1. May I begin by extending to you, Mr. President, my most cordial congratulations upon your election as President of the twenty-first session of the General Assembly of the United Nations and by expressing my best wishes for the complete success of your term of office. I am convinced that your well-known ability and your moral and intellectual qualifications are guarantees to all the peoples and Governments represented here of impartiality in the conduct of the debates and wisdom in the solution of each and every one of the problems you may have to face.
2. I also take this opportunity to express our gratitude and sincere admiration to Mr. Amintore Fanfani for the able and distinguished manner in which he guided the work of the twentieth session of the General Assembly to a successful conclusion.
3. In this hectic time of international life, when the most extraordinary events succeed each other, at times providing men with grounds for profound satisfaction at the progress achieved in the arts and in science and for their growing control over matter, and at other times giving rise to anguish and sorrow at grievous breaches of the peace, the United Nations represents for the whole of mankind its best and perhaps its only hope of finding a firm highway that will lead it to times of greater peace and well-being.
4. As the representative of the people of Costa Rica on this great occasion, it is my duty and my pleasure to pay a justifiable and well-deserved tribute to the vision and farsightedness of those statesmen who laid the foundations of this great community of nations at a time when the cruel loss of life at that sorrowful moment in human history had barely ceased. Inspired by idealism and by faith in the fundamental qualities of human beings of all races and all continents, whatever their social background; the men who are rightly called the "Fathers of the Charter" created this Organization on behalf of the peoples they represented. They were determined, in the words of the Preamble to the United Nations Charter, "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small...to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom".
5. Those lofty thoughts, the embodiment of the highest aspirations of noble souls, should be the banner guiding men in this second half of the twentieth century; to a large extent they have already been translated into positive achievements. Conflicts which in other times would have caused inexpressible suffering to humanity have been solved by the deliberations of this community of nations and its executive organs and by the action they have taken; peoples whose longing for freedom and independence was repressed have achieved recognition of their sovereignty as free States through the intervention and assistance of the United Nations; and, guided by the warmth and light of the principles and ideals which gave birth to this world Organization, the nations which have achieved the highest degree of economic and cultural development are today offering assistance from their human, technical and financial resources so that the weaker communities may find a way to strengthen their economies and improve the living conditions of their inhabitants.
6. In this connexion, I should like to pause a moment to give a very warm welcome to the new State of Guyana which has joined our international community. We are especially happy to welcome a country belonging to our region, and we hope to cultivate the most cordial relations with Guyana in an atmosphere of full cooperation. I wish to assure this new nation of our best wishes for its future prosperity.
7. Yet we are far from having achieved the purposes of the Charter to the extent and depth that we should have done, Heavy storm clouds continue to threaten world peace. In a number of places in both hemispheres men continue to shed their blood in defence of freedom and their native land. Mankind has not yet been able to achieve the blessings of peace and the man of the space-age, of this century of astounding and unbelievable scientific and technical progress, has not succeeded in raising his thoughts to the idea of a world in which respect for the rights of others and faith and confidence in the principles on which our Organization is based would be the motives determining human endeavour.
8. Alas! It is still often necessary for us to take up arms in defence of freedom and human dignity.
9. Again, we have not been able to provide the poorer peoples with a sufficiency of the means to enjoy a minimum of the benefits which the progress of arts and sciences has brought to the more developed countries. There is poverty in the world; many of the peoples of the earth suffer from hunger; there is a lack of the most elementary public health standards in very many communities, and illiteracy is an evil which, at this stage of civilization, humanity has not succeeded in eradicating except in a very few areas.
10. There is an arduous task ahead for the United Nations. The flames of local fires must be extinguished before the sparks can produce a conflagration that would engulf all mankind. Where there are suppressed conflicts — racial conflicts, social conflicts, economic conflicts or conflicts about sovereignty — steps must be taken to prevent a fresh outburst which might later reach unimaginable proportions. But the method used to prevent that outburst must be one that does not involve the slightest departure from the basic principles on which the United Nations is founded. When from this rostrum we condemn war as a monstrous thing, we cannot and must not forget that true peace will not exist in the world unless it is based on justice towards peoples and towards men and on respect for human dignity.
11. My country has a firm tradition of democracy and respect for individual rights. Throughout its history it has succeeded in living in peace and it joins its voice to those of the great spiritual leaders who have launched a supreme appeal to all peoples to make common cause and, setting aside minor interests, to take concerted action to put an end to the unhappy conflict in Viet-Nam in such a way as to guarantee to its people the free exercise of the right of self-determination.
12. The Government of Costa Rica warmly welcomed the United States Government's statement that it is its aim to initiate discussions which might lead to a solution of the conflict, on the basis of the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and 1962 and within the framework of that Conference or of a conference proposed by the Asian nations. My Government is happy to state that it fully supports that approach and the satisfactory plan submitted to this Assembly by Mr. Goldberg [1412th meeting] to put an end to the conflict in Viet-Nam.
13. But this is not the only conflict by which men are divided. The events of the last war and its aftermath divided peoples and nations previously forming one State, and they now yearn to be reunited. We cannot and must not remain indifferent to situations of this kind, which may be a source of dangerous conflicts in the future. Peoples have national aspirations, and these deserve as much respect and consideration as the spiritual aspirations of free men. We cannot, without detriment to the basic principles of international law, continue to close our eyes to these anomalous situations.
14. Provision is made in the San Francisco Charter for bringing about the reunification of these peoples by peaceful means and the United Nations has full moral authority to take such steps as might achieve this end. I am thinking in particular of the German problem and the Korean problem. We must try to ensure that by the exercise of the basic right to full and free self-determination, the highly civilized German people, whose country is today divided and partly occupied, can solve the problem of its reunification and enter this assembly of the nations, and so contribute to the maintenance of peace and the achievement of the other noble ideals of our Organization. Nor should we spare any effort to enable the Korean people, with its long cultural traditions, to achieve in the near future the unification of its people and territory and thus once again form a single country free to develop the full potential of its material and spiritual resources. All peoples have the right to self-determination and it must not be denied to those who are deprived of the full enjoyment of their nationhood.
15. Our objective is, and indeed must be, peace; this is the very foundation. Only if there is peace can we put an end to poverty and raise the standard of living of the peoples of the world who are today the victims of hunger, incomprehension, intolerance and the absence of social justice.
16. In the same context, we continue to be concerned by the ever more acute social and political problems caused by the apartheid policy of the Government of South Africa and its persistance in continuing and reinforcing that policy. The Costa Rican delegation has worked with unremitting zeal in the Special Committee on the Policies of Apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa and wishes to place on record once again its total repudiation of that policy and of the doctrine on which it is based. It also expressed the hope that this source of discord and unrest will soon disappear to the satisfaction of the peace-loving nations whose fears will thus be allayed.
17. My delegation believes that it is a basic human right for man to receive equal treatment with his fellows; it also believes that it is the right of the various nationalities to maintain their identity and retain their customs and traditions and that there can be no justification for legislative or political measures — vicious relics of bygone days which now happily belong to the social history of the past — which deny those rights to minorities.
18. The United Nations must continue to press forward with every measure designed to ensure that these and other human rights are recognized and safeguarded. We hope that the Organization will support my country's proposal for the creation of the post of a High Commissioner or Tribunal whose task it will be to supervise the observance of the provisions of the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights concerning this essential aspect of life in society and to strengthen them.
19. Another field of United Nations action in which our joint efforts must not falter is assistance in the economic development of nations. With its small population and limited resources, Costa Rica can only participate to a very minor extent in the financial effort called for under the vigorous programmes of local or national development which must be carried out through totally or partially concerted action in order to bring to people living in the most remote areas the blessings of culture, social progress and economic development. But within these limitations and in accordance with the ideals of the San Francisco Charter and the other Charters which preceded or supplemented it, my country, with the assistance of friendly nations, has been implementing these noble ideals. Each day sees a small increase in the well-being of its people, and it hopes to celebrate in 1969 the centenary of free compulsory primary education by completely eradicating illiteracy from the whole of the national territory.
20. Before concluding this brief statement, I wish with all deference and sincerity to urge the countries of our continent, who are today at variance for a number of reasons, to solve their differences in a spirit of generous understanding and with the noble aim of helping to establish an era of peace and harmony in this sadly afflicted world. I also wish to address a sincere and courteous appeal to our distinguished Secretary-General, U Thant, to accede to the unanimous wish that he should continue to fill the office the duties of which he discharges so honourably and with such efficiency. The manly virtues of justice, wisdom and prudence which distinguish him make us feel sure that the Organization will then be able to continue its arduous task of seeking to bring happiness to all peoples through peace.