The nations speak; the general debate and addresses by heads of state and government at the 38th session of the General Assembly.

During a three-week period at the beginning of each regular session of the General Assembly, Member States have an opportunity to present the full range of their international problems and concerns, under the item "General debate". It is also at this point that the Assembly customarily hears addresses by visiting Heads of State or Government.

To most participants, however, the meaning of the debate transcends the particularity of individual views. "We have not come here just to make a ritual speech and then to depart", Burundi's Minister for External Relations and Co-operation, Laurent Nzeyimana, explained to the thirty-eight Assembly session. "Each of us brings to this gathering of the international community a message of hope, of concern, of anxiety and of solidarity from our people. It is essential that we all be heard -- even if we are not understood."

During the 1983 general debate, held from 26 September to 14 October, a record 150 speakers came to the podium of the blue and gilt Assembly Hall. Of these, 26 were Heads of State or Government. Summaries of their addresses appear on pages 5 to 17.

The remaining 124 speakers included two Vice-Presidents and 99 Foreign Ministers. The Federal Republic of Germany was represented twice, in statements by its President and its Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Only nine of the 158 Member States -- Dominica, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Panama, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, South Africa and Swaziland -- did not speak. (South Africa has not participated in the work of the General Assembly since November 1974, when the Assembly upheld a ruling by its President, accepting the Committee on Credentials' rejection of South Africa's credentials.)