The first fifty years: the main achievements.

• Position: Diogo Freitas do Amaral, President of the fiftieth UN General Assembly - Transcript - Cover Story

The League of Nations lasted a little more than 20 years; the United Nations has now lasted half a century. The League of Nations did not manage to achieve its principal objective: to avoid the Second World War; the United Nations has managed to achieve its principal goal: to avoid a third world war. The League of Nations concentrated all its peacemaking efforts on disarmament; the United Nations understood from the start that disarmament, while very important, was not the only way to prevent war, and strengthened its collective security system with a range of policies for economic, social and educational development.

Our "founding fathers" were endowed with foresight: the establishment in 1945 of the UN represented great hope for all people of good will throughout the world. It is true that these past 50 years have not been marked exclusively by successes and victories. The existence of the UN, like that of any organization, has been marked by many errors and defeats. But was that not inevitable, given the very nature of human beings, society and the world as it is?

In this connection, I should like to quote a remark about the UN which I consider apposite. It was made by a great President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, who said in 1962:

"Our instrument and our hope is the United Nations, and I see little merit in the impatience of those who would abandon this imperfect world instrument because they dislike our imperfect world."

Today, after our Organization has been in existence for 50 years, should our assessment of its activities be positive or negative? We are all well aware of the Organization's failures, especially its most recent ones. And the critics have not ceased their criticism. So, in the interest of balance, it is only fair to enumerate the main achievements of the UN.

Avoiding a new

world war

The first, of which I have already spoken, but to which I wish to return because of its exceptional importance and which can never be stressed too much, is the following: the UN succeeded in avoiding what many deemed inevitable - the outbreak of a third world war. Although this result cannot be ascribed solely to the UN, the Organization did play a primary role in the prevention of armed East-West conflict which would have been fatal for mankind.

Three very important elements demonstrate that the international community has rightfully valued the actions carried out by the UN over the last 50 years. First, five Nobel prizes were...