Peru

68. The words in which the representative of Peru to the United Nations expressed thanks on behalf of the Peruvian people on being called by a unanimous vote to preside over this illustrious world Assembly reflect the feelings with which all Peruvians, regardless of ideology, have received the news of Victor Andres Belaúnde’s election to the presidency of the General Assembly. By a stroke of good fortune it falls to one who was his disciple in the brotherly atmosphere of our universities to express thanks, on behalf of the master who inspired Peruvian youth with the ariel spirit of his generation and its profound preoccupation with spiritual values, for the signal honour of his election. We Peruvians are conscious that Mr. Belaúnde’s election honours both the man and the country whose age-old culture he so nobly and uniquely embodies. By his unanimous election honour has been done, more especially to one of the great workers of the United Nations from the time of the San Francisco Charter to the present; a commentator and prophet of the destiny of the United Nations; an apostle of conciliation and understanding among peoples; a man whom one of the journalists here at Headquarters has described as "a man without enemies"; yet a man who is the friend of his fellow-men and of tile under-dog. To this Christian humanist the United Nations has seen fit to entrust its destiny at an anxious moment of conflict and crisis. For the United Nations is aware that humanism is an ever-accessible and fraternal attitude and that Mr. Belaúnde, through his zeal both for tradition and for the fascinating query of the future, as well as through his faith, as his own action in invoking Divine Providence suggested [795th meeting], can serve us as an intermediary before God. The tribute paid to the man honours his people, and I wish to make myself the mouthpiece of Peru’s gratitude for this distinction, which, as he has said, redounds to the prestige of our nation and of its mission of equity and social justice, from the organization of the greatest fraternal empire of pre-Spanish times to the plans for continental solidarity and American good neighbourliness nourished by Peru in its days of republican glory. 69. Peru, situated at the cross-roads of the great highways of South America, has been the meeting-point of all the cultural waves that have swept over the comment and has received, along with an evident talent for synthesis and spiritual friendship, the legacies of all the peoples of the world which it has absorbed spiritually to the adornment of its culture. It fused the lore of the indigenous American peoples and the Asian civilizations, whose mysteries and superstitions are interwoven with the primitive Peruvian mythology, with European lore and what is termed western civilization, itself an amalgam of values from Greek and Christian tradition along with the moral teachings of the Orient and Arabic humanism — the metaphysical anguish of biblical thought, Confucian civism, the human tenderness of Buddhism or the "non-violence'' policy of India, an outlook in harmony with the mentality of our indigenous people. Later on, Peru added to that wealth of philosophical and human experience the ethical contribution of Spain and the co-operation of history’s great travellers — the peoples of France, Britain, Italy, Germany and later the United States — who taught us to discover the secrets of nature and gave us our first humanized view of the cosmos. In exchange for these gifts Peru, in fulfilment of its humanitarian destiny and its mission of universal brotherhood, gave gold, which revolutionized Europe’s economy; the potato, which enriched the diet of the humble; quinine, which served to abate noxious fever; fertilizer to fructify sterile lands; and coca to alleviate human suffering and "open the jewelled gates of paradise". 70. All these things are brought to mind at once at this moment through the presence in the Chair of this Assembly of a man who represents my people’s loyalty to the ideals of peace and brotherhood for which the United Nations stands. On behalf of my people and my Government I express to the representatives of Latin America and to those of all the peoples that form this Assembly the gratitude of Peru at this honour to a man of peace-loving Latin America. 71. Since the last World War, the United Nations has been making an incalculable effort of legal and political organization in order to build and maintain peace among the peoples and to resolve by flexible and effective means the inevitable conflicts between States; and through the essential elements for the fulfilment of this task have so far been woefully lacking, it is encouraging to note that the work of the United Nations is growing and broadening, becoming crystallized in rules which are the highest expression of international life and law today and are reflected in a basic feeling of confidence among all peoples and a universal awareness of their potential value and practical possibilities. In the contemporary evolution of international law it has fallen to the United Nations to transform the status of man, hitherto regarded as the subject or national of a State, so that he has come to be treated as a human person and as the principal subject of international law. International law, as influenced by the United Nations, now exists and functions mainly through the great institutions established to foster health, labour, culture and freedom, inspired by ideas of social solidarity and fundamentally in the service of man. On this foundation a concern has grown up for the human well-being of under-developed peoples and for communities of peoples in all regions of the world — a concern based not upon their geographic location or political importance but upon their potentialities for economic and cultural improvement with a view to the achievement of civilization. 72. Within this fundamental concern for man as a human being whose life and welfare demand the elimination of the risks entailed in the invention of nuclear weapons and the tragic possibility of their use, the question of disarmament confronts the great Powers and the small countries alike as the most pressing international problem of our time. It is an all- embracing problem upon which converge or abound which revolve all other international issues. It is a moral, legal and psychological problem vital to the world. The problem of disarmament is inseparable from the problem of control. Control is the essential means to the end. Disarmament is indivisible, for it must cover at once conventional and nuclear armaments. The cult of armaments and the arms race are a danger to the people of the world. Consciousness of might stimulates instincts of covetousness and domination, and prompts internal and external acts of aggression. Economically it signifies budgetary inflation, greater poverty and social upset. 73. Both at the time of the Paris discussions and in the Disarmament Commission, the Peruvian delegation has maintained that this question should be settled, not by assertions based purely on theory, but in a practical and realistic manner. Disarmament should not be left to the free decision of Governments but Should be subject to an effective control body dealing with both conventional and nuclear weapons. Both the discontinuance of manufacture and the gradual destruction of existing stocks should be subject to control, which is a legal necessity. Today, in the case of all multilateral agreements, there is an organization to ensure that they are carried out. If a system of control were not set up immediately, simultaneously with the disarmament agreement, it would mean that the most important international treaty of all would lack an organization to ensure that it was put into effect. We all agree that faith in the genuineness of disarmament must be restored, on the basis of something tangible and unequivocal, and this can only mean effective control. Moreover, a disarmament treaty is a technical natter where the assistance of experts is required it is to be put into effect; and that can only be ensured through a system of control. 74. The suggestion has been put forward here that armies must disappear. Such a measure would perhaps be sound in large countries, with highly-developed police systems. But the purpose of an army is not merely to defend the independence of a country against external aggression, but also to maintain law and order. In the American countries, the army has an educational role; it makes good citizens of outcasts from society; it instructs the people; and it helps to inculcate a sense of social discipline. Furthermore, it performs a technical function, in that it explores and maps the country, builds roads and promotes economic development. 75. Nevertheless, we in America must put an end to the armaments race, which has spread to us from Europe and which, if the army does not confine itself within its proper sphere, will bring in its train the same dangers as it does in Europe and encourage under-development and the rise of autocratic rulers. 76. Both last year and this year, despite the continuing tension between the two blocs and the irreconcilable antagonism existing between their respective ideologies, the United Nations has succeeded in keeping the peace in the explosive areas of the Near East, though a state of affairs inconsistent with the rules governing international relations continues to exist in the Suez Canal, and policies of force still prevail in Korea, Hungary and more particularly in Berlin; furthermore, the spectre of a new threat of discord has made its appearance with the violation of the frontiers of Laos and the incursions of Communist China into India and Tibet. 77. Every effort made to bring about a narrowing of the differences which relentlessly divide the two great forces now in conflict and to solve the problems arising from their rivalry is worthy of all praise. For this reason, the conversations between the Soviet Union and the United States through their foremost statesmen have been sincerely welcomed by all the peoples of the world. 78. At the same time, peoples living in various parts of the world have, either spontaneously or with encouragement from others, made known their desire for independence and sovereignty or for the recognition by the United Nations of their right to a separate existence. 79. The States which signed the United Nations Charter are one in their desire to form an association, based on the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, with a view to fostering friendly relations among all nations. The only prerequisite for joining the community of nations is to be a peace-loving State, prepared to fulfil in good faith the obligations contained in the Charter, to settle their disputes by peaceful means and to refrain from the threat or use of force. 80. The solution of the Cyprus problem, which was a victory for the conciliatory spirit shown by the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey and for the power of truth, was a promising step forward; so too were the words of a hero of the liberation of Europe when he spoke about the future of the peoples of North Africa. 81. Generally speaking, world opinion on all these problems is divided, under the influence of propaganda, and the same fairness and moderation is not shown in judging each individual case. When it is a matter of invasion, of the subjection of peoples who have lost the freedom that was their immemorial right as a result of violent aggression and the control of their affairs by foreigners, mild references are made to gradual solutions and to the need for a period of waiting, and there are endless delays in reaching a just solution. On the other hand, drastic and urgent solutions are insisted upon in connexion with disputes which have either been artificially stirred up and threaten duly constituted States, or which, however much they may be intended to promote noble and spontaneous desires for freedom, have been planned or envenomed by outside influences, not with a view to ensuring that international justice shall prevail but in order to bring about strategic changes which would further economic interests or power politics. War thus carried out on behalf of someone else is no longer a war for principle or for faith, but a war of interests waged in the name of anti-democratic ideas which hold the dignity of the human person in contempt and aimed at securing control of strategic zones. Such wars disregard the real interests of the peoples concerned, pay no attention to their fate and make no attempt to ensure that the change they seek to bring about is to the peopled advantage. It is a curious and inexplicable fact that people like the Hungarians, and now the Tibetans, who have been the victims of aggression, have no advocates and benefit by no propaganda over the radio, and their troubles are not placed in dramatic prominence, despite the fact that the one is a heroic people of exemplary Christian culture and the other is heir to one of the oldest of all cultures, one which has influenced the moral wisdom of the world. 82. Another problem which has engaged international attention is the Suez Canal situation and the measures taken by the Egyptian Government, under the pretext of a state of war and contrary to the general principles of international law and the 1888 Convention, to interfere with the free passage of ships trading with Israel and even with that of goods and mails destined for that country. 83. As the Government of a law-abiding country that upholds compliance with international rules and obligations in accordance with the classical tradition of international law, the Government of Peru, which is linked to the Egyptian Government and people by longstanding ties of admiration and even of historical parallel between their ancient cultures, would like to echo the hope already expressed by the representatives of the Great Powers that the age-old freedom of the seas — one of the first and great achievements of law among nations — will be restored, in that part of the world. As heirs to the Spanish legal tradition which proclaimed the inalienable sovereignty of the peoples of America, we cannot but recall that -the Spaniard Francisco de Vitoria, regarded by the American, Brown Scott, as the father of international law, upon first establishing jus inter omnes gentes, i.e. the first principles of the law of nations, declared that all people had the right to travel to another country and to trade with it without restriction of any kind and that preventing them from so doing was one of the few possible grounds for a "just war" between peoples. Thus freedom of trade and friendship between nations, re-stated by the Dutchman Grotius in his book De jure belli ac pacts in 1625, is one of the essential prerequisites of peace and law among nations. 84. As regards the offer just made by the President of France to the population of Algeria, which accords with the spirit of the United Nations Charter and resembles that made by the United Kingdom to Cyprus, we believe that other countries should refrain from interfering with this proposal in order not to prejudice the policy of conciliation espoused by France. Peru, in conformity with the explicit statements made by its President as the proponent of an association of all those countries which share the Latin heritage and regard France as an irreplaceable and eternal factor in world culture, reaffirms in the case of Algeria its position in favour of the self-determination of peoples and, at the same time, its faith in the moral course of a people that has been the guide and teacher of western civilization and has given all the peoples of the world a lesson in freedom and democracy. 85. In contrast to the divided West, the Latin American countries, while imbibing the guiding principles of that civilization, its juridical and historical ideas, its tutelary institutions and its fundamental tradition of humanism and while seeking to overcome the forces of dissolution and catastrophe which threaten the destiny of the West, have asserted over more than a hundred years of independence their will to unity and their conviction of a common destiny. It has been said, perhaps unjustly, that the continent of Europe has ever been torn by strife and warfare while America, in contrast to the pride and cupidity of the Old World, has emerged as a continent of harmony, an asylum for the unrealized ideals of Europe, a utopia where man may perfect himself, or to quote the preamble to the Charter of the Organization of American States, a "land of freedom". In the words of Alfonso Reyes, "America is the name of a human hope" or, as Bolivar said, "America is not a problem, or even a fact: it is a sovereign and irrevocable decree of destiny". 86. All the peoples making up the inter-American system, as their spokesmen have stated in this Assembly, are inspired today, as in the era of emancipation, by a common will to co-ordinate their activities and their interests, the economic potential of their 200 million inhabitants and their enormous reserves of raw materials and man-power, so that through their regional organization all this may be placed at the service of the entire human race. It is a project of universal scope which derives from our ethnic and cultural origins. The unity of Latin America based on a common language, religion and way of life, has crystallized at the international level in a series of ethical principles, Christian and humanist in their essence, which go to make up a series of laws asserting the triumph of right over might, the elimination of power politics and the conviction that civilization and war are incompatible. The peoples of America have been united solely under the spur of peace and they seek not only to uphold and consolidate peace on our continent but also to extend it, if possible, to the all too often blood-stained frontiers of Europe. Apart from their devotion to peace, the Latin American countries, imbued as they are with the highest spiritual concepts of the West, have, from, the earliest days been keenly aware of the need to uphold the fundamental values of freedom, equality and social justice. It was in the Spanish colonies of America that a statute based on the equality of all men, without racial discrimination, was first drawn up, and from it springs the democratic spirit of our peoples and the solidarity with all the peoples of the earth which we have cultivated through the floods of immigrants to our shores. Thus inter-Americanism is based not only on the will to co-operation and peace but also on the determination to overcome selfishness and exclusiveness in relations with other countries and to defend at home the democratic regimes born under the banner of peace, freedom and the popular will and dedicated to the protection of human rights. 87. It has been stated over and over again that, if the basic principles underlying inter-Americanism are to be preserved, the American regional system must be strengthened, and its spokesmen, like those of the other smaller Powers throughout the world, must be heard and consulted when decisions affecting peace and the destiny of mankind are taken. 88. The most vigorous efforts made along these lines So far have been Operation Pan-America and the recent Conference of Foreign Ministers at Santiago. The former, which had its origins in a grave crisis springing from profound social and economic Ills, took shape in the dynamic initiative of Mr. Kubitschek, the President of Brazil; when he so rightly made his inspiring appeal for an "examination of conscience" which would shed light on the causes of the crisis and revitalize the Pan-American system through a reaffirmation of the fundamental juridical and economic objectives it is seeking to attain. At the political level, Operation Pan-America was essentially a declaration that the Latin American peoples had come of age and wanted to make a more serious contribution to world peace, that they wished to be heard and consulted on problems of world interest rather than remain in the background or provide a mere chorus of approval as in the past. The great importance of the Brazilian President’s proposal lay in his recognition of the fact that the basic problem of inter-Americanism and an integral part of the problem of peace and collective security is the under-development, the pauperism of the American peoples, harassed by scarcity of capital, the instability of markets and commodity prices, the sub-human living conditions of their indigenous peoples and, above all, the enormous contrast between the level of living of workers in the industrialized countries and the hungry, poverty-stricken workers in the raw material producing countries. The Brazilian Presidents far-sightedness envisages a plan to remedy the tragic economic inequalities of Latin America. 89. In the realm of social justice, no close moral and political co-operation can exist between such profoundly and tragically differentiated communities as the countries of Latin America and the great industrial Powers. It was impossible to establish solidarity and join in a common struggle So long as living conditions were so unequal, hence, before the political problem could be tackled, the economic problem had to be solved, and this has become an international and strategic problem until such time as the gulf separating the more fortunate peoples and those who lack wealth and technical resources is bridged. The Brazilian President’s timely appeal culminated in the Conference of Foreign Ministers held at Washington in 1958 which adopted measures to strengthen the inter-American economies, ensure the stability of markets and commodity prices and increase opportunities for private and public investments. This last-named vital requirement in its turn led to the establishment of an Inter-American Development Bank, a common objective of our peoples which had long been under discussion. It is fundamentally in the interest of the peoples of Latin America, constantly threatened as they are by quotas, subsidies and dumping, to uphold the principle of multilateral negotiation with regard to any change in their trade relations, as established by the Conference of Foreign Ministers at Washington, and to continue to recognize the decisive importance for the future of America of both Operation Pan-America and its most recent offshoot, the Committee of Nine setup at Buenos Aires to defend our weak economies against the onslaughts of the great monopolies of capital and technical skill and to keep alive the close solidarity among our peoples which the crusading zeal of Operation Pan-America brought into being. 90. At the Santiago conference, America’s dedication to democracy was reaffirmed in unanimous declarations proclaiming the fundamentally democratic character of the inter-American community and the need to defend human rights and the exercise of representative democracy in the Americas. It was unanimously agreed during the discussions at Santiago that the Organization of American States was more than a mere grouping of States, that it was an association of peoples who wished to establish a system of economic and political relations that were both equitable and mutually advantageous, based essentially on the democratic ; principle of the sovereignty of the people. Although no {drastic and specific measures against dictatorship were taken, in spite of the vehement wishes of some nations recently liberated from tyrannical rule, an effort was made at Santiago to isolate the resistant virus of dictatorship and to find an antidote for it. In this connexion, it is encouraging to note that there was agreement on defining, in terms of positive law, the characteristics of democratic Government as opposed to dictatorship. The conclusions reached will make it possible to outlaw from the American system any Government whose power does not derive from the people or which has not won the specific approval of the masses as the hallmark of its democracy. This is yet another contribution by the American countries to the policy of peace, co-operation and harmony among peoples. The democratic system, deeply imbued with the notion of the dignity of the human person, is the system best fitted to protect mankind against the mumbo-jumbo that from time to time seems to drive man, to whole-sale calamity and destruction. Democracy is a militant ideal of peace and social justice, which rules out the possibility of war and strives for co-existence and friendship among men. 91. Our countries are richly endowed with natural and human resources, yet they are faced with a growing population pressure and continually increasing needs, and they lack adequate financial resources and stable consumer markets. On this occasion, as often before, the Peruvian delegation wishes to stress the need to free our peoples from the economic cold war between the great industrial monopolies and the underdeveloped countries, and to recognize man’s right to social justice, which we have underlined in previous Assemblies in the interest of the welfare of our people and the security of our continent. We demand a better way of life for the workers in the Andean regions. Living in one of the most bleak and barren areas of the world, they are the victims of chronic malnutrition, and they claim the right, in accordance with accepted international principles relating to universal human rights, to equal pay for equal work, and to fair wages that will give them and their families adequate standards of living and safeguard their health, welfare and human dignity. We stress the basic objective that the labourer is worthy of his hire equally in all latitudes, regardless of speculative operations on stock exchanges and world markets, and that those who in the face of the great challenge of nature on the American continent are engaged in the most exacting forms of human activity, should receive wages on a par with workers in the more developed countries. 92. One of the problems created by competition in trade and the ever-increasing expansion of the great monopolies is the problem of the sea. For several years now it has been the subject of fruitless hairsplitting at conferences and in sub-committees, and it has been raised by Peru on a number of occasions, notably at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea at Geneva in 1958, as a subject that vitally affects the human rights of the people living along the Peruvian coast. At the thirteenth session of the General Assembly [767th meeting], I gave a detailed account of Peru’s position in this dispute among the large commercial fishing companies, which come long distances to the Peruvian coast and there disturb the natural biological complex created by the cold Humboldt current, the anchovy, the guano bird, the fertilizing guano on the coastal islands and the barrenness of the soil on the Peruvian coast — happily compensated for by the natural fertilizer deposited on the islands. Because of the existence of this biological complex, the fish resources of the coastal waters of Peru have to be protected in order to safeguard the agriculture of that area and the food supplies of its people, who from time immemorial have been dependent on the fauna and flora of the neighbouring waters. Here again, Peru and all the Latin American countries call for the abandonment of the self-centred European standard, by which the territorial sea is measured in terms of the dimensions of the Mediterranean and of the world as it was known to Ptolemy. Such standards cannot be applied to the vast expanse of the Pacific between South America and Australia, in the heart of the World of Magellan, where the rules and ways of life that arose round the ancient mare nostrum are completely out of place. Peru does not claim that there should be any universal rule on the rights of coastal States over the maritime zone that provides their food supplies and the basis of their economic life, but it considers that special standards should apply to coastal States which can claim special geographical and biological circumstances, to enable them to regulate and control fishing off their coasts, not for the purposes of commercial profit, or at the risk of interference with the freedom of the seas, the freedom of the air or freedom of trade, but with the sole object of protecting the vital and immemorial rights and human welfare of the people of the Peruvian coast. In this connexion, we wish to express our grateful appreciation of the constructive position of the Danish representative, foreshadowing an easing of the old rigid standards of the law of the sea. 93. Ever since the San Francisco Conference there have been suggestions, justified by the fact that all human institutions inevitably grow and develop, that the United Nations Charter might be amended in a number of ways with a view to restating the principle of the Organization’s universality and the sovereign equality of all States, and reviewing the respective powers of the General Assembly and the Security Council, above all the right of veto, which the smaller States wish to see changed, but which is jealously defended by the great Powers. Ever since the San Francisco Conference Peru has been opposed to the institution of the veto in the Security Council, as being prejudicial to the principle of equality and to the moral and legal principles on which our international Organization is founded, and moreover because the political interests of the great Powers can never have greater importance than the safeguarding of international peace and security. The veto should not be allowed to paralyse or hamper the proper functioning of the United Nations in settling disputes among States. Until such time as it is possible to amend the letter or the spirit of the Charter, it is to be hoped that these restrictive powers can be circumvented, as they have been on recent occasions, by the intervention of the General Assembly or by emergency measures dictated by an immediate danger to peace. 94. The smaller nations wish to live in peace and, as the representative of Belgium has said, to co-operate "on a basis of conciliation of ideas and interests instead of the brutal hegemony of a single Power" [809th meeting, para. 54], They do so notwithstanding the situation in a world of growing ideological disputes and of power politics as demonstrated by expansionist moves and flagrant aggression. These conditions and the ever-present nightmare of the cold war are responsible for the prevailing atmosphere of fear and anxiety. As has been ably demonstrated during this debate, if the wishes of their peoples are to be met, the representatives of these countries placed in an unfavourable position in the existing conditions of economic and political inequality must make every effort to ensure that truth shall prevail, unsullied by biased propaganda and outside the clutches of factions or cliques. Their efforts must conquer the secrecy, concealment and collective pretence that hamper the knowledge of truth and prevent a denunciation of the evils from which the poorer, handicapped countries are suffering. 95. This Assembly’s chief task is to reveal, discover and restore the true position of our peoples. Above all, it must not allow itself to be conquered by fear or emotional impulse. It must keep politics serving the cause of peace, free from the restraints of fear and hatred. It must seek only that which will contribute to a life of peace and justice because civilization, in the words of Ferrero, "is man’s gradual conquest of primeval fear", and because a peace based on fear, a cold peace, is not true peace. As Pope Pius XII has said, "co-existence based on mutual fear and distrust does not deserve to be called peace". 96. If the United Nations does not wish to become a sham, it must develop among peoples the broadest spirit of co-operation and international solidarity, and secure a fair balance of rights and duties within the broad inter-dependence which binds the peoples of the earth. It must do away with violence, man’s subjugation of man and sterile hatreds; the only goal of trusteeship it can accept is that of the free, considered, equal sharing of the wealth of the earth and the fruits of culture by all nations. 97. Above all, its chief purpose should be to redeem modern man who is frustrated and insecure, relentlessly subjected to the forces of self-interest and instinct, submerged in the mere enjoyment of the moment, burdened by a mechanized civilization and soulless technology, obsessed by success and the impulses of sex and money. By a process of education and culture he must be returned to the forces of generosity and virtue that justify and transform life — the disinterested search for truth and love of beauty and of mankind, which help to save man from the tyranny of mass and the machine, to instill in him a sense of measure and order and to free him from fear and enslavement of the mind. Thus will the world be rid of violence and the policy of destruction and barbarism. 98. In addition to its political and economic activities, the United Nations should do more for culture and mutual understanding among peoples, two factors which contribute to knowledge and unity. Thus, it should give UNESCO the means it needs to combat illiteracy and promote every form of cultural and spiritual exchanges among peoples, particularly among the young people who are forced to live a hectic life, as Jaspers says, amid the din of eroticism and transitory ethics, faced with, degenerate forms of art and literature. A sense of spiritual understanding among the young peoples of the world, leading to the discovery of a synthesis of the revolutionary and the traditional under the beneficial influence of co-operation and renewed faith in the great values of civilization would not only bridge the deepest rifts that separate men, but by bringing closer together nations which have seemingly antagonistic spiritual values that do not appear to lend themselves to reconcilement, would help them to find a cultural, human affinity that might produce a solution valid for all men and for all parts of the world. Such a solution might lead to a reconciliation of the cultures that have divided mankind into two opposing camps and produce a new formula of Christian and liberal humanism through which liberty, equality and fraternity may come to reign in a true sense among the peoples of the world.