[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 110 (Thursday, June 26, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H2981]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CELEBRATING UNITED NATIONS CHARTER

  (Ms. Pelosi of California was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 80th 
anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter and the 
establishment of one of the world's greatest organizations for peace 
and the advancement of humanity.
  As the Representative from San Francisco, this anniversary holds 
particular pride for the people of my city and for me. It was in San 
Francisco that we played host to the grand conference of delegates that 
wrote the U.N. Charter.
  It was in the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center 
on June 26, 1947, that the charter was signed. On that day, President 
Harry S. Truman came to the plenary session to offer his 
congratulations and his hopes for the future of a new United Nations.
  He said: ``You have created a great instrument for peace and security 
and human progress in the world.'' President Truman said that, and he 
said: ``The world must use it now.''
  The world must use it now. It was true then. It is true now.
  Eight decades later, 193 member states have ratified the charter. It 
was 50 that day. Then Poland joined, which made it 51. Mr. Speaker, 193 
members have ratified the charter.
  The world's greatest leaders and thinkers have been among the United 
Nation's representatives. In 1946, United Nations General Assembly 
delegate and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt helped draft the 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which builds on Franklin 
Roosevelt's commitment to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, 
freedom from fear, and freedom from want for all people.

                              {time}  1115

  It has sought to advance human rights, human dignity, and 
opportunities for women and girls.
  It has focused the world's attention on the plight of refugees and 
the urgency of the climate crisis with its sustainable development 
goals. It has been a bulwark for global peace and peacekeeping. In 
striving to fulfill the ideas and promises of its charter, the United 
Nations, its related agencies, programs, and staff have been awarded 
the Nobel Peace Prize 11 times.
  In 1950, Ralph Bunche, an American, became the first person 
affiliated with the new organization to be awarded the Nobel Peace 
Prize. In his acceptance speech, he remarked: ``I am but one of many 
cogs in the United Nations, the greatest peace organization ever 
dedicated to the salvation of mankind's future on Earth.''
  Under the leadership of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the 
United Nations remains a strong, resolute, and unwavering voice for 
peace in a world burdened by war. Today, the United Nations is 
convening a plenary meeting of the General Assembly in New York at the 
United Nations headquarters to ``revive the spirit of San Francisco and 
once again embrace the ideals that united humanity during its darkest 
hour, reaffirming our commitment to those values into the future.''
  May we recapture the spirit of solidarity that existed in San 
Francisco 80 years ago as the United Nations continues to stand as a 
beacon of peace for the next 80 years and beyond.
  Since I have a little more time, I want to tell a personal story.
  When I was in high school, this would be about a dozen years after 
the founding of the United Nations, President, then-Senator, Kennedy 
came to Baltimore for a great event. It was the United Nations 
Association of Maryland dinner honoring someone named Jacob Blaustein, 
a civic leader in our community. My father was the mayor of Baltimore. 
My mother, knowing how much I admired the Kennedy family because we 
were taught by Irish-Catholic nuns from Boston, even in Baltimore, she 
said: I don't think I feel well going to the dinner tonight. Why don't 
you take my place?
  Taking her place meant sitting next to Senator Kennedy for this 
dinner where he was giving the keynote address. There is a picture of 
that occasion.
  The reason why I tell the story is because I was a member of the 
United Nations Youth in high school. I was a junior in high school at 
the time. There was a table of United Nations Youth, and they came over 
to me and said: Since you are a member of the United Nations Youth, we 
invite you to sit with us at our table.
  Oh, my gosh, John F. Kennedy or United Nations Youth?
  As conflicted as I was, how could I leave a vacant seat next to 
Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts who was soon to become President of 
the United States?
  In any event, as I said at the beginning, this holds a special 
particular pride for me personally, as well as officially.

                          ____________________