97. From this august rostrum, I wish to reaffirm the Uruguayan Government’s support of the principles of the United Nations and its faith in the Organization’s ability to accomplish its great mission.
98. The advent of a new atmosphere of peace at the Geneva Conference has awakened bright hopes in the civilized world. As Mr. Dulles, the United States Secretary of State, said here: “It will not be an era of placidity and stagnancy in the sense that the status quo, with all its manifold injustices, will be accented as permanent. It will be an era of change, and it will have its strains and its stresses. But peoples and Governments will renounce the use of war and subversion to achieve their goals. They will accept orderly evolution towards the realization of legitimate national aspirations” [518th meeting, para. 80].
99. The peace thus alluded to, an active and stable peace, commits this Assembly to a dynamic pursuit of the objective set forth in the Charter: to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.
100. The United Nations, in the ten years of its existence, has demonstrated its effectiveness in assisting new States to accede to freedom without bloodshed or violence. It has increased the number of its specialized agencies in order to promote the advancement of labour, industry and trade, health and culture. It has acted decisively in applying the principles of collective defence, and in suppressing aggression. But its primary function has been to serve as an actual or potential forum for peaceful rapprochement, dignified coexistence and the promotion f agreements to bring about peace and security between nations with differing philosophies and political structures.
101. These principles are precious elements in our doctrine of international relations, which was proclaimed with moving foresight and wisdom by a Uruguayan statesman, Jose Batlle y Ordonez at the Second International Peace Conference at the Hague, in 1907, when he defended his faith in the powers of co-operation with these immortal words: “Since so many alliances have been concluded by which to impose that which is arbitrary, "it might be well to conclude another alliance by means of which justice might be imposed.” My country’s support of the principles of international law as governing relations between peoples and States springs from the very heart of the sovereign people, which has proclaimed in the Constitution of the Republic the imperative duty of the Government to propose the peaceful settlement of international disputes.
102. In my country, during the past 50 years, the combined efforts of Government and private initiative have built up a vigorous industrial heritage catering for needs at home and abroad, and constituting a permanent source of employment and the basis of the nation’s economic security. With that end in view, my country has systematically protected the development of the national economy. By means of liberal and protective legislation, the Government has fostered the creation of new industries, and grants facilities for the free import and export of foreign capital, which enjoys equal rights with national capital. It has encouraged the import of raw materials and equipment, for which, as also for building, liberal credit facilities are granted on generous terms by official State institutions.
103. Agriculture, the basic source of the country’s wealth, is fully protected; farmers are provided with selected seeds and fertilizers at low cost, and they are given facilities for the import of machinery, incentives to greater productivity, generous loans for production, and facilities and assistance for the proper marketing of produce.
104. Economic progress has made high standards of living possible for our workers, and at the same time just protection is afforded them by laws covering minimum wages, fixed by tripartite tribunals, maximum working hours, family allowances, general retirement benefits and pensions, protection against industrial accidents and occupational diseases, the total cost of these social services being estimated at one-third of the salary,
105. Peace is the fruit of a common endeavour. We believe that, in the spirit of Geneva, it will be our common duty to promote a gradual and healthy adaptation to the new economic conditions engendered in the world by a stable peace. The principles of co-operation and solidarity must be applied in a common effort to promote economic development and peaceful coexistence. I
106. Work is the most effective factor of social peace and progress; it is the sine qua non of civilization. The high political and social level attained by my country through its practice of active democracy requires a firm financial foundation to support it. There is no social justice unless society as a whole has access to the country’s wealth, and that means that society as a whole must work. My Government considers it its primary duty to see that the necessary conditions exist to maintain full employment.
107. The immediate objective is the economic and social advancement of the peoples, and the United Nations should co-operate in developing national resources to the full. The type of action which the countries in the process of economic development expect from the United Nations is the provision of adequate technical assistance and funds for the development of their economic substructure, the production of raw materials and the furthering of industrialization.
108. The Uruguayan Government has vested in the nation the services Which are basic to its economic structure, namely, electric power, roads, public transport, schools, hospitals, irrigation works, etc., on the principle that responsibility for promoting the economic development of a country rests primarily with its own Government. Our expanding economy makes it necessary to extend these services and creates a demand for funds which internal savings cannot adequately satisfy. Our Government is supporting an intensive drive for the industrialization of Uruguay in order to hasten its transformation from a raw material producer into a more highly developed country with a balance trade, permanent sources of employment and a larger national income.
109. I am not raising these problems in the United Nations out of purely national considerations. In the first place, their solution is one of the purposes for which the United Nations exists, as an Organization designed for “the creation of conditions of stability’ and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations”; secondly, our problems are common to others, particularly on the American continent, which are serving the international and continental community with the same healthy zeal as ourselves, and which also have untapped resources and a lively and natural desire to give their peoples the same standard of well-being as we are trying to obtain for our own.
110. This American unity, a historical necessity born of our common origin and destiny, can be even further strengthened by a new economic fraternity, which, as we draw closer together, will encourage trade in goods complementary to our respective economies and enable us to go forward together in the service of our peoples’ needs and the cause of international co-operation.
111. Industries in the formative, and even in an advanced, stage require the help of technical assistance, which combines international experience and skill under the systematic direction of the United Nations. The exchange of information through the medium of fellows and experts, an exchange in which my country has been both a recipient from and a contributor to the international community, and the assistance afforded to the technical plans of the national authorities out of the world's store of experience and specialized knowledge, are more than ever essential to nations in times of economic development.
112. Representing, as I do, a country in which vocational training is made easier by the institution of free education at all levels, I feel it both an honour and a duty to offer access to Uruguayan institutions and the assistance of our technical experts to all the delegations present at this Assembly, to the extent that our facilities permit.
113. Experience has shown the effectiveness of coordinating the investment of available capital to develop the potential resources of the under-developed countries.
114. There will be particularly wide scope for international co-operation and for the allocation of resources released by disarmament to the stimulation of production, the promotion of industrialization, and the development of the basic economic structure in those countries where both public and private enterprise are striving to carry out the technical plans dictated by the needs of their respective economies for expansion.
115. The establishment of the Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development would well serve such a purpose, and my Government reaffirms its vigorous support of this institution, as well as of the proposal for establishing an International Finance Corporation.
116. Lastly, we consider that international co-operation should aim at ensuring effective technical co-ordination of production in the various countries, and at balancing the various branches of trade, so that the world's needs may be satisfied without undermining or endangering the national economic structure, the industrial system or the social organization of any particular State.
117. As regards human rights, the Uruguayan delegation reaffirms its traditional position that efforts should be made to perfect the systems for effectively guaranteeing international protection to any individual whose fundamental rights as proclaimed in the covenants have been infringed. My delegation feels that when the draft International Covenants on Human Rights are considered, provision should be made for a system of legal protection with procedures adequate to achieve the in view. Without the aid of flexible procedural machinery for ensuring proper international control, the scheme may, unfortunately, prove in practice to be no more than so much pretentions and meaningless verbiage.
118. We reaffirm our conviction that these protective instruments must be backed up by flexible machinery capable of implementing the guarantee they offer and ensuring the truly effective enjoyment of the rights concerned. The proposal previously submitted by the Uruguayan delegation for the appointment of a High Commissioner for Human Rights [A/C.3/L.424] recognizes and provides a satisfactory solution for a problem vital to human dignity.
119. One of the most far-reaching and best known of ail United Nations activities is that performed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It is possible that more than 30 million children will benefit this year from the work of this United Nations body. The General Assembly has recognized the effectiveness, the scope and the importance of the protective work of UNICEF by establishing it as a permanent institution [resolution 802 (VIII)].
120. My country, true to the principle underlying the protection afforded by law to its children, has contributed $1 million to UNICEF. Moreover, in 1954, my delegation, jointly with that of India, submitted a proposal for the proclamation of a Universal Children's Day which won the approval of the General Assembly [resolution 836 (IX)]. My delegation takes this opportunity' of once again pledging support for UNICEF's work and lofty aims.
121. The systematic support of a community for the principles of peaceful and constructive coexistence, its struggle to remain true to its native setting, its capacity to create cultural and moral values, and its right to the exercise of political liberty cannot be indefinitely ignored, because they reflect the same historical traditions, the same higher impulse which won for other peoples the right to freedom and self-government. When such aspirations are brought before the United Nations General Assembly, what moral precept, what reasons of security, what higher interest can be invoked to smother this voice, to curb this immutable aspiration to human dignity, indefinitely? The United Nations, which is based on the principles of freedom, justice, peace and law, must have sufficient wisdom to decide whether, how and when freedom may be acquired without conflict or bloodshed by peoples who place their hope and trust in the verdict of the international community.
122. In this connexion, Uruguay confirms its traditional attitude concerning the scope and meaning of Article 2, paragraph 7, of the Charter. The relevance of the saving clause concerning domestic jurisdiction cannot be left to be determined unilaterally according to the views and wishes of the State desiring to invoke it. It is always the responsibility of the United Nations General Assembly to consider whether the exception invoked by one of its Members is in order and to decide whether it is warranted.
123. It is the duty of all Governments to be just, to foster full employment, the highest degree of social justice, the greatest well-being for mankind. All workers have an equal right to a fair wage and to higher standards of living. They have an equal right to see conflict give way to collaboration, isolation to knowledge, the misfortune of the few to the welfare of all, unemployment to creative activity, inertia to energy and fear to a sense of security. This is the task of the United Nations.
124. A light of hope was kindled for the civilized world at the Geneva Conference. Faith in the ideals of civilization, in the principles of a noble and free life, in human values, in the ideals for which we live and die, is being born anew. Science is demanding an opportunity to serve the cause of life, and that cause alone. Atomic energy in the service of peace, health and work is symbolic of the ennoblement of the human race and the triumph of moral forces which seemed to have been extinguished forever in the human spirit.