UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK—Secretary of Foreign Affairs (SFA) Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. led the launch of an exhibit that highlighted the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes.
Entitled “When the World declared Peace,” the exhibit at the United Nations Headquarters on April 21 featured a 20-foot centerpiece designed by the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy. It featured ideas underpinning the Manila Declaration, and was on display until last month’s end. “Our then-secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos P. Romulo said: ‘[The Manila] Declaration marks an important step forward for the UN and the international community generally in our efforts to enhance the capacity of the [global body] for peace-making,” emphasized Locsin. “His words have not lost their relevance.”
The SFA furthered that the exhibit “is [our] contribution to the dissemination of the declaration and the commitments needed for its full observance.”
Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs D. Stephen Mathias noted that the Manila Declaration addresses both the normative and procedural aspects of the UN Charter, and said that “this exhibition is an important reminder of what we have achieved, and of our need to recommit ourselves to it.”
The Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes was adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 15, 1982. It was based on a text prepared by the Special Committee on the Charter of the UN and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization in its 1980 session held in the Philippine capital. The declaration is the first important outcome of the work of the Special Committee, and one of its significant achievements.
The exhibit was one of the activities of the Philippine Permanent Mission to the UN, in relation to the General Assembly resolution on the “40th anniversary of the Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes.”
Ambassador Enrique A. Manalo noted that “the adoption by consensus of this resolution which calls on all states to observe and promote in good faith the Manila Declaration in the peaceful settlement of their international disputes—now almost 40 years later and under clement circumstances—is [proof] to its enduring relevance.”