UN Charter: general description, preamble, articles

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

The United Nations is a multi-state institution founded on 1945-24-10. The UN was the second multipurpose international organization created in the 20th century to become worldwide in scope and membership.

The main goal of the UN is to create world security and prevent armed conflicts between states. Additional values championed by the UN include justice, law, and economic and social well-being.

To facilitate the spread of these ideas, the UN has become the main source of international law since its inception in 1945. The description of the UN Charter, including the preamble, sets out the main purposes of the institution.

League of Nations

The League of Nations was the predecessor entity of the United Nations. This institution was formed in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles.

The purpose of the League of Nations was to encourage cooperation between nations and to keep the world safe. Unfortunately, the League of Nations could not avoid World War II and was therefore disbanded.

Creation of the UN

In San Francisco's Herbst Theater, plenipotentiaries from 50 nations sign the UN Charter, establishing a world body as the means to save "successive generations from the scourge of war." The Charter was ratified on October 24, and the first UN Assembly met in London on January 10, 1946

Despite the failure of the League of Nations to resolve the conflicts that led to World War II, the Allies proposed as early as 1941 the creation of a new international body to maintain order in the post-war world.

In the same year, Roosevelt came up with the "United Nations" to unite the allied countries against the tyranny of Germany, Italy and Japan. In October 1943, the main allied powers - Great Britain, the USA, the USSR - met in Moscow and published the Moscow Declaration, in which they officially announced the need to replace the League of Nations with an international organization.

UN Charter: Core

The 1945 Charter is the founding treaty in an intergovernmental organization. The UN Charter articulated a commitment to human rights and outlined a broad set of principles for achieving a “higher standard of living.”

25.04.1945 The UN Conference was held in San Francisco with the participation of 50 countries. Three months later, during which Germany surrendered, the final charter was unanimously adopted by the delegates, on June 26 it was signed.

The document included the preamble of the UN Charter and 19 chapters, divided into 111 articles. The Charter called on the United Nations to establish and maintainworld security, strengthen international law and promote human rights.

The preamble was composed of two parts. The first contains a general call for maintaining world security and respect for human rights. The second part of the preamble is a treaty-style declaration by which the governments of the peoples of the UN have agreed to the Charter. It is the first international human rights instrument.

UN structure

The main organs of the UN, as stated in the Charter, are:

Secretariat;
General Assembly;
SC Security Council (UN Security Council);
Economic Council;
Social Council;
International Court of Justice;
Guardianship Council.

24.10.1945 The UN Charter came into force after it was ratified by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and most of the other signatories.

The first public Assembly of the United Nations with the participation of 51 countries opened in London on 1946-10-01. And on October 24, 1949, exactly four years later, when the UN Charter came into force (the principles of international law were strictly observed by all participants at that time), the cornerstone was laid for the current UN headquarters, located in New York.

Since 1945, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded more than ten times to the United Nations and its entities or individuals.

History and development

The name of the United Nations was originally used to refer to countries associated withconfrontation between Germany, Italy and Japan. But already on January 1, 1942, 26 states signed the UN Declaration, which sets out the military goals of the allied powers, as well as articles of the UN Charter.

The United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union took the lead in developing the new organization and defining its structure and decision-making functions.

Initially, the Big Three and their respective leaders (Roosevelt, Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin) were embarrassed by disagreements over issues that foreshadowed the Cold War. The Soviet Union demanded individual membership and voting rights for its constitutional republics, while Britain wanted assurances that its colonies would not be placed under UN control.

There was also opposition to the voting system to be adopted in the Security Council. This is the issue that became famous as the "veto problem".

Organization and Administration

Principles and membership. The purposes, principles and organization of the United Nations are set forth in the Charter. The basic principles underlying the purposes and functions of the organization are listed in Article 2 and include the following:

The UN is founded on the sovereign equality of its members.
Disputes must be resolved by peaceful means.
Members must renounce military aggression against other states.
Each member must assist the organization in any enforcement action it takes under the Bylaws.
States that are not members of this organization are required toact in accordance with the same provisions, because this is necessary for the establishment of security and peace on the planet.

Article 2 also establishes the basic long-standing rule that the organization must not interfere in matters under the domestic jurisdiction of any State.

New UN members

While this was a major constraint on UN action, over time the line between international and domestic jurisdiction has become blurred. New members are introduced to the United Nations at the proposal of the Security Council and a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly.

However, often the admission of new members creates controversy. Given the division caused by the Cold War between East and West, the requirement that the 5 members of the Security Council (sometimes known as P-5) - China, France, the Soviet Union (whose place and membership has been taken by Russia since 1991), the United Kingdom and the United States agreed to accept new members, which at times constituted serious disagreements.

By 1950, only 9 out of 31 declared new states were accepted into the organization. In 1955, the 10th Assembly proposed a package deal that, following changes to the Security Council, led to the admission of 16 new states (4 Eastern European communist states and 12 non-communist countries).

The most controversial membership application was from the Communist People's Republic of China, which was posted to the General Assembly but was permanently blockedUnited States at every session between 1950 and 1971.

Finally, in 1971, in an effort to improve its relationship with mainland China, the United States refrained from blocking and voted to recognize the People's Republic. There were 76 votes in favor, 35 against and 17 abstentions. As a result, membership of the Republic of China and a permanent seat on the Security Council were transferred to the People's Republic.

Reception of divided states

Controversy also arose over the issue of "divided" states, including the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the GDR (East Germany), North and South Korea, and North and South Vietnam.

Two German states were admitted as members in 1973, these two seats were reduced to one after the country's reunification in October 1990. Vietnam was admitted in 1977 after the country's unification in 1975.

The two Koreas were admitted separately in 1991. Around the world, with decolonization from 1955 to 1960, 40 new members were admitted and by the end of the 1970s there were already about 150 countries in the UN.

Another significant increase occurred after 1989-90, when many former Soviet republics seceded from the Soviet Union. By the beginning of the 21st century, the UN included about 190 member states.