The principal organs of the United Nations have now been functioning for nearly nine months. The Assembly has before it the reports which they have made on their work. We may thus form our first opinion on their activities. It is an opportunity for us to ask ourselves in what measure these answer our expectations.
The Security Council occupies an eminent position in our Organization. Under the terms of the Charter, it has the principal responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Its activities, since its establishment, have been considerable. To report on them, a volume of no less than 300 pages was required. Is this first account satisfactory? Has the Council fulfilled the mission assigned to it?
During the past few months, security was not really threatened. The Council, nevertheless, was faced with many delicate questions. The resounding debates to which they gave rise have a special feature which should be noted. They brought into conflict, in particular, the representatives of the permanent members of the Council.
The authors of the Charter set out from the perfectly sound idea that the maintenance of peace depends above all on the agreement and joint action of the great Powers. That is the fundamental condition of the system of security established by the Charter, and the unanimity rule is bound up with that condition.
From the beginning, the anticipations of the authors of the Charter were shown to be wrong on this point, and the security mechanism has been paralyzed. The Security Council has in practice proved to be an institution where the Powers bring before public opinion the questions on which they are divided. The controversies which they arouse may present drawbacks or lead to abuses; yet they also have their advantage, for it is salutary that States may have the opportunity both of expressing their grievances openly, and of replying to those of which they are themselves the object.
Such discussions result from the functions which the Security Council is called upon to fulfill in the peaceful settlement of disputes, but the authors of the Charter had laid the main emphasis on the action which the Council must exercise in the event of threats to peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression. It is in this field that they made the greatest innovation in comparison with the provisions of the League of Nations Covenant, the weaknesses of which they had tried to rectify.
The United Nations have undertaken to implement the decisions of the Council. The latter must have at its disposal the necessary power to see that the decisions are carried out, and to be in a position to intervene immediately; but this promptness and this power of execution presuppose certain decisions; yet, from the first months of its work, the Council has been unable to take decisions with the required majorities, even in matters of limited importance.
It is true that hitherto no consequences endangering peace have resulted; but the United Nations cannot but deduce from this a lesson for the future. So long as relations between the permanent members remain as they are at present, the United Nations cannot expect from the Council those guarantees of security with which it ought to provide them.
At the San Francisco conference, the Belgian delegation criticized the veto rules. But it bowed to the decisions taken, and was prepared to apply the system loyally.
Experience has justified its objections. It is, however, ready to continue this experiment. It does not now propose a repeal of the veto, any more than it did before. It recognizes, while regretting the fact, that the nations are not yet sufficiently conscious of their interdependence, and that all are not yet ready to yield to the decision of the majority.
What the Belgian delegation has fought, and still fights against, is the excessive extension of the veto rule, and the way in which its application is abused. The facts have confirmed this opinion.
If the members of the Council do not make prudent use of the special powers which have been conferred upon them, an amendment of the Charter will eventually become essential, or, if such an amendment is not made, the Security Council, reduced to impotence and incapable of fulfilling its mission, will find that the authority which it should enjoy has completely vanished.
Among the matters in regard to which the veto rules have paralyzed the action of the Security Council, there is one which has called for the intervention of the Belgian Government, and which I should like, for this reason, to mention especially.
The inclusion of the Spanish question in the Council’s agenda was requested by the representative of Poland on 8 and 9 April last. In the course of the proceedings, the Belgian Government was led, by means of communications made in May and in September, to contribute to the inquiry into the role of the Spanish Government.
The information which it supplied to the Council bears chiefly on the help which the Spanish Government gave to the traitor Degrelle, one of the principal German agents in Belgium, in allowing him to escape the fate he deserved for his political crimes and his crimes under common law. This information showed that the attitude of complicity of the Spanish Government with regard to agents of the Axis Powers during the war constitutes a disturbing element in Europe, and a threat to security.
The Belgian Government cannot remain indifferent to the fact that the various draft resolutions submitted to the Council with a view to positive measures being taken, have hitherto led to no result, since the requisite majority has not been obtained, and the matter remains unsolved.
The resolution unanimously adopted by the Assembly on 9 February adopts the Potsdam Declaration which states that the Spanish Government “having been founded with the support of the Axis Powers, in view of its origins, its nature, its record and its close association with the aggressor States does not possess the necessary qualifications to justify its admission.”
The resolution recommends that Members of the United Nations should act in accordance with the letter and spirit of this statement in the conduct of their future relations with Spain.
It is useless to formulate declarations if they q.re to have no practical effect. Such methods cannot enhance the prestige of the Organization.
Limited in its efforts by the provisions of the Charter, as by the rules of procedure, the Belgian delegation can only, submit a proposal that the Assembly should draw the attention of the Security Council to the advantage of taking definite measures capable of solving the Spanish problem. We will submit such a proposal to you in the course of the present session.
Since the meeting of the General Assembly last January, the Economic and Social Council has held three sessions. Its discussions related mainly to the setting up of its Commissions, the agreements to be reached with the specialized agencies, co-operation with nongovernmental organizations, the International Health Conference, the question of refugees, the International Trade and Employment Conference, the economic reconstruction of devastated areas, matters concerning UNRRA, and the world shortage of cereals.
The field thus covered is indeed vast, yet the Belgian delegation feels obliged to note that the decisions reached mainly relate to questions of organization.
If the results are, to a certain extent, disappointing, it would seem that the reason for this lies chiefly in errors of method. The same discussions were conducted before bodies placed one above another and composed of representatives, for the most part, from the same countries. They have been renewed before each of them without sufficient account being taken of the previous discussions.
On the other hand, political preoccupations have too often been interposed in discussions which would have gained by remaining more within the limits of the specific problem to which they referred.
In technical matters, co-operation in the economic and social field seems to be carried on more effectively by the specialized agencies. They should be allowed the autonomy provided for in the agreements which the Council has concluded with them, and which we hope will gain the unreserved approval of the Assembly.
The Charter has entrusted the Economic and Social Council with a particular mission: that of co-ordinating the work of the specialized agencies. This task is of supreme importance, particularly in the economic field.
The lack of balance, which gave rise to serious upheavals in, the economic, financial and social field between the two wars, can only be avoided in the future if this task is carried out under satisfactory conditions. The Economic and Social Council will only succeed in this if it has at its disposal qualified advisory bodies. That is why the manner in which the Economic and Employment Commission will be constituted and will fulfil its functions presents an importance which it would be difficult to exaggerate.
In the field of agriculture and food, as in the monetary and financial field, the specialized agencies have begun to function. That is not yet the case with regard to international trade.
The Preparatory Committee established by the Economic and Social Council has already been meeting for some days in London. Its discussions, the object of which is to draft a charter of commerce, will be facilitated by the detailed draft prepared by the United States Government, which seems to be a useful basis of discussion.
Belgium, closely associated in this field with the Netherlands and Luxembourg, will give its unreserved assistance to the accomplishment of this vast enterprise.
The Assembly has before it the reports which the Economic and Social Council has addressed to it on the question of refugees and the draft relating to the establishment of the International Refugee Organization; on the measures taken in order to provide for the functions and powers formerly exercised by the League of Nations under various international conventions relating to narcotics; and on the transfer of other functions and activities of the League of Nations.
The Council has also drafted agreements with several specialized agencies. The Belgian delegation will, in general, give its approval to these reports and agreements.
An Assembly resolution, dated 2 February, brought before the Economic and Social Council the problem of the economic reconstruction of devastated areas. The Sub-Commission set up to undertake the enquiry has carried out extensive investigations in the limited time at its disposal, and has made suggestions of great interest. The Belgian delegation regrets that the Economic and Social Council has not yet adopted them in their entirety. The Council would not wholly fulfil its task if it limited its investigations to the direct help to be given to countries which have suffered most from the war. It is necessary to avoid disorganized reconstruction, which would lead to fresh economic dislocation and to fresh obstacles to international co-operation. On the contrary, plans for economic reconstruction should be brought into harmony with each other, and contribute to the economic development of Europe as a whole.
In this connection, the establishment of a coordinating body, of a European Economic Commission, which the Sub-Commission has proposed and consideration of which the Council has postponed until its next session, seems to be indispensable.
The Belgian Government intends to abide loyally by the provisions of Chapters XI and XII of the Charter. It is now in a position to submit to the General Assembly for approval a draft trusteeship agreement for the territory of Ruanda-Urundi, administered by Belgium. This agreement follows faithfully the principles of the Charter. It confirms the strict obligation, which Belgium will observe scrupulously, to administer the territory under trusteeship primarily in the interests of its inhabitants, to promote the increasing participation of qualified representatives of the population in the administration of the territory, to promote the political, economic and social progress of the territory, in accordance with the objects of the trusteeship system, to ensure for the nationals of the United Nations complete equality with Belgian nationals in social, economic, industrial and commercial matters, and finally to fulfill the obligations of the territory with a view to the maintenance of international peace and security.
The work accomplished in the last thirty years by Belgium in the administration of Ruanda-Urundi for the benefit of the peoples who inhabit this territory is a pledge of the new progress which the trusteeship system will make possible.
The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. By its advisory opinions, it strengthens the action of the General Assembly and the Security Council, which can have recourse to it for the solution of any difficulty susceptible of legal consideration. By its judgments, the Court makes final decisions on the international disputes which are brought before it. Members of the United Nations must, by an express provision of the Charter, comply with its decisions, and the Security Council must take care to see that this obligation is fulfilled.
Furthermore, it is provided that the Council should bear in mind, in the exercise of its own powers, the fact that, according to the provisions of the Charter, it is to the Court that disputes of a legal nature must normally be submitted by the States concerned.
Finally, in a special clause, the Statute of the Court, which is an integral part of the Charter, provides that States may recognize as compulsory the jurisdiction of the Court in legal disputes.
The International Court of Justice is therefore shown to be one of the essential parts of the machinery established by the Charter for safeguarding world peace.
Belgium is traditionally attached to the cause of arbitration and international justice. The Belgian Government cannot insist too much on the importance which it attributes to the part played by the Court as one of the factors of which the effect should be to lead progressively to the establishment of an effective system of international law. Belgium had accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of International Justice. The Belgian Government will immediately table a bill in Parliament authorizing it to accept similarly the jurisdiction of the new Court.
The conclusion of a trusteeship agreement, the recognition of the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, these are the two principal steps which Belgium has taken, or proposes to take, within the framework of our Organization, and which we have thought useful to bring to the knowledge of the Assembly.
The Belgian delegation has sought to formulate at the same time observations suggested to it by the principal activities of the Organization. We have done this without reticence. It is doing a service to the Organization to express our criticisms frankly, if we do so in a constructive spirit. To point out shortcomings and weaknesses is not, for us, a sign of discouragement. It is, on the contrary, a manifestation of our wish to see our institution expand and its efficiency increase for the benefit of all peoples. This wish will not cease to dominate our actions.