The United Nations: Purposes, Principles and Membership

In one line

The United Nations was established by the Charter of 26 June 1945 to maintain international peace and security, and it is a legal person distinct from its Members, with six principal organs and a constituent instrument whose obligations prevail over all other agreements.

The Charter, and the Organization it created

The Charter was signed at San Francisco on 26 June 1945 and entered into force on 24 October 1945. Its final recital says that the Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco who exhibited full powers found in good and due form, have agreed to the Charter and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

The Charter is a treaty, and everything in [What a Treaty Is, and Its Kinds] and [Making a Treaty: From Full Powers to Entry Into Force] applies to it, with the qualification in article 5 of the Vienna Convention that the Convention applies to a constituent instrument of an organisation without prejudice to the relevant rules of the organisation.

The Preamble is part of the text for interpretation under article 31(2) of the Vienna Convention, and it is worth knowing because it is where the object and purpose is stated. It opens WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED, and the determinations are: to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind; 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; 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.

Note the opening words. The Charter speaks in the name of the peoples and is made by the Governments. That tension runs through the whole instrument.

The Purposes: article 1

Article 1(1). To maintain international peace and security, 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 conformity 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.

Article 1(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.