A United Nations on the move.

• Position: Excerpts from statements by UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar made between 1 January and 31 March 1988 - Column

A United Nations on the move

Nations are talking to one another again, and more openly . . . They are more willing to use the techniques and institutions the Charter provides. Nations now recognize yet again that only the purposes and principles of the Charter can guide us to a peaceful and prosperous world. They understand once more that, ultimately, they can end some of the world's most stubborn threats to peace only by using the United Nations.

We are "a United Nations on the move," a United Nations regaining and using its historic potential. But there is another, darker, side. The United Nations continues to face a major financial crisis resulting from the non-payment of assessed contributions. Such a crisis could not have more at a worse time...All that you and we hope for from the United Nations has been endangered. This danger must end quickly. At the annual observance of "Lions Day at the United Nations", l4 March

Decolonization: A major UN concern

Decolonization has been a major concern of our Organization from the very beginning, as it stems directly from the Charter's principles of equal rights and self-determination for all peoples. Throughout its 26 years of existence, this Committee has played a distinctive role in this process, in accordance with the mandate entrusted to it by the General Assembly. It has articulated measures to step up the process of decolonization and has greatly facilitated the emergence of scores of newly independent States. The fact that the list of dependent Territories, which in l962 stood at 64, has since been reduced to l9, is a clear testimony to the work accomplished. To the opening of the 1988 session of the Special Committee on Decolonization, 2 February

Apartheid: an embarrassment to our civilization

Racial discrimination is offensive to all human beings. Forty years of apartheid are an embarrassment to our entire civilization. Sooner or later, this iniquitous sytem will have to give way to a just and rational order. But the sooner that end is achieved, the less will be the cost of an inevitable change. On International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 21 March

A swift end is needed to Iran-Iraq war

The catastrophic war between Iran and Iraq is a problem which involves two neighbours. This war is now in...