Chapter I
Purpose and Principals
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
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;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and selfdetermination
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 fulfill
in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international
peace and security, 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 security.
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.
CHAPTER II
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
Article 5
A member of the United Nations against which preventive or enforcement action has been taken by the Security
Council may be suspended from the exercise of the rights and privileges of membership by the General
Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. The exercise of these rights and privileges may be
restored by the Security Council.
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 Security
Council.
CHAPTER III
ORGANS
Article 7
Article 8
The United Nations shall place no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity
and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs.
CHAPTER IV
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY Composition Functions and Powers Voting Procedure
Article 9
Article 10
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 Security Council or
to both on any such questions or matters.
Article 11
Article 12
Article 13
Article 14
Subject to the provisions of Article 12, the General Assembly may recommend measures for the peaceful
adjustment of any situation, regardless of origin, which it deems likely to impair the general welfare or friendly
relations among nations, including situations resulting from a violation of the provisions of the present Charter
setting forth the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations.
Article 15
Article 16
The General Assembly shall perform such functions with respect to the international trusteeship system as are
assigned to it under Chapters XII and XIII, including the approval of the trusteeship agreements for areas not
designated as strategic.
Article 17
Article 18
Article 19
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.
Article 20
The General Assembly shall meet in regular annual sessions and in such special sessions as occasion may
require. Special sessions shall be convoked by the Secretary-General at the request of the Security Council or of
a majority of the Members of the United Nations.