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UN Charter
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We the people of the United Nations have determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations
arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and securiy, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS.
Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the ciy of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.
PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
ARTICLE I
The Purposes of the United Nations are
1. To maintain international peace and securiy, and to that end to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformiy with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
ARTICLE 2
The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
1. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
2. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall furfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accor-, dance with the present Charter.
3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and securiy, and justice, are not endangered.
4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
5. All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.
6. The Organization shall ensure that states which are not members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and securiy.
7. Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.
MEMBERSHIP
ARTICLE 3
The original Members of the United Nations shall be the states which, having participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco, or having previously signed the Declaration by United Nations of January 1, 1942, sign the present Charter and ratify it in accordance with Article 110.
ARTICLE 4
1. Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.
2. The admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Securiy Council.
ARTICLE 5
A Member of the United Nations against which preventive or enforcement action has been taken by the Securiy Council may be suspended from
ARTICLE 6
A Member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Securiy Council.
ORGANS
ARTICLE 7
1. There are established as the principal organs of the United Nations a General Assembly, a Securiy Council, an Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice, and a Secretariat.
2. Such subsidiary organs as may be found necessary may be established in accordance with the present Charter.
ARTICLE 8
The United Nations shall place no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capaciy and under conditions of equally in its principal and subsidiary organs.
Chapter IV
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
ARTICLE 9
1. The General Assembly shall consist of all the Members of the United Nations.
2. Each Member shall have not more than five representatives in the General Assembly.
ARTICLE I 0
The General Assembly may discuss any questions or any matters within the scope of the present Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any organs provided for in the present Charter, and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations to the Members of the United Nations or to the Securiy Council or to both on any such questions or matters.
ARTICLE I I
1. The General Assembly may consider the general principles of cooperation in the maintenance of international peace and security, including the principles governing disarmament and the regulation of armaments, and may make recommendations with regard to such principles to the Members or to the Securiy Council or to both.
2. The General Assembly may discuss any questions relating to the maintenance of international peace and securiy brought before it by any Member of the United Nations, or by the Securiy Council, or by a state which is not a Member of the United Nations in accordance with Article 3S, paragraph 2, and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations with regard to any such question to the state or
states concerned or to the Securiy Council or to both. Any such question on which action is necessary shall be referred to the Security Council by the General Assembly either before or after discussion.
3. The General Assembly may call the attention of the Securiy Council to situations which are likely to endanger international peace and securiy. .
ARTICLE I8
1. Each member of the General Assembly shall have one vote.
2. Decisions of ehe General Assembly on important questions shall be made by a two- thirds majoriy of the members present and voting. These questions shall include: recommendations with respect to the maintenance of international peace and security, the election of the non-permanent members of the Securiy Council, the election of the members of the Economic and Social Council, the election of members of the Trusteeship Council in accordance with paragraph l(c) of Article 86, the admission of new Members to the United Nations, the suspension of the rights and privileges of membership, the expulsion of Members, questions relating to the operation of the trusteeship system, and budgetary questions.
3. Decisions on other questions, including the determination of additional categories of questions to be decided by a twothirds majoriy, shall be made by a majority of the members present and voting.
ARTICLE I 9
A Member of the United Nations which is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the Organization shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for
the preceding two full years. The General Assembly may, nevertheless, permit such a Member to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the Member. .
THE SECURITY COUNCIL
ARTICLE 2 3
1. The Security Council shall consist of eleven Members of the United Nations. The Rcpublic of China, Francc, thc Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall elect six other Members of the United Nations to be non permanent members of the Security Council, due regard being specially paid, in the first instance to the contribution of Members of the United Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the other purposes of the Organization, and also to equitable geographical distribution.
2. The non-permanent members of the Security Council shall be elected for a term of nvo years. In the first election of the non- permanent members, however, three shall be chosen for a term of one year. A retiring member shall not be eligible for immediate re election.
3. Each member of the Securiy Council shall have one representative.
ARTICLE 24
1. In order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations, itsMembers confer on the Securiy Council primary responsibiliy for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibiliy the Securiy Council acts on their behalf.
2. In discharging these duties the Security Council shall act in accordance with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations. The specific powers granted to the Securiy Council for the discharge of these duties are laid down in Chapters Vl, Vll, V111, and Xll.
3. The Securiy Council shall submit annual and, when necessary, special reports to the General Assembly for its consideration.
ARTICLE 25
The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Securiy Council in accordance with the present Charter.
ARTICLE 2 6
In order to promote the establishment and maintenance of international peace and securiy with the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources, the Securiy Council shall be responsible for formulating, with the assistance of the Military Staff Committee referred to in Article 47, plans to be submitted to the Members of the United Nations for the establishment of a system for the regulation of armaments.
ARTICLE 2 7
1. Each member of the Securiy Council shall have one vote.
2. Decisions of the Securiy Council on procedural matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of seven members.
3. Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of seven members including the concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in decisions under Chapter Vl, and under paragraph 3 of Article 52, a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting....
Chapter Vl
PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF
DISPUTES
ARTICLE 3 3
1. The parties to any dispute, the con,:inuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and securiy, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.
2. The Security Council shall, when it deems necessary, call upon the parties to settle their dispute by such means.
ARTICLE 3 4
The Securiy Council may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute, in order to determine whether the continuance of the dispute or situation is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and securiy.
ARTICLE 35
1. Any Member of the United Nations may bring any dispute, or any situation of the nature referred to in Article 34, to the attention of the Securiy Council or of the General Assembly.
2. A state which is not a Member of the United Nations may bring to the attention
of the Securiy Council or of the General Assembly any dispute to which it is a pary if it accepts in advance, for the purposes of the dispute, the obligations of pactfic settlement provided in the present Charter.
Chapter V11
ACTION WITH RESPECT TO
THREATS TO THE PEACE,
BREACHES OF THE PEACE,
AND ACTS OF AGGRESSION
ARTTCLE 3 9
The Securiy Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and securiy.
ARTICLE 40
In order to prevent an aggravation of the situation, the Securiy Council may, before making the recommendations or deciding upon the measures provided for in Articie 39, call upon the parties concerned to come, ply with such provisional measures as it deems necessary or desirable. Such provisional measures shall be without prejudice to the rights, claims, or position of the parties concerned. The Securiy Council shall duly take account of failure to comply with such provisional measures.
ARTICLE
41
The Security Council may decide what measures not involving rhe use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations
and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.
ARTICLE 42
Should the Securiy Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and securiy. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 43
1. All Members of the United Nations, in order to contribute to the maintenance of international peace and securiy, undertake to make available to the Securiy Council, on its call and in accordance with a special agreement or agreements, armed forces, assistance, and facilities, including rights of passage, necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security. .
ARTICLE 51
Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Securiy Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self- defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authoriy and responsibiliy of the Securiy Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and securiy.
Chapter VIII
REGIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
ARTICLE 52
1. Nothing in the present Charter precludes the existence of regional arrangements or agencies for dealing with such matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and securiy as are appropriate for regional action, provided that such arrangements or agencies and their activities are consistent with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations.
2. The Members of the United Nations entering into such arrangements or constituting such agencies shall make every effort to achieve pactfic settlement of local disputes through such regional arrangements or by such regional agencies before referring them to the Security Council. .
ARTICLE 54
The Securiy Council shall at all times be kept fully informed of activities undertaken or in contemplation under regional arrangements or by regional agencies for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Chapter IX
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL COOPERATION
ARTICLE
55
With a view to the creation of conditions of stabiliy and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self- determination of peoples, the United Nations shall promote:
a. higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development;
b. solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems; and international cultural and educational cooperation; and
c. universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinaion as to race, sex, language, or religion. .
Chapter Xl
DECLARATION REGARDING
NON-SELF-GOVERNING
TERRITORIES
ARTICLE 7
3
Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities for the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure of selfgovernment recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost, within the system of international peace and security established by the present Charter, the well-being of the inhabitants of these territories, and, to this end:
a. to ensure, with due respect for the culture of the peoples concerned, their political, economic, social, and educational advancement, their just treatment, and their protection against abuses;
b. to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions, according to the particular circumstances of each terrirory and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement;
c. to further international peace and securiy;
d. to promote constructive measures of development, to encourage research, and to cooperate with one another and, when and
where appropriate, with specialized international bodies with a view to the practical achievement of the social, economic, and scientific purposes set forth in this Article; and
e. to transmit regularly to the SecretaryGeneral for information purposes, subject to such limitation as securiy and constitutional considerations may require, statistical and other information of a technical nature relating to economic, social, and educational conditions in the territories for which they are respectively responsible other than those territories to which Chapters Xll and X111 apply.
ARTICLE 74
Members of the United Nations also agree that their policy in respect of the territories to which this Chapter applies, no less than in respect of their metropolitan areas, must be based on the general principle of good- neighborliness, due account being taken of the interests and well-being of the rest of the world, in social, economic, and commercial matters.
Chapter X11
INTERNATIONAL TRUSTEESHIP
SYSTEM
ARTICLE 75
The United Nations shall establish under its authoriy an international trusteeship system for the administration and supervision of such territories as may be placed thereunder by subsequent individual agreements. These territories are hereinafter referred to as trust territories.
ARTICLE 76
The basic objectives of the trusteeship system, in accordance with the Purposes of
1
the United Nations laid down in Article I of the present Charter, shall be:
a. to further international peace and security;
b. to promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self- government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely apressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement;
c. to encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion, and to encourage recognition of the interdependence of the peoples of the world; and
d. to ensure equal treatment in social, economic, and commercial matters for all Members of the United Nations and their nationals, and also equal treatment for the latter in the administration of justice, without prejudice to the attainment of the foregoing objectives and, subject to the provisions of Article 80.
ARTICLE 77
1. The trusteeship system shall apply to such territories in the following categories as may be placed thereunder by means of trusteeship agreements:
a. territories now held under mandatei
b. territories which may be detached from enemy states as a result of the Second World War; and
c. territories voluntarily placed under the system by states responsible for their admimstratlon.
2. It will be a matter for subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing categories will be brought under the trusteeship system and upon what terms.
Chapter XIV
THE INTERNATIONAL COURT
OF JUSTICE
ARTICLE 92
The International Court of Justice shall be the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It shall function in accordance with the annexed Statute, which is based upon the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice and forms an integral part of the present Charter.
ARTICLE 9 3
1. All Members of the United Nations are ipso facto parties to the Statute of the International Court of Justice.
2. A state which is not a Member of the United Nations may become a party ro rhe Statute of the International Court of Justice on condition to be determined in each case by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Securiy Council.
ARTICLE 94
1. Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice in any case to which it is a pary.
2. If any pary to a case fails to perform the obligations incumbent upon it under a judgment rendered by the Court, the other party may have recourse to the S ecurity Council, which may, if it deems necessary, make recommendations. .
Chapter XV
THE SECRETARIAT
ARTICLE 9 7
The Secretariat shall comprise a Secretary- General and such staff as the Organization may require. The Secretary-General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Securiy Council. He shall be the chief administrative officer of the Organization.
ARTICLE 98
The Secretary-General shall act in that capaciy in all meetings of the General Assembly, of the Securiy Council, of the Economic and Social Council, and of the Trusteeship Council, and shall perform such other functions as are entrusted to him by these organs. The Secretary-General shall make an annual report to the General Assembly on the work of the Organization.
ARTICLE 99
The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Securiy Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace. .
ARTICLE I 00
1. In the performance of their duties the Secretary-General and the staff shall not seek to receive instruction from any government or from any other authoriy external to the Organization. They shall refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization.
2. Each Member of the United Nations undertakes to respect the exclusively international character of the responsibilities of the Secretary-General and the staff. .
Chapter XVII
TRANSITIONAL SECURITY
ARRANGEMENTS
ARTICLE I 06
Pending the coming into force of such special agreements referred to in Article 43
as in the opinion of the Securiy Council enable it to begin the exercise of its responsibilities under Article 42, the parties to the Four-Nation Declaration, signed at Moscow, October 30, 1943, and France, shall, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 5 of that Declaration, consult with one another and as occasion requires with other Members of the United Nations with a view to such joint aaion on behalf of the Organization as may be necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security.
Chapter XIX
RATIFICATION AND SIGNATURE
ARTICLE I 10
1. The present Charter shall be ratified by the signatory states in accordance with their respective constitutional processes.
2. The ratifications shall be deposited with the Government of the United States of America, which shall notify all the signatory states of each deposit as well as the Secretary- General of the Organization when he has been appointed.
3. The present Charter shall come into force upon the deposit of rat)fications by the Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America, and by a majoriy of the other signatory states. A protocol of the ratifications deposited shall thereupon be drawn up by the Government of the United States of America which shall communicate copies thereof to all the signatory states. .
ARTICLE I I I
The present Charter, of which the Chinese, French, Russian, English, and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall remain deposited in the archives of the Government
of the United States of America. Duly certified copies thereof shall be transmitted by that Government to the Governments of the other signatory states.
Infaitb wbereof; the representatives of the
Governments of the United Nations have signed the present Charter.
Done at the ciy of San Francisco the twenty-sixth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and fory-five.
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