From the ruins of World War II, 50 nations united to sign the United Nations’ founding charter eight decades ago on Thursday with the goal of “saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
This week, UN chief Antonio Guterres emphasised that the UN Charter “is a promise of peace, dignity and cooperation among nations.”
But critics say the organisation has been utterly helpless in stopping the countless conflicts that have broken out since and continue around the globe today.
Here is a look at the UN Charter’s history.
Principles of international relations
Conceived in the early years of World War II and signed on June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, the charter paved the way for the creation of the United Nations on October 24, 1945.
In 19 chapters and 111 articles, the Charter lays out the principles of international relations, including the peaceful settlement of disputes, sovereignty and equality between states, humanitarian cooperation, and respect for human rights.
If there is a threat to global peace, Chapter VII gives the UN Security Council the power to impose sanctions to enforce its decisions or even deploy military force.
The Charter, which is very difficult to amend, also establishes the Security Council, with its five veto-wielding permanent members, the General Assembly and the Secretariat, as well as the International Court of Justice.
The United Nations currently has 193 member states.
Consensus is rare
But for all the good words, the Charter’s principles have been continually violated across the planet for eight decades.
Member states rarely agree whether self-determination trumps non-interference in a state’s internal affairs, or if the right to self-defence can justify acts of aggression.
In the most recent example, Tehran, backed by veto-wielding China, accused Washington of violating the UN Charter by striking Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend, an act the United States justified by the right to “collective self-defence.”
And the international community has never really addressed the “crime of aggression,” said Gissou Nia, a fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank, be it Russia’s war against Ukraine or the US invasion of Iraq.
“And once impunity reigns on one set of violations, one that’s never dealt with, it continues, and countries use it as justification for the actions that they take,” Nia told AFP.
She added: “For self-defence, you really have to show evidence of an imminent attack. I think that it’s one of the more contentious issues that involve the UN Charter and the narrative has really gotten away from us.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was denounced as a clear violation of the Charter by UN Secretary-General Guterres and the General Assembly, but not by the Security Council, where Russia has a veto.
And even though the Charter allows for persistent violators to be expelled from the UN, that has never happened.
In 1974, the UN did, however, suspend South Africa from the General Assembly over the crimes of apartheid, a ban that lasted two decades.
UN Charter: a cornerstone agreement among nations that continues to be violated
