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Speech delivered by
His Imperial Majesty Haile
Selassie, October 4, 1963
ADDRESS TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates:
Twenty-seven years ago, as
Emperor of Ethiopia, I mounted the rostrum in Geneva, Switzerland, to address
the League of Nations and to appeal for relief from the destruction which had
been unleashed against my defenceless nation, by the Fascist invader.
I spoke then both to and for the conscience of the world. My words went unheeded, but history testifies to the accuracy of the warning that I gave in 1936. Today, I stand before the world organization which has succeeded to the mantle discarded by its discredited predecessor. In this body is enshrined the principle of collective security which I unsuccessfully invoked at Geneva. Here, in this Assembly, reposes the best - perhaps the last - hope for the peaceful survival of mankind.
In 1936, I declared that it
was not the Covenant of the League that was at stake, but international
morality. Undertakings, I said then, are of little worth if the will to keep
them is lacking.
The Charter of the United
Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: abjugation of force in the
settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights and
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or
religion; the safeguarding of international peace and security.
But these, too, as were the phrases of the Covenant, are only words; their value depends wholly on our will to observe and honour them and give them content and meaning. The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act - and if necessary, to suffer and die - for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shad not go undetected and unremedied.
These lessons must be learned
anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed
which learns from other than its own bitter experience. This Organization and
each of its members bear a crushing and awesome responsibility: to absorb the
wisdom of history and to apply it to the problems of the present, in order that
future generations may be born, and live, and die, in peace.
The record of the United Nations during the few short years of its life affords mankind a solid basis for encouragement and hope for the future. The United Nations has dared to act, when the League dared not in Palestine, in Korea, in Suez, in the Congo. There is not one among us today who does not conjecture upon the reaction of this body when motives and actions are called into question. The opinion of this Organization today acts as a powerful influence upon the decisions of its members.
The spotlight of world
opinion, focused by the United Nations upon the transgressions of the renegades
of human society, has thus far proved an effective safeguard against unchecked aggression and unrestricted violation of human
rights.
The United Nations continues
to sense as the forum where nations whose interests clash may lay their cases
before world opinion. It still provides the essential escape valve without which
the slow build-up of pressures would have long since resulted in catastrophic
explosion. Its actions and decisions have speeded the achievement of freedom by
many peoples on the continents of Africa and Asia. Its efforts have contributed
to the advancement of the standard of living of peoples in ad corners of the
world. For this, all men must give thanks. As I stand here today, how
faint, how remote. are the memories of 1936.
How different in 1963
are the attitudes of men. We then existed in an atmosphere of suffocating
pessimism. Today, cautious yet buoyant optimism is the prevailing spirit. But
each one of us here knows that what has been accomplished is not enough. The
United Nations judgments have been and continue to be subject to frustration, as
individual member-states have ignored its pronouncements
and disregarded its recommendations. The
Organization's sinews have been weakened, as member states have
shirked their obligations to it. The authority of the Organization has been
mocked, as individual member-states have proceeded, in violation of its
commands, to pursue their own aims and ends.
The troubles which continue to plague us virtually all arise among member states
of the Organization, but the Organization remains impotent to enforce acceptable
solutions. As the maker and enforcer of the international law, what
the United Nations has achieved still falls regrettably short of our goal of an
international community of nations.
This does not mean that the
United Nations has failed. I have lived too long to cherish many illusions about
the essential highmindedness of men when brought into stark confrontation with
the issue of control over their security, and their property interests. Not even
now, when so much is at hazard would many nations willingly entrust their
destinies to other hands.
Yet, this is the ultimatum
presented to us: secure the conditions whereby men will entrust their security
to a larger entity, or risk annihilation; persuade men that their salvation
rests in the subordination of national and local interests to the interests of
humanity, or endanger man's future. These are the objectives, yesterday
unobtainable, today essential, which we must labour to achieve.
Until this is
accomplished, mankind's future remains hazardous and permanent peace a matter
for speculation. There is no single magic formula, no one simple step, no words,
whether written into the Organization's Charter or into a
treaty between states, which can automatically guarantee to us what we seek.
Peace is a day-to day problem, the product of a multitude of events and
judgments. Peace is not an "is", it is a "becoming."
We cannot escape the dreadful possibility of catastrophe by miscalculation. But
we can reach the right decisions on the myriad subordinate problems which each
new day poses, and we can thereby make our contnbution and perhaps the most that
can be reasonably expected of us in 1963 to the preservation of peace.
It is here that the
United Nations has served us - not perfectly, but well. And in enhancing
the possibilities that the Organization may serve us better, we serve and bring closer our most cherished goals.
I would mention briefly
today two particular issues which are of deep concern to all men: disarmament
and the establishment of true equality among men. Disarmament has become
the urgent imperative of our time, I do not say this because I equate the
absence of arms to peace, or because I believe that bringing an end to the
nuclear arms race automatically guarantees the peace, or because the elimination
of nuclear warheads from the arsenals of the world will
bring in its wake that change in attitude
requisite to the peaceful settlement of disputes between nations. Disarmament is
vital today, quite simply, because of the immense destructive capacity of which men dispose.
Ethiopia supports the
atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty as a step towards this goal, even though
only a partial step. Nations can still perfect weapons of mass destruction by
underground testing There is no guarantee against the sudden, unannounced
resumption of testing in the atmosphere.
The real significance of
the treaty is that it admits of a tacit stalemate between the nations
which negotiated it, a stalemate which recognizes the blunt, unavoidable fact
that none would emerge from the total destruction which would be the lot of all
in a nuclear war, a stalemate which affords us and the United Nations a
breathing space in which to act.
Here is our opportunity and
our challenge. If the nuclear powers are prepared to declare a truce, let us
seize the moment to strengthen the institutions and precedures which will serve
as the means for the pacific settlement of disputes among men.
Conflicts between
nations will continue to arise. The real issue is whether they are to be resolved by force, or by resort to peaceful methods and
procedures, administered by impartial institutions. This very Organization
itself is the greatest such institution, and it
is in a more powerful United Nations that we seek, and it is here that we shall
find, the assurance of a peaceful future.
Were a real and effective
disarmament achieved and the funds now spent in the arms race devoted to the
amelioration of man's state; were we to concentrate only on the peaceful uses of
nuclear knowledge, how vastly and in how short a time might we change the
conditions of mankind. This should be our goal.
When we talk of the equality
of man, we find, also, a challenge and an opportunity; a challenge to breathe
new life into the ideals enshrined in the Charter, an opportunity to bring men
closer to freedom and true equality. and thus, closer to a love of peace.
The goal of the equality of
man which we seek is the antithesis of the exploitation of one people by another
with which the pages of history and in particular those written of the African
and Asian continents, speak at such length.
Exploitation, thus viewed, has
many faces. But whatever guise it assumes, this evil is to be shunned where it
does not exist and crushed where it does. It is the sacred duty of this
Organization to ensure that the dream of equality is finally realized for all
men to whom it is still denied, to guarantee that exploitation is not
reincarnated in other forms in places whence it has already been banished.
As a free Africa has emerged
dunng the past decade, a fresh attack has been launched against exploitation,
wherever it still exists. And in that interaction so common to history, this in
turn, has stimulated and encouraged the remaining dependent peoples to renewed
efforts to throw off the yoke which has oppressed them and its claim as their
birthright the twin ideals of liberty and equality. This very struggle is a
struggle to establish peace, and until victory is assured, that brotherhood and
understanding which nourish and give life to peace can be but partial and
incomplete.
In the United States of
America, the administration of President Kennedy is leading a vigorous attack to
eradicate the remaining vestige of racial discrimination from this country. We
know that this conflict will be won and that right will triumph. In this time of
trial, these efforts should be encouraged and assisted, and we should lend our
sympathy and support to the American Government today.
Last May, in Addis Ababa, I
convened a meeting of Heads of African States and Governments. In three days,
the thirty-two nations represented at that Conference demonstrated to the world
that when the will and the determination exist, nations and peoples of diverse
backgrounds can and will work together. in unity, to the achievement of common
goals and the assurance of that equality and brotherhood which we desire.
On the question of racial discrimination, the Addis Ababa Conference taught, to those who will learn, this further lesson:
That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned:
That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation;
That until the colour of a man's skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes;
That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race;
That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained;
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique and in South Afnca in subhuman bondage have been toppled and destroyed;
Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-will;
Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of all men, as they are in the eyes of Heaven;
Until that day, the African
continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know
that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.
The United Nations has
done much, both directly and indirectly to speed the disappearance of
discrimination and oppression from the earth. Without the opportunity to focus
world opinion on Afnca and Asia which this Organization provides,
the goal, for many, might still lie ahead, and the struggle would have taken far
longer. For this, we are truly grateful.
But more can be done.
The basis of racial discrimination and colonialism has been economic, and it is
with economic weapons that these evils have been and can be overcome. In
pursuance of resolutions adopted at the Addis Ababa Summit Conference, African
States have undertaken certain measures in the economic field
which, if adopted by all member states of the United Nations, would soon reduce intransigence to reason. I ask, today, for adherence to
these measures by every nation represented here which is truly devoted to the
principles enunciated in the Charter.
I do not believe that Portugal and South Africa are prepared to commit economic or physical suicide if honourable and reasonable alternatives exist. I believe that such alternatives can be found. But I also know that unless peaceful solutions are devised, counsels of moderation and temperance will avail for naught; and another blow will have been dealt to this Organization which will hamper and weaken still further its usefulness in the struggle to ensure the victory of peace and liberty over the forces of strife and oppression. Here, then, is the opportunity presented to us. We must act while we can, while the occasion exists to exert those legitimate pressures available to us, lest time run out and resort be had to less happy means.
Words of Haile Selassie I
