Page 4082 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 24 October 1990
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ADJOURNMENT
Motion (by Mr Collaery) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
United Nations Day
MR MOORE (4.24): Mr Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity on United Nations Day to make a couple of comments about the United Nations. I think it is appropriate for this Assembly, along with many parliaments throughout the world, to acknowledge the 45 years of the existence of the United Nations and some of the work that it has done. The United Nations began following a disastrous world war. It provided an opportunity to find ways in which people could work together, and it followed in that sense the failed League of Nations. I say "failed" in the sense that it had not been able to prevent a major conflagration from 1939 to 1945.
We still have major difficulties in the world. The United Nations is the main methodology we have for attempting to resolve those conflicts. We see them in the Middle East; we see outbreaks of wars in South America and South East Asia, and problems in Africa, including South Africa. I think it is with great hope that the people of the world look to the United Nations and expect the United Nations to be the main force in preventing any further major world problems.
When we see the military side of the United Nations, where forces get together, and when the United Nations reacts, particularly at the behest of major powers in an attempt to prevent war as in the Middle East, we ought to be aware of what I think is the much more important work that comes through the United Nations. That important work is the work of ensuring that the differences between nations and the differences between people are resolved so that they do not get towards the stage of going for armed conflict. It is about breaking down barriers. The United Nations has many agencies which work in various different ways to break down those barriers. To my way of thinking, that is its most important role and that is its most important function, and that is where we ought to be able to provide the support that it needs.
On a number of occasions in this Assembly we have had the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child brought up. It is those conventions that provide an opportunity for nations to work together for the betterment of people - in this case, children throughout the world. We have similar other conventions. One that I have become familiar with more recently is on psychotropic substances and narcotic drugs, which also has the intention of
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