Sir, I would ask you to transmit to Mr. Hollai,
President of the General Assembly, the greetings
of my country, together with our best wishes for
complete success in the conduct of the work of
this session of the General Assembly, a success
assured by his prestige and experience in the
Organization. I also greet the Secretary-Genera),
who comes from our Latin American region, elected
last December to the elevated responsibility that
the international community has entrusted to him,
for the furtherance of peace and the
strengthening of the United Nations. I also wish
to place on record our profound gratitude to and
praise for Mr. Kittani, the esteemed President of
the thirty-sixth session. His efforts during the
prolonged work of the thirty- sixth session will
always be recalled as an example of selfless
devotion to the cause of the United Nations.
138. World problems have worsened considerably
in the midst of an atmosphere laden with growing
tension, constant collective insecurity,
aggressions that are neither punished nor stopped
and an acute inter¬national economic crisis. The
world panorama has darkened over the past year as
a result of the dangers that confront peace,
while the measures adopted by the Organization to
alleviate this state of tension and insecurity
have not brought about the expected results. The
realization of the noble purposes of the United
Nations has, as at no time before, eluded the
reach of the peoples, who anxiously contemplate
the permanent weakening of the resolutions of the
General Assembly and the non-implementation of
the decisions of the Security Council. Let us
recall that mankind put its trust and its hope in
the United Nations in order to for save
succeeding generations from the scourge of
warfare . If the Organization shows itself
ineffectual in attaining that objective, the
perspectives will become increasingly distressing.
139. For that reason, Ecuador urgently appeals
to the Governments of Member States, and
prin¬cipally to the great Powers, to act in
compliance with their responsibilities and
display the political will needed to give
substance to the measures adopted by the
Organization. That political will is an essential
requirement for the restoration of a climate of
inter¬national understanding and the removal of
the dangers that loom over the future of mankind.
140. To face up to those perspectives, Ecuador
comes to this new session to reaffirm its
position of adherence to the basic principles of
its international policy, outstanding among which
are those relating to the sovereign equality of
States, non-intervention, the rejection of the
threat or use of force in international
relations, the non-recognition of territorial
conquests obtained by force, the peaceful
settlement of disputes, international
co-operation, respect for human rights, and the
rejection of racial discrimination, apartheid,
colonialism and neo colonialism.
141. The joint declarations of the President
of Ecuador and the Presidents of Brazil,
Venezuela and Colombia on the occasion of the
visits made in the course of 1982 by the
Ecuadorian President to those brother countries,
as well as the declaration signed by nine heads
of State from Latin America and Spain on the
occasion of the recent transfer of power in
Colom¬bia, reaffirm adherence to those principles
and indicate the guidelines of Ecuador's
international policy.
142. In the firm belief that peace is possible
only through the observance of those fundamental
prin¬ciples of the legal system of the United
Nations, Ecuador continues to call for the
immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from
territories that do not belong to them, in
Afghanistan as well as in Lebanon and all of the
Middle East, and in Cyprus, Kampuchea, Namibia or
any other territory where forces of occupa¬tion
are to be found.
143. Ecuador has condemned the aggression
against Lebanon as well as the execrable
massacres of hun¬dreds of Palestinians that
recently occurred in west Beirut, and it has
requested that an appropriate investi¬gation be
made in order to determine responsibilities. It
has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the
invading forces as well as the cessation of
hostilities in order to put an end to the loss of
human lives and the destruction of that martyred
country. The Lebanese people must remain free
from any foreign interference so that they may
decide their own destiny in a sovereign and
democratic manner and so that their intrinsic and
inalienable right to live in peace is respected.
Similarly, Ecuador reiterates the basic need to
find a solution to the problem of the Palestinian
people, who have the right to establish
themselves in their own territory, a right to
self-determination and a right to participate on
an equal footing with the other countries of the
region in international negotia¬tions aimed at
finding a just, definitive and compre¬hensive
solution to this serious situation.
144. In this respect, Ecuador has considered with
interest the new proposals aimed at the full
recognition of the basic rights of the
Palestinian people and the need to give effect to
United Nations decisions, particularly those of
the Security Council. In fact, and in accordance
with the latter, the search for practical
measures that would meet the just claims of the
Palestinians and reaffirm respect for the
sovereignty, political independence and
territorial integrity of all States in the region
continues to be the urgent aim of the
international community in the Middle East.
145. Ecuador lives within a democratic system
with full respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms as laid down in its
Constitution and in relevant international
instruments. My country upholds the need for
universal respect for human rights without the
selectivity as to their violations that leads to
covering up in certain regions what is criticized
in others. It also maintains that it is proper
for each State member of the international
community to report of its own accord and in such
international forums as this on the observance of
those rights within their borders.
146. In this regard, the Constitutional
President of Ecuador, Mr. Osvaldo Hurtado, stated
at the opening of the session of the Ecuadorian
Parliament this year that
for ... the Government has scrupulously respected
public freedoms in such a manner that it can
proudly report that in the course of the past
year no act tending to limit them has occurred.
The political parties, the trade unions, the
chambers of commerce and the information media
have been given the widest guaranty’s for the
exercise of their activities.
147. The Charter of Conduct signed at Riobamba
in 1980 by the Presidents of the countries of the
Andean Group, as well as Panama, Costa Rica and
Spaing reaffirms the commitment by which respect
for human, political, economic and social rights
constitutes a fundamental norm for the internal
conduct of States, and notes that joint action in
the defense of such rights does not violate the
principle of non-interven¬tion. It also
reiterates the need to promote the settle¬ment of
disputes among the countries of the Andean Group,
or between them and third parties, by peaceful
means, and it provides for a subregional and
regional process which, inspired by the premises
contained in the 1974 Ayacucho Declaration/for
constitutes an effective contribution to general
and complete disarm¬ament and thus makes it
possible to release resources for economic and
social development.
148. The multiple world problems and the
disputes of every kind that exist in various
regions, including those of a territorial
character, seriously affect world peace and
security and are consequently of interest to the
community of nations.
149. In the specific case of the American
continent, the territorial problems that sail
exist in Central and South America which, we
could assert, involve almost all States of the
region, hamper the co-ordination of an
international policy that would make it possible
to attend to a)l existing problems and to obtain
the co-operation required to solve them.
150. There exists a serious territorial
problem between Ecuador and Peru, dating back to
the time when our peoples acceded to independent
life. The problem was aggravated when, by force
and by the occupation of Ecuadorian territory,
the Protocol of Rio de Janeiro was imposed on
us, By virtue of which Ecuador was deprived of
the Amazonian territories to which my country is
entitled in accordance with unimpeachable legal
titles.
151. Ecuador has always advocated and will not
cease to seek a peaceful and honorable solution
of justice and equity to that problem, one that
recognizes its Amazonian rights. That is why it
renews from this rostrum its invitation to Peru
t& lend its loyal and effective participation to
establishing as soon as possible the climate
indispensable for understanding between the two
countries and for the initiation, as soon as such
a design is consolidated, of negotiations aimed
at the earliest and definitive solution of the
dispute that separates them, without conditions
that might prejudge the results of the
negotiations and with the assistance of the
countries that are most closely linked to the
preservation of peace and the search for harmony
between the parties. This neces¬sary atmosphere
for negotiation has been seriously disturbed by
the warlike events of January and Feb¬ruary 1981
and by other later incidents, but the full
re-establishment of such an atmosphere is
hampered above all by the acts of appropriation
of the territories under dispute that Peru has
since that time been intensifying and by which it
is attempting to pass off the territorial dispute
it maintains with Ecuador as having been resolved
in favor of its own unilateral pretensions.
152. As a result, I reiterate the reservation
that Ecuador expressed before the Assembly at the
31st meeting of the thirty-sixth session with
regard to its rights of territorial sovereignty
over the undefined border zone extending to the
east of the Condor Range to the effect that
whatever acts and works Peru may have carried
out, as well as those it is currently undertaking
and those it may undertake in future, in no case
will Ecuador agree to the sitting of the
landmarks that Peru claims in that Range, which
is not mentioned as a border line in any
instrument between the two countries, not even in
the so-called Rio Protocol that was imposed upon
Ecuador in 1942 after the armed invasion of 1941
and under conditions that included the occupation
of part of its territory.
153. As a country of the Amazon region,
Ecuador fulfils its role under the Treaty of
Amazonian Co-oper¬ation among the eight countries
whose territory makes up the water basin of the
great river that was discov¬ered by the
expedition organized in the sixteenth century
from Guayaquil and Quito.
154. Because of its vocation for peace,
Ecuador has supported all disarmament resolutions
at past sessions of the General Assembly, in
particular those resolu¬tions calling for nuclear
disarmament and for the prohibition of nuclear
tests. We must reiterate our total condemnation
of the unbridled arms race—if only because of a
basic instinct for the preservation of human life
on our planet, which belongs as much to the
non-nuclear as to the nuclear countries. We have
supported resolutions calling for the
reallocation of the astronomical sums spent for
military purposes worldwide to be used for the
development of the poor countries, a development
which is essential for the establishment of the
new international economic order. In that
connection, we have enthusiastically supported
the inclusion in the agenda of the additional
item concerning the relationship between
disarmament and development.
155. On the other hand, we deplore the lack of
political will on the part of the great Powers,
which prevented the General Assembly at the
second special session devoted to disarmament
from even ratifying the points agreed on during
the first such special session.
156. There are, of course, other important
factors that have to be taken into account in the
maintenance of peace and the promotion of the
integral development of nations, such as the
elimination of economic aggression and of theillegal
exploitation of natural resources belonging to
other peoples, the changing of unfair terms of
trade, and the elimination of all kinds of
coercive measures.
157. The United Nations Conference on the Law
of the Sea highlighted the evolution of one
aspect of international law, which began 30 years
ago with the Santiago Declaration, in which
Ecuador, Chile and Peru proclaimed sovereignty
and jurisdiction over the sea along their coasts
to a distance of 200 miles. That legal position
has become universal. The new law of the sea
recognizes wide-ranging and specific rights of
sovereignty of the coastal States over the
natural resources in the adjacent waters, on the
sea-bed and in the subsoil thereof in that
200-mile zone. The recognition that the sea-bed
beyond the limits of national jurisdiction
constitutes the common heritage of mankind is
also an irreversible victory. Much has been
gained. But further progress is necessary to
achieve definitive protection of all the rights
of peo¬ples which, like that of Ecuador, have
been exercising their rights over their seas
without violating any of the norms of
international law.
158. Similarly, in the face of the
unacceptable claim by the space Powers that it is
the right of the first occupant to place
satellites in geostationary orbit, Ecuador has
maintained that the special rights of the
equatorial countries must be recognized for the
benefit of the developing world and in view of
the determina¬tion to keep outer space an area of
peace and co-oper¬ation for scientific and
technical progress in the service of all mankind,
and especially the developing countries, was
reaffirmed in the Declaration of Equatorial
States, which met at Quito in April of this year.
Ecuador will continue to maintain that position.
159. Disarmament is closely linked with the
peaceful settlement of international disputes,
which is an element essential to understanding
among countries and the strengthening of world
peace and security. In every forum of which it is
a member—international, regional and
subregional—Ecuador advocates peaceful
settlement. All disputes between States, both
present and future, must be settled solely by
peaceful means, without interference and without
anything being imposed from outside. We therefore
maintain that the United Nations must redouble
its efforts in this regard.
160. Our country has accordingly supported the
draft Manila Declaration on the Peaceful
Settlement of International Disputes, designed
to strengthen and make more effective the system
of the peaceful settle¬ment of disputes between
States, in accordance with an initiative, in
which Ecuador took part from the beginning, in
the Special Committee on the Charter of the
United Nations and on the Strengthening of the
Role of the Organization. We have also pointed
out the advisability of establishing a body
empowered to co-operate with the parties to a
dispute in the search for a peaceful settlement
at the request of any of them, so that full use
may thus be made of the possibilities afforded by
the Charter for that purpose.
161. Among the increasingly important forums
in which Ecuador participates is the non-aligned
move¬ment, which it joined over a year ago,
although it had endorsed the principles and
policies of the movement ever since the Belgrade
meeting of 1961, because of our wishes for the
consolidation of peace and inter¬national
co-operation, in accordance with Ecuador's
foreign policy, which is independent, and free
from any influence, with respect for ideological
pluralism, and seeks to maintain friendly
relations with all coun¬tries. For the sake of
adequately coordinating the foreign policies of
countries with the greatest historical, political
and cultural affinities, the President of Ecuador
has proposed that the Foreign Ministers of the
Latin American countries join together in a
com¬mittee on co-ordination, which would be an
essential step in strengthening Latin American
unity and soli¬darity. At the subregional level,
Ecuador is an active participant in the
integration process among the Andean countries
which are parties to the Cartagena Agreement.
162. The International Development Strategy
was conceived in response to the new approach of
a world of co-operation, and to promote a new
stage of global economic growth which would
benefit all and which would accentuate the
activities and benefits of peace in relation to
the many development tasks which involve the
fulfillment of the world's needs in the fields of
education, health, housing, productivity, sources
of energy, transport and communications.
Consequently, Ecuador trusts that, in the
Assembly, the political will which is
indispensable for the pro¬gress of the global
negotiations will be forthcoming form the
industrialized countries and that a system of
world economic relations will be arrived at
reflecting the principles of equity, sovereignty,
equality, inter¬dependence and co-operation among
States that are the basis of the new
international economic order. We cannot watch
with indifference the increasingly serious
broadening of the gaps that separate the poor
coun¬tries from the rich countries, with respect
to access to the sources of capital and to
markets, and to the transfer of technology, while
inflation and unemploy¬ment afflict the whole
international community, the harshest effects
being felt by the weakest.
163. The Charter of Economic Rights and Duties
of States must be effectively implemented in
order to establish just and equitable bases for
international economic relations. To that end it
is also necessary to revitalize the Economic and
Social Council, a principal organ of the United
Nations, where the crucial questions of our time
should be debated. The Council should contribute
to consolidating and making more coherent the
whole system of specialized agen¬cies,
development funds and operative programmes
created and consolidated over the past three
decades. It must also follow up the resolutions
of the General Assembly as well as those of the
Council itself and of its Commissions. This
covers the major part of the work of the United
Nations, since 80 per cent of the activities of
the system are in the economic and social fields.
164. In this respect, it is appropriate to
mention that the Committee on Information,
created by the Assembly, has succeeded in
adopting by an admirable and encouraging
consensus 42 recommendations [see <4/37/2/, para.
9/], which we hope the General Assembly will
endorse. They include an appeal to the powerful
world communications media to back up the efforts
of the international community to ensure global
development, and in particular the efforts of the
developing countries to achieve their own
economic, social and cultural development.
165. While the global negotiations are going
on, Member States will have to prepare plans and
projects, as well as train personnel, with the
support of oper¬ational programmes such as UNDP,
whose charac¬teristics of universality,
formulation of programmes by Governments and
financing by voluntary contributions as well as
its 32 years' experience all combine to make it
the ideal instrument to meet the real needs of
world development. That is why its activities
must be trebled, which is possible if the major
countries respond to the General Assembly's
appeals to increase their con¬tributions by 14
per cent. Ecuador, for its part, has done so. The
developing countries have made a significant
increase in their contributions, and there is
growing South-South co-operation in the economic
and technical fields. The world multilateral
system of technical co-operation and
pre-investment is the most commendable, because
of its political independence, its objectivity,
its flexibility and its experience. We reject any
attempt to orient it towards the governing of the
programmes of some States by others, which would
be intolerable.
166. Together with technical co-operation and
pre- investment, which link the transfer of
technology with economic development, from
investment to productivity, trade must be an
instrument of justice between countries, through
agreement on equitable prices and theelimination
of discriminatory barriers. It is also necessary
to stress the multilateral process of trading,
because this contributes to the preservation of
the independence of peoples and prevents the
anachronistic exploitation and dependence which
often accompany bilateral aid. All this must
continue to be considered in international
forums, so that exports from developing countries
may earn a fair remuneration and maintain sources
of employment for the inhabitants of those
countries. It is to be hoped that the forthcoming
session of UNCTAD will result in new approaches,
understandings and decisions which will ensure
the dynamics of development for the countries of
the third world.
167. Although Ecuador is not a contracting
party to GATT, it has always been interested in
its activities, since GATT's main objective is
the reduction of barriers to international trade
and the preparation of rules which will enable it
to be regulated according to equitable and just
terms. However, GATT has not yet succeeded in
solving the problems which affect the trade of
the developing countries, such as quantita¬tive
restrictions and the increased protectionist
measures which are applied to the products of
which the developing countries are major
exporters.
168. We have expressed our concern about the
suggested ways of differentiating between
developing countries in granting preferential
treatment, since the concept of graduation, which
the countries granting the preferences seek to
introduce, is incompatible with the basic norms
of the generalized system of preferences. Ecuador
has spoken of the advisability of examining a
system of safeguards under conditions and on the
basis of criteria that are mutually agreed and
are supplemented by a multilateral mechanism of
control and monitoring. The forthcoming GATT
ministerial meeting will be an opportunity to
reach concrete agreements which may allow GATT to
achieve its essential objective of the attainment
of shared benefits.
169. A regrettable, anachronistic colonial
case arose this year in the South Atlantic—that
of the Malvinas Islands, where an
extra-continental Power mounted a
disproportionate punitive expedition, with the
support of other great Powers, to deny the
Argen¬tine Republic's right of sovereignty.
Ecuador, which maintained its anti-colonialist
position before, during and after that warlike
episode, has rejected the use of force and has
recalled that the principle of uti possidetis
juris of 1810 is the basis, of the territorial
reality of the American countries which gained
independence from the Spanish Crown. Ecuador has
reaffirmed its adherence to the Declaration on
the Granting of Independence to Colonial
Countries and Peoples, adopted as General
Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), paragraph 6 of
which clearly states:
Any attempt aimed at the partial or total
dis¬ruption of the national unity and the
territorial integrity of a country is
incompatible with the pur¬poses and principles of
the Charter of the United Nations.
It should not be forgotten that the islands are
located on the continental shelf of Argentina and
within the security zone established by the
Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance.
170. There is a dispute, and it must be solved
by diplomatic means. In this connection, Ecuador
supported the request for the inclusion of the
question of the Malvinas as an additional item in
the agenda of the present session submitted by 20
Foreign Ministers of Latin American countries and
Haiti so that negotiations between the Argentine
Republic and the United Kingdom may be carried
out within the framework of the United Nations
and as soon as possible.
171. That historic Treaty strengthens the
vigorous unity of the Latin American peoples,
founding mem¬bers of the United Nations and heirs
to an ancient juridical tradition which has
strengthened interna¬tional law and contributed
significantly to the forma¬tion of the United
Nations and of various regional organizations, as
they themselves have acknowledged.
172. Because our country owes to the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, the
culmination of its political inde¬pendence and
the defense of its territorial integrity, the
President of Ecuador has proclaimed as the Year
of the Bicentenary of the Liberator the period
from 24 July 1982 to 24 July 1983, at which time
the bicentenary of this great world figure of
freedom and international understanding will be
celebrated. Ecuador, together with the other
Bolivarian countries, that is, the Andean Group
and Panama, will co-operate fully in the
well-deserved tribute to be paid within the
United Nations to the universal thinking of
Bolivar.
173. When in 1822 Bolivar, as President of
Colombia, proposed to the Governments of Buenos
Aires, Chile, Mexico and Peru that they should
constitute an assembly of confederated countries,
he envisioned that this would lay the legal
foundation between the American Republics and
would come to serve as a counsel in common
dangers, a faithful interpreter of public
treaties whenever difficulties arise and,
finally, as a conciliator of our deferences .
174. These are additional reasons, revitalized
through the San Francisco Charter, upon which
Ecuador relies to reiterate its full trust in the
United Nations and to urge it once again to
intensify its efforts to attain the purposes and
objectives of the greatest legal instrument of
our time.