Charter of the United Nations
The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the United Nations.[1] It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the Secretariat, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council.
Drafted
14 August 1941
26 June 1945
24 October 1945
Ratification by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and by a majority of the other signatory states.
193
International
The UN Charter mandates the UN and its member states to maintain international peace and security, uphold international law, achieve "higher standards of living" for their citizens, address "economic, social, health, and related problems", and promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion".[2] As a charter and constituent treaty, its rules and obligations are binding on all members and supersede those of other treaties.[1][3]
During the Second World War, the Allies—formally known as the United Nations—agreed to establish a new postwar international organization.[4] Pursuant to this goal, the UN Charter was discussed, prepared, and drafted during the San Francisco Conference that began 25 April 1945, which involved most of the world's sovereign nations.[5] Following two-thirds approval of each part, the final text was unanimously adopted by delegates and opened for signature on 26 June 1945;[6][7] it was signed in San Francisco, United States, by 50 of the 51 original member countries.[6][Note 1]
The Charter entered into force on 24 October 1945, following ratification by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China,[Note 2] France,[Note 3] the Soviet Union,[Note 4] the United Kingdom, and the United States—and a majority of the other signatories; this is considered the official starting date of the United Nations, with the first session of the General Assembly, representing all 51 initial members, opening in London the following January. The General Assembly formally recognized 24 October as United Nations Day in 1947, and declared it an official international holiday in 1971. With 193 parties, most countries have now ratified the Charter.
The Charter consists of a preamble and 111 articles grouped into 19 chapters.[1]
The preamble consists of two principal parts. The first part contains a general call for the maintenance of peace and international security and respect for human rights. The second part of the preamble is a declaration in a contractual style that the governments of the peoples of the United Nations have agreed to the Charter and it is the first international document regarding human rights.
The following chapters deal with the enforcement powers of UN bodies:
History[edit]
Background[edit]
The principles and conceptual framework of the United Nations were formulated incrementally through a series of conferences by the Allied nations during the Second World War. The Declaration of St James's Palace, issued in London on 12 June 1941, was the first joint statement of the goals and principles of the Allies, and the first to express a vision for a postwar world order.[8] The Declaration called for the "willing cooperation of free peoples" so that "all may enjoy economic and social security".[9]
Roughly two months later, the United States and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement elaborating these goals, known as the Atlantic Charter. It called for no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people, the right to self-determination for all peoples, restoration of self-government to those deprived of it, reduction of trade barriers, global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for the world, freedom from fear and want, freedom of the seas, and abandonment of the use of force, including mutual disarmament after the war.[10] Many of these principles would inspire or form part of the UN Charter.
The following year, on 1 January 1942, representatives of thirty nations formally at war with the Axis powers—led by the "Big Four" powers of China, the Soviet Union, the U.K., and the U.S.—signed the Declaration by United Nations, which formalized the anti-Axis alliance and reaffirmed the purposes and principles of the Atlantic Charter.[11] The following day, representatives of twenty-two other nations added their signatures. The term "United Nations" became synonymous with the Allies for the duration of the war, and was considered the formal name under which they were fighting.[12] The Declaration by United Nations formed the basis of the United Nations Charter;[13] virtually all nations that acceded to it would be invited to take part in the 1945 San Francisco Conference to discuss and prepare the Charter.[5]
On 30 October 1943, the Declaration of the Four Nations, one of the four Moscow Declarations, was signed by the foreign ministers of the Big Four, calling for the establishment of a "general international organization, based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving states, and open to membership by all such states, large and small, for the maintenance of international peace and security."[14][Note 5] This was the first formal announcement that a new international organization was being contemplated to replace the moribund League of Nations.
Pursuant to the Moscow Declarations, from 21 August 1944 to 7 October 1944, the U.S. hosted the Dumbarton Oaks Conference to develop a blueprint for what would become the United Nations.[4] Many of the rules, principles, and provisions of the UN Charter were proposed during the conference, including the structure of the UN system; the creation of a "Security Council" to prevent future war and conflict; and the establishment of other "organs" of the organization, such as the General Assembly, International Court of Justice, and Secretariat.[4] The conference was led by the Big Four, with delegates from other nation participating in the consideration and formulation of these principles.[4] At the Paris peace conference in 1919, it was Prime Minister Jan Smuts of South Africa and Lord Cecil of the United Kingdom who came up with the structure of the League of Nations with the League being divided into a League Assembly consisting of all the member states and a League Council consisting of the great powers.[15] The same design that Smuts and Cecil had devised for the League of Nations was copied for the United Nations with a Security Council made up of the great powers and a General Assembly of the UN member states.[16]
The subsequent Yalta Conference in February 1945 between the U.S., U.K., and Soviet Union resolved the lingering debate regarding the voting structure of the proposed Security Council, calling for a "Conference of United Nations" in San Francisco on 25 April 1945 to "prepare the charter of such an organization, along the lines proposed in the formal conversations of Dumbarton Oaks."[4]