Transcript

[APPLAUSE]

RAUL ALFONSIN:

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

INTERPRETER:

The prize we have been generously awarded enables us to unite as one, even though we are very far apart. It is perhaps a symbol that in spite of distance, we are together in a common enterprise. The defence of our most fundamental right, the right to live.

Nowadays, we only have it as a conditional right. In a few minutes, the decision of a few men can take it away from us forever. Those few men who can decide in minutes our extermination are no doubt intelligent and full of goodwill. It is preposterous that men of goodwill should feel compelled to play with the life or death of us all.

There are those who think it is not very realistic to wish to change reality. The discord and mistrust that led to this absurd situation, we are told, have always existed and always will exist. But if we had never fought to change reality, we would still live in caves.

And if today discord and mistrust have led us to the brink of the abyss, to promote concord and trust is not an illusion but a necessity. We said in Delhi that we did not have the might to prohibit the nuclear holocaust, but we did have reason on our side and our voices to prevent it.

We said that if our voices joined each other by millions, by tens of millions, by hundreds of millions of voices, our being right will change reality. The best prize that we received today is that we have all been allowed to put our voices together. Many others will certainly join them, and we will thus recover our right to live. Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]