Charter of the United Nations

This month marks the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations which took place on June 26, 1945, at the San Francisco Opera House when the UN Charter and the Statute of the International Court of Justice was adopted unanimously at the end of the United Nations Conference on International Organization. Four months later, it entered into force when the required number of nations ratified the Charter on October 24, 1945 (officially United Nations Day) and the United Nations was established.

The Brooklyn Law School Library reference desk has the two volume Encyclopedia of the United Nations by John Allphin Moore, Jr. and Jerry Pubantz (Call #KZ4968 .M66 2008), a comprehensive guide to the UN's institutions, procedures, policies, agencies, historical personalities, initiatives, and involvement in world affairs. Alphpbetical entries direct readers to additional references for further reading and relevant Web sites. Graphics include captioned black-and-white photographs with charts and graphs. There is a list of acronyms used throughout the text along with appendixes that include the Charter of the United Nations and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a list of the 192 UN member states, important resolutions, a chronology, and UN Web sites. There is also a topically divided selected bibliography and a comprehensive index.

For more on the history of the UN, click on the Procedural History tab of the Historic Archives of the Audiovisual Library of International Law. There is also a video resources link to several films including an 11 minute documentary about the San Francisco Conference produced by the US Information Agency.