-Nam and for the immediate admission of these countries to the United Nations, to whose work they would certainly make a valuable contribution.
33. We are deeply concerned about the situation in Hungary, the fate of other subject peoples and the imminent danger threatening the countries of the Middle East. We are also concerned about the systematic violation of human rights in a large number of countries.
34. My country is a member of the regional community of American States which, as is well known, at the Ninth International Conference of American States held at Bogota in 1948, adopted the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, and at the same Conference declared: "The ideal that inspired the epic of the independence of America will always animate our peoples and Governments, united in their moral pledge to strive by all peaceful means within their power to eliminate from the continent any status of dependency, whatever its form, political, economic or juridical..." We have always felt that this doctrine should be applied throughout the world and, just as we do not want any colonies or occupied territories in America, so we do not want such dependencies to exist in any other part of the world.
35. As is its custom, the delegation of El Salvador will be glad to make its modest contribution to the examination of these questions to which I have referred, and of all the others on the agenda of this session. In particular, we wish to take part in the debates on the economic and financial items, above all the items relating to the economic development of the underdeveloped countries and to technical assistance programmes.
36. The five Central American Republics — Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua — are engaged on a programme of incalculable importance for the future of the region. I am referring to the programme for the economic integration of the Central American countries which, under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Latin America and under the immediate supervision of the Central American Economic Co-operation Committee, has been developing gradually and steadily for a number of years. This project is based on a resolution which was adopted in 1951 by the Economic Commission for Latin America on the initiative of the five Central American delegations and which expresses the interest of our Governments: "...in the development of agricultural and industrial production and of transportation systems in their respective countries so as to promote the integration of their economies and the expansion of markets by the exchange of their products, the co-ordination of their development programmes and the establishment of enterprises in which all or some of these countries have an interest".
37. It is a pleasant task for me to convey from this rostrum the thanks of the Government of El Salvador for the assistance it has received under the United Nations Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance, and particularly for the co-operation of the Technical Assistance Administration in the study and implementation of many aspects of the programme for the economic integration of the Central American countries.
38. One of the items on our agenda concerns the appointment of the Secretary-General, since the term of office for which Mr. Hammarskjold was appointed will expire in tire spring of next year. It is my great pleasure to state that my Government, knowing Mr. Hammarskjold's qualities, his devotion to the noble ideals of the United Nations and his spirit of sacrifice, which at times takes the form of an almost incredible vigour in the discharge of his functions, whole-heartedly supports the continuation of this eminent statesman and diplomat in the high office of Secretary-General. My delegation welcomes the recommendation made this morning by the Security Council and will consider it an honour to vote this afternoon in the General Assembly for the appointment of Mr. Hammarskjold for another term of office.
39. In closing, I wish the General Assembly every success in its efforts in 1957 to promote the welfare of all its Members and, in general, of all peoples throughout the world. Public opinion expects great things from each and every one of the representatives attending this great international forum, and therefore we should all endeavour to be worthy of the great confidence placed in us by our Governments and of the responsibility we bear.