Basic principles and perspectives of the New International Economic Order

Abstract

One of the most significant preoccupations of the United Nations today is the establishment of the New International Economic Order. Its origin is not attributable to any single factor, but has many facets. Some attribute it to the so-called North-South Dialogue which began in Paris about a decade ago; others see it as the outcome of the proclamation of Development Decades beginning with the 1960s. It is possible to ascribe the new vogue to all these phenomena as well as to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, to the General Assembly Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Peoples, to the Declaration on Peaceful Co-existence and Friendly Relations among States, to the Charter on the Economic Rights and Duties of States and to the two supplementary Covenants of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights — the Covenant on Political and Civil Rights and the Covenant on Economic and Social Rights. We must not leave out the impetus given to international economic relations and co-operation by the Economic and Social Council not only through UNCTAD and UNDP but also through UNIDO (originally and as recently enlarged). Finally, the United Nations Charter itself must be seen as the nerve-centre of the new international outlook which, in its several economic provisions1 and inter-cultural and inter-community orientation, has opened up for mankind wider vistas towards that conception of mutual service and mutual well-being which Artistotle regards as the hallmark of a well-ordered society.