聯合國及其運作；前言

Title: The United Nations and How It Works; Foreword
Author: David Cushman Coyle
Library of Congress Catalog Card #55-7776

Sep. 2, 2008

聯合國及其運作
前言

In the spring of 1945 World War II was plainly drawing to a close. Millions of people had died in that war; millions more were homeless, hungry, and cold. The people of the whole world longed for a lasting peace. The victims of war devastation, and hundreds of millions who suffered grinding poverty even in peacetime, longed also for an escape from poverty, hunger, and disease. All over the world, too, wherever people lived under foreign domination or homegrown oppression, there was a growing demand for freedom and justice.

These deep desires for peace and for better conditions of life were joined in the great conference at San Francisco in the spring of 1945, when the nations combined their efforts in the organization of the United Nations.

第二次世界大戰死了數百萬人，並讓更多的人失去家園，挨餓受凍。到了１９４５年春戰事已明顯地接進尾聲，人人都引頸期待著長久的和平。那些戰爭的受害者和原本就捉襟見肘的人如今更是一貧如洗，他們都企盼著能脫離飢寒交迫和疾病纏身的煎熬。全世界不論是受異族統治或本國暴政迫害的人都呼喊著爭求自由與公義。
這些渴望與訴求於是匯成一股洪流促成各國在舊金山集會，共同籌劃創立聯合國，時為１９４５年春。

The UN was organized to deal with the quarrels between nations that might lead to war. At the same time, the UN and its many working agencies have been helping the member nations in the age long fight against human misery, injustice, and oppression.

聯和國成立的初衷在於調解國際糾紛免其演變成戰爭，並幫助其會員國對付悲慘的生活，不公正的待遇，以及暴政的迫害。

The main purposes of the United Nations are not in conflict. It is clear that peace is necessary, if the people of the world are to be free and prosperous. But peace does not come by accident; it has to be built by many kinds of action working together to provide for collective security and to remove the causes of war. United efforts to build a more prosperous world by cooperation among people of different nations and races may also help to lay the foundations for a lasting peace. People who work together against the hostile forces of nature often become friends. And finally, the united pressure of world opinion in support of human rights will in time help to reduce some of the causes of war among the peoples of the world.

如今它的主旨已不只是消極的避免爭端，更在積極的為長久的和平奠基。人人都清楚，要有自由與繁榮必先得有和平。但是和平無法不勞而獲，必得大家共同努力來解除戰端，建立共同的安全，從而才有和平。人們往往因為同舟共濟的對付自然災害而成為朋友。因此，各國家各族裔的人聯合起來，群策群力的為共同的繁榮努力也應該能促進長久的和平。此外，聯合世界輿論來呼籲人權定可及時減緩一些戰端。

The material works of the UN agencies—helping to build dams, to kill mosquitoes, to teach people to read—and its spiritual works, such as framing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, may be fully as important for peace as the great conferences and the search for a way to control the atom.

聯和國各機構做了一些實質上的工作﹣例如興水壩，滅蚊虫，以及教人閱讀。它在精神上也成積斐然；編制國際人權宣言的重要性實不亞於召開各式各樣的會議或研究如何駕馭原子。

World-wide struggles against the hostile forces of nature are easily understood by millions of people who feel baffled by the harder problems of quarreling human nature. These material works of the UN therefore serve as a background for the UN efforts to hold the conflicts of human nature below the explosion point. The UN does not pretend that it can surely persuade or force all men to work together in harmony all the time. But it can help to bring world opinion to bear on many kinds of disputes that if left to fester between enemies might break out into deadly war.

我們都了解應該團結起來對付自然災害，卻對人性的好戰束手無策。那些實質工作恰能為聯和國背書，讓它在排解糾紛時比教更有說服力。聯和國無法保證大家永遠和睦相處，但是它能鼓勵世界輿論，促進協商，以免爭端孳養擴大而導至戰爭。

The United Nations can talk about the rights of man, and by such talk can put moral pressure on nations where people are treated in ways that the world regards as wrong. The United Nations can take an interest in colonial peoples and in their progress toward independence or self-government—an interest that the governing powers cannot lightly brush aside.

當世界輿論認為某國政府對人民不人道時，聯和國可以經由討論人權而對暴政施加道德壓力。它可以關注被殖民統治的的人的福祇，它可以觀察這些人邁向自治及獨立的進展。它可以使統治者無法對這些關注置之不理。

The United Nations has been able to stop or to prevent several wars since 1945, notably in Palestine and Kashmir. In Korea the UN forces beat back the aggression. There can be, of course, no absolute guarantee that any organization on earth could surely prevent a third great war and the possible suicide of the human race. But much can be done to make that doom less likely; and much of it is being done in the United Nations.

自１９４５年來，聯合國已成功的阻遏了幾次戰爭，其中最顯著的是在巴基斯坦和克什米亞。在朝鮮半島它也打退了北韓的侵略。當然世上沒有任何機構能預防第三次大戰或人纇的另一次自殺行為，但是聯合國正從事著許多工作來降低人纇走向絕路的可能性。

In the United Nations, the human race is brought together, with all its virtues and faults, its wisdom and folly, and its good and ill will. This is not a world government. This is a world meeting to talk over the pressing dangers of our times and to hunt for the way to prosperity and world peace. It cannot rule the world by making and enforcing a world law with planes and atom bombs. But it can bring to bear the moral weight of world opinion. The recommendations of the Assembly of the United Nations may be all the more effective because they do not demand obedience but only ask a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.

在聯合國裡，各種族相處一堂；人性與生俱來的美德與惡行，智慧與愚昧，好的意圖与壞的意圖也跟著摻雜在一起。聯合國不是一個世界政府，而只是一個世界性的集會。在此大家就當前的危機進行協商並共同尋求和平與繁榮。它不能立法；它不能用武力強制執法；它不能統治世界。但是它能藉由世界輿論造成一股道德力量。聯合國大會的建議只是敦促大家適當的尊重全人纇的意見，它不強制服從。正因如此，它的建議因而更為有效。
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