Authentic Summary of
THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS
(Abridged version - Redundancies, details and virtually obsolete portions have been omitted. Much of this version is paraphrased, retaining as much as possible the original significance. Please refer to the full text for the exact wording of each item.) Global educators, activists and political-science buffs should know everything in this summary. For those of you who do not fit those categories, yet wish to be informed citizens, items of particular importance to remember are highlighted in red.
Preamble - We the people of the United Nations determined to safeguard future generations from such war which has twice in our lifetime inflicted on Humanity untold suffering, have decided to unite our forces for the maintenance of peace and international security, to assure, through the acceptation of the methods of this Charter, that armed force will not be used except in the common interest.
Chapter I - Purposes and Principles
Article 1 - The purposes of the United Nations are to maintain peace and international security, and to this end, to take effective collective actions to prevent and eliminate threats to the peace, and to suppress acts of agression or other breaches of the peace. It is also to foment friendship, realize cooperation and serve as a center to harmonize these efforts.
Article 2 - To realize the purposes of Article 1, the Organization and its Members will procede according to the following Principles:
1. All of the Members are equal;
2. & 5. & 6. All the Members will carry out their duties according to the Charter;
3. & 4. All of the Members will neither use nor threaten to use their armed forces;
7. The United Nations cannot intervene in the affairs of any Member, unless the
Security Council decides to do so.
CHAPTER II - MEMBERS
Article 3, 4 & 5 - The Members are the states, that is, the national administrations of the participating countries.
CHAPTER III - ORGANS
Article 7 - The principal organs of the United Nations shall be as follows: a General Assembly, a Security Council, a Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice, and a Secretariat.
Article 8 - The United Nations will not place eligibility restrictions on any persons to serve in any post within the United Nations organs.
CHAPTER IV - THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Article 9 - Composition 1. The General Assembly will be composed of all its Members.
2. Each Member will not have more than five representatives.
Article 10 - Functions and Powers - The General Assembly can study and discuss any subject, unless the Security Council is considering it. The General Assembly can make recommendations to the Members of the Security Council. (Articles 11, 13, 14, 15, and 16 repeat and expound the power to study, talk and recommend.)
Article 12 - When the Security Council is discussing a subject, the General Assembly will not talk about it.
Article 17 - The General Assembly will vote for a general budget, and will vote for the amount that each Member will pay in tribute.
Article 18 - Voting. - Each Member of the General Assembly will have one vote. An important decision will require a two-thirds majority vote of Members present. Less important matters will require a simple majority.
Article 19 - A Member who is two years late in paying tribute has no right to vote in the General Assembly, unless the General Assembly permits it.
Article 20, 21 & 22 - The General Assembly will convene annually, unless the Security Council calls special sessions or if the General Assembly votes for a special session. It will adopt its own rules and create subsidiary organs as it deems necessary.
CHAPTER V - THE SECURITY COUNCIL
Article 23 - Composition - The Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United Nations. The following five Members are Permanent Members: China, France, England, USA and Russia. The General Assembly will vote for the other ten Members, who will serve terms of two years.
Article 24, 25 & 26 - Functions and Powers - The Security Council has the primary responsibility for maintaining peace, with the help of the Military Staff Committee (the General Chiefs of Staff of the five Permanent Members, as described in Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 12 of this Charter.
Article 27 - Voting - Each Member of the Security Council has one vote. Decisions of the Council will be made by the vote of nine Members, including the affirmative vote of all five Permanent Members.
Articles 28 through 32 - Procedures - The Security Council will function continually.
It may establish subsidiary organs, adopt its own rules, and may accept visitors without vote.
CHAPTER VI - PACIFIC SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES
Articles 33 through 38 - Members in disagreement will discuss among themselves, to see if they can resolve their differences. If they cannot, they will ask the Security Council, with the Military Staff Committee, to help with a process of talking about peace.
CHAPTER VII - ACTION WITH RESPECT TO THREATS OR BREACHES OF THE PEACE, AND ACTS OF AGRESSION
Articles 39 & 40 - The Security Council will decide what to do about problems, and can demand that Members reach agreement.
Article 41 - The Security Council can establish military blockades of roads, seaports, airports and means of communication.
Article 42 - If the military blockades don't work, the Security Council can use whatever military action which is necessary.
Article 43, 44 & 45 - All the Members of the United Nations will build, maintain and provide weapon systems and armed forces to the United Nations in order to carry out Articles 41 and 42.
Article 46 & 47 - The Security Council, with the Military Staff Committee (the Joint Chiefs of Staff of China, France, England, USA and Russia), will command these armed forces.
Article 48 & 49 & 50 - The Members of the United Nations shall support the decisions of the Security Council.
Article 51 - If the Security Council does not intervene in a war, the Members at war may continue the war.
CHAPTER VIII - REGIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
Article 52, 53 & 54 - The Members may prepare and maintain regional military blocks against each other, provided they do so in accordance with the Security Council.
CHAPTER IX - INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CO-OPERATION
Articles 55 through 60 - All the Members of the United Nations promise to cooperate economically and socially.
CHAPTER X - THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
Articles 61 through 72 - There shall be an Economic and Social Council in order to study, discuss and recommend actions regarding economic and social matters.
CHAPTER XI - DECLARATION REGARDING NON-SELF-GOVERNING TERRITORIES
CHAPTER XII - INTERNATIONAL TRUSTEESHIP SYSTEM
CHAPTER XIII - THE TRUSTEESHIP COUNCIL
(These three chapters, for practical purposes, are virtually obsolete.)
CHAPTER XIV - THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Articles 92 through 96 - The International Court of Justice will be the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. Any Member can prosecute any other Member of the Court. The Court can make recommendations and the Members ought to follow these recommendations. If they don't, the Security Council can take action as described in Chapters VI and VII of this Charter.
CHAPTER XV - THE SECRETARIAT
Articles 97, 98 & 99 - The Security Council will recommend who will manage the personnel of the United Nations. Then the General Assembly will appoint a Secretary General from the recommendation. The Secretary General will manage the functions of the United Nations, and will make reports and recommendations to the General Assembly and to the Security Council.
Article 100 & 101 - The Secretary General will not ask nor receive instructions from any government nor from anybody. The Secretary General will act in a manner completely international. The Members agree not to seek to influence the Secretary General nor the personnel of the Secretariat. The Secretary General will select all personnel of the United Nations who are not delegates.
CHAPTER XVI - MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Articles 102 & 103 - All Members agree to deliver a copy of any new international treaty to the Secretariat, and in every case, the obligations of this Charter shall prevail.
Article 104 & 105 - All the personnel of the Secretariat and all of the Delegates to the United Nations have privilege and legal immunity to carry out the United Nations plan. (Or, that is, United Nations personnel and Delegates are not required to obey law.)
CHAPTER XVII - TRANSITIONAL SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS
(Article 106 & 107 are obsolete, as they have to do with WWII.)
CHAPTER XVIII - AMENDMENTS
Articles 108 & 109 - Amendments to the Charter shall come into force when they have been adopted by two-thirds vote of the General Assembly, and ratified according to their respective constitutional processes of two-thirds of the Members, including all of the Permanent Members of the Security Council.
CHAPTER XIX - RATIFICATION AND SIGNATURE
Articles 110 & 111 - The Charter of the United Nations came into effect when the Secretariat received the ratification of the Permanent Members and the majority of the rest of the Members who signed in San Francisco, on 26 June 1945.
derivative work c 1998 by Eugenia Almand