Special commemorative meeting in October is highlight of session.

• Position: 50th General Assembly: includes excerpts from the Declaration on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the UN

A three-day special commemorative meeting, marking the first half century of the United Nations' existence, highlighted the fiftieth session of the General Assembly (19 September-23 December). The meeting capped nine months of celebrations and observances worldwide of the UN golden jubilee and was attended by the largest gathering of world leaders in history--Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, Princes, Sultans, and Heads of State and Government.

From 22 to 24 October, some 200 speakers addressed the Assembly, including 129 Heads of State and Government. The UN's birthday--24 October--also marked the beginning of the World Week of Peace, which was proclaimed by the Assembly as a time for Governments and peoples of the world to reflect together on the challenges before them, as the Organization celebrated its 50th anniversary.

A five-part "Declaration on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations" was adopted by acclamation at the conclusion of the special commemorative meeting. The seven-page document consists of an introduction and five sections on peace, development, equality, justice, and the United Nations organization.

Address by Pope John Paul II

Prior to the commemorative meeting, in a special address to the General Assembly on 5 October, His Holiness Pope John Paul II called for a common effort to "build a civilization of love based on the universal values of peace, solidarity, justice and liberty", to answer the fear that darkened human existence at the close of the twentieth century.

Delivering his address in English, Spanish, French and Russian, and closing it with greetings in Arabic and Chinese, the Pope addressed a range of issues, including freedom, the rights of nations and individuals, respect for differences, and the role of the UN in building a future free of fear.

The UN, he said, must not only serve as a centre of mediation for conflict resolution; it must also foster values of solidarity, which could raise the level of relations between nations, from simple existence with others to existence for others. The UN must rise above the cold status of an administrative institution to become a "moral centre", where all the countries of the world felt a shared awareness of being a family of nations, he said.

Addressing the suffering of millions of people living in poverty, he said an ethic of solidarity must prevail on the international economic scene if participation, economic growth and a just distribution of goods were to characterize the future of humanity. He added that the basic question facing all was the responsible use of freedom in both its personal and social dimensions. Freedom, he stressed, was not simply the absence of tyranny or oppression, nor was it a licence to do whatever one liked. Rather, freedom was ordered to the truth and fulfilled in man's quest for truth, a truth "universally knowable through the moral law written on the hearts of all".

Introducing the Pope to the Assembly, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali affirmed: "He tells us that we can and we must conquer fear if we are to solve the problems of our planet and its people."

South Africa's unpaid dues waived

The Assembly addressed an agenda covering a wide range of political, disarmament, economic, social and humanitarian...