39. The people and the Government of Costa Rica take pleasure in expressing their gratification at the Assembly's decision to elect you, Mr. President, to its highest office. The prestige of Italy, which is so closely bound to the Latin American republics by ties of tradition, culture and friendship and your own personal qualities convince us that the complex and difficult questions to be decided at this twentieth session of the General Assembly will be discussed in an atmosphere in which lofty thoughts and a full sense of responsibility will prevail. Please accept therefore the sincere congratulations of the Costa Rican delegation and our solemn promise to co-operate actively for the complete success of our work.
40. My Government and my country wholeheartedly welcome the admission to the United Nations of the new States of the Gambia, the Maldive Islands and Singapore. This happy event, which has just increased our international family, represents progress toward the ideals of justice and liberty in the world. Costa Rica, which has fought for its own independence and for that of other peoples, wishes to express its satisfaction at this new step towards universal amity.
41. The representative of a country like mine could not embark on his opening statement in the general debate without stressing, first of all, the significance and importance of the visit with which we shall be highly honoured within the next few days. I refer to the forthcoming visit to this international forum of His Holiness, Pope Paul VI. This visit will be a milestone in the history of the United Nations, of Christianity and of the world. It is, I think, a clear indication that mankind is undergoing a process of radical renewal in which the highest religious authority of our time confirms the wish to take part in our work which was already expressed during the fruitful pontificate of Pope John XXIII and repeated on many occasions by his august successor.
42. I am convinced that, in expressing the hope that this direct contact between the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and the United Nations will infuse new life into our Organization, I express the general feeling that this event which we are awaiting with such impatience will make a decisive contribution to the peacemaking and constructive mission which is the real raison d'être of the United Nations.
43. My Government welcomed the proposal to establish a Special Committee on Peace-keeping Operations [A/5916] which enabled the General Assembly to conclude its nineteenth regular session on a hopeful note [1331st meeting]. It would seem that the settlement of the recent crisis augurs well for the world’s future. Costa Rica wishes to express its deep satisfaction that the General Assembly has resumed its work. Nevertheless, my Government wishes to reaffirm here its support of the legal argument on which was based the attitude of those countries which felt that Article 19 of the Charter is applicable to those Member States that refused to accept the constitutionally adopted decisions of this supreme body. Having fulfilled this duty, I should like to emphasize again that my Government, and I myself, share the satisfaction expressed by other delegations that we have been able to resume our interrupted work in a normal way.
44. One encouraging sign of the vigour of the United Nations as an instrument for promoting and maintaining world peace has been the unanimous resolutions of the Security Council urging two of our Member States, India and Pakistan, to put an end to the hostilities arising from the persistence of a problem which has preoccupied Asia and the world, the undoubtedly complex question of Kashmir. The executive organ of the United Nations has this time acted with authority and speed. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of other occasions when the peace of the world and the normal development of various countries was seriously endangered. Accordingly, my Government considers that it is not only the right but also the duty of the General Assembly to deliberate the act in cases of threats to the peace when the Security Council is virtually paralysed because one of the great Powers exercises its right of veto.
45. With regard to the armed conflict between India and Pakistan, I should like to express my Government's satisfaction that these two countries have complied with the urgent appeals of the Security Council. In this way, the United Nations has asserted itself as a peace-making body. I should also like to express my gratitude and admiration to the Secretary-General, U Thant, for his dedication, his steadfastness, his diplomatic skill and his obvious success in carrying out his noble and always difficult duties.
46. Costa Rica, which belongs to the so-called "group of seventy-five" and which shares the confidence which the developing countries place in the success of the work of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in achieving a more equitable regulation of international trade, wishes to stress the urgency of item 37 of our agenda, entitled "Report of" the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development".
47. Resolution 1995 (XIX) of 30 December 1964 was adopted in a depressing and necessarily hectic atmosphere. While it was gratifying that, amidst discouragement and confusion, it was nevertheless possible to lay the foundations of the United Nations institutions responsible for seeking and finding solutions to the complicated problems of international trade, these institutions are still to some extent incomplete because of the atmosphere in which the plans for them were outlined.
48. Although resolution 1995 (XIX) is a tribute to the skill of its sponsors, it does not contain the specific provisions which many of us consider indispensable. I shall not discuss here in detail what specific provisions would be desirable. Their absence is, however, striking when we compare the contents of the Final Act of the First United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, held at Geneva from 23 March to 15 June 1964, with the grave realities of the present day, and this was emphasized at the first and second sessions of the Trade and Development Board and at the meetings of some of its Committees.
49. In pointing out the need for completing the structure of the Conference on Trade and Development and its various organs, I should like to reiterate Costa Rica’s desire to co-operate actively with this new organization, on which the achievement of world harmony is largely dependent, because it is inconceivable that there could be any guarantee of peace without an equitable reorganization of the world economy. The less privileged peoples insist upon their right to an equitable distribution of the fruits of their labour, full ownership of their natural resources, and the regulation of markets by means of agreements democratically drawn up, accepted and carried out. It is only through world-wide economic justice that the United Nations will be able to attain its objectives and put its principles into practice.
50. The steady decline in commodity prices, on which the existence of millions of human beings depends, is one of the most tragic features of the present day. The difficulties which the cocoa-producing countries are now experiencing and the difficulties facing such products as coffee and sugar cannot and should not be allowed to continue. It is therefore urgent that we should pass at once from the study to the implementation of solutions which have been worked out amicably. This is a matter of concern primarily to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and it is to be hoped that at this session of the General Assembly new resolutions will be submitted which will have the effect of providing that institution with the material facilities and executive authority it requires.
51. The Assembly will at this session begin its review and reappraisal of the role and functions of the Economic and Social Council. My Government believes that this review and reappraisal should be carried out above all with due regard to the activities of the Conference on Trade and Development.
52. There must be a rational co-ordination of the functions of the Council and of its auxiliary organs, especially the regional economic commissions, with those of the Trade and Development Board and its committees. The work of the Conference on Trade and Development must be brought into line with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Differences in policies and in economic systems must be steered in constructive directions. Any innovations decided upon must take social requirements into account. The industrially advanced nations naturally have their legitimate interests to defend in the worldwide process of economic readjustment now in progress. They should not, however, lose sight of the fact that their own future is largely dependent on the progress of the less developed nations, which are potential customers for their large-scale heavy industries. For the purchasing power of the countries that are still poor to be increased, the understanding of the rich nations is increasingly desirable, even though, unfortunately, we must recognize that it is not always increasingly evident. It is, I think, in the light of these general observations that the work of reviewing the duties of the economic organs of our international Organization, be they old or new, must be tackled.
53. During the past year Costa Rica has played a dedicated and, I hope, an effective part in the work of the Commission on Human Rights. In an explanatory memorandum which our Permanent Mission submitted on 20 August 1965, we requested the inclusion in the agenda of the General Assembly’s twentieth session of an item entitled "Creation of the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights". I shall not now dwell on the arguments advanced in that memorandum [A/5963] of 20 August 1965. I am glad that the request for the inclusion of the item was approved and I hope that the General Assembly will consider sympathetically the draft resolution we proposed in that document.
54. I should like to express my particular thanks to those delegations which, like the delegations of the United States and Canada, have publicly expressed from this rostrum their support of our proposal, as well as our thanks to those who have privately encouraged us in our effort and who have also promised us their co-operation.
55. In expressing the gratitude of the Costa Rican delegation, I should like also to express our thanks to Spain, China, the Federal Republic of Germany, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Iraq, Kuwait and Israel. The last-mentioned country, as well as certain other countries I have mentioned, are relatively less developed countries; yet they have generously come to our assistance in our hour of need. Their contributions to the United Nations fund for assistance to Costa Rica after the eruption of the Irazú volcano, together with the effective bilateral assistance from the United States, the United Kingdom and other friendly countries, have enabled us within a short time to repair much of the terrible damage which this great calamity — now happily a thing of the past — wrought on our economy and our national life.
56. Costa Rica has also been extremely active in the Special Committee on the Policies of apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa.
57. My Government views with concern and profound disapproval the outright refusal of the Government of the Republic of South Africa to heed or respect the exhortations and admonitory resolutions adopted by the United Nations, calling upon it to put a stop to the inhuman and illegal treatment to which it subjects the millions of inhabitants who are not of the white race. The South African Government should heed and accept the requests and resolutions of the United Nations regarding the grave problem of apartheid out of respect for universal justice, in implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and for the sake of peace on the dynamic African continent and perhaps in the rest of the world too.
58. The policy of apartheid of the Government of the Republic of South Africa constitutes a real danger to international peace and security, and the delegation of Costa Rica is confident that the United Nations will speedily find effective and appropriate means of ensuring that the coloured citizens of that important African country enjoy their elementary rights, of which they are now deprived.
59. My delegation believes that a resolute step forward should be taken during this session of the General Assembly to implement the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. The objective is to achieve the complete decolonization of territories which are still subject to metropolitan countries. Otherwise there will remain constant sources of friction and even of war which will continue to impede the forward march of mankind. In that connexion, Costa Rica, repeats today, in this hall, the hopes expresses last year [1292nd meeting] by my predecessor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, my illustrious fellow-countryman Mr. Daniel Oduber, that such problems as those of the Malvinas and the Rock of Gibraltar will be amicably solved. Our mother country, the fraternal Argentine nation and another great and friendly nation, the United Kingdom, are directly concerned in the just and final settlement of those matters. My country is confident that they will reach constructive solutions during the present session of the General Assembly, and that such an achievement, which will rejoice the hearts of the Spanish and Latin American peoples, will herald the dawn of a new and brilliant phase in the relations among those three Powers, with which we have such friendly ties.
60. The problem of Cyprus also deserves our special attention. The conflict which impedes the peaceful development of that young State beclouds the relations among Member States and constitutes another cause for anxiety in the world.
61. The Government of Costa Rica wishes to make a friendly appeal here to the States directly concerned in that complex matter to facilitate the work of pacification which our Organization is performing in that sensitive area of the eastern Mediterranean.
62. Other important items on the agenda of the twentieth session of the General Assembly are the third international conference on the peaceful uses of atomic energy; the question of general and complete disarmament; the preparation of a convention on the prohibition of the use of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons; the total suspension of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons tests; international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, accelerated flow of capital and technical assistance to the developing countries; the establishment of a United Nations capital development fund; and, above all, the preparation of a conference for the purpose of reviewing the Charter. As regards the last item, although the committee concerned has taken the view that the right conditions for such a conference do not as yet exist, it is fundamental for the future of the United Nations. We have to adopt provisions designed to prevent acts which violate or flout the principles of the Charter. It is imperative to find legal solutions for such problems and to express the will to respect and carry out the decisions adopted to that end.
63. In expressing the hopes and broadly outlining the international policy of the small country which I represent, as I have endeavoured to do in the present statement, I feel that I am co-operating, on my Government’s behalf, towards making this a fruitful session of the General Assembly.
64. The noble striving for universal peace and progress is in itself a constructive factor for the future of the world. Within these august precincts it will lead to favourable results. The political differences which will become apparent here can once again be composed by necessary compromises. We shall thus surely be able to clear the way to that better world which we are all striving to achieve for future generations.