The 38th Floor.

• Position: Excerpts from statements by UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar made between 1 January and 31 March 1989

The United Nations is experiencing a renaissance in the consciousness of the peoples and Governments of the world. There has been a relaxation of tension among the major Powers, and there is a growing awareness that issues, such as peace-making and peacekeeping, human rights, disarmament, sustainable economic and social development, and the protection of the environment, are international concerns. The ozone layer that surrounds the planet protects all of us. The seas we exploit serve all of us, including landlocked nations like Nepal.. The vastness of outer space has no national boundaries. These facts are beginning to be more fully understood. Consequently, there is a renewed acceptance of the imperatives of multilateral. The ultimate human aspiration ...

Peace-the word evokes the simplest and most cherished dream of humanity. Peace is, and has always been, the ultimate human aspiration. And yet our history overwhelmingly shows that while we speak incessantly of peace, our actions tell a very different story. Peace is an easy word to say in any language. As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I hear it so frequently, from so many different mouths and different sources, that it sometimes seems to me to be a general incantation more or less deprived of practical meaning. What do we really mean by peace?

Human nature being what it is, peace must inevitably be a relative condition. Struggle and competition are stimulating, but when they degenerate into conflict it is usually both destructive and disruptive. The aim of political institutions like the United Nations is to draw the line between struggle and conflict and to make it possible for nations to stay on the right side of that line. Peace-keeping operations are one very practical means of doing this. What we are trying to create in the United Nations is a world where nations recognize at the same time the ultimate futility of war and the collective responsibility which men and women everywhere share for ensuring a decent future.

From the Secretary-General's Nobel Lecture, 9 January

The search for justice ...

The United Nations and lawyers are both engaged in the search for justice, the development of organizations to secure it, and the definition of standards to sustain it. Specifically, both your profession and the world Organization offer individuals and nations indispensable ways to establish laws, rules and standards to direct human activities as diverse as human rights and...