Secretariat

Abstract

Annual Report of the Secretary-General:In his introduction to the eighth annual report of the Secretary-General on the work of the United Nations, which covered the period of July 1, 1952-June 30, 1953, Dag Hammarskjold urged Member governments to take a long-range vantage-point in judging the success and maturity of the organization. The United Nations, he pointed out, was “a positive response by the world community to the fundamental needs of our time” and, while efforts to control and moderate conflicts offering an immediate danger to world peace (especially the “East-West” conflict) of necessity occupied the first attention of Members in their day-to-day decisions, the ultimate success of the organization would be determined by its contribution to furthering basic trends in current human society. Mr. Hammarskjold felt that, side-by-side with the immediate issues, lay the fundamental trends toward wider social justice and equality for the individual and toward wider political, economic and social equality and justice between nations. Previous efforts for world peace were directed toward objectives which had received even fuller recognition in the United Nations: 1) an international instrument for peace and justice based on a system of mediation, conciliation and collective security; 2) orderly progress of nations toward a state of full economic development, self-government and independence; and 3) recognition of international cooperation as an essential instrument for development toward greater social justice within nations. The Secretary-General observed a tendency among Members to regard political and economic equality as technical and special problems subordinate to the more urgent one of collective security. In a shortterm perspective, he added, this was probably true; however, international equality and justice were prerequisite to domestic social development of all the peoples of the world and were decisive factors in building a world of peace and freedom.