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Conditions of Admission of a State to Membership in the United Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Yuen-Li Liang
Yuen-Li Liang*
Affiliation:
Division of Development and Codification of International Law, United Nations Secretariat
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Extract

The International Court of Justice, on May 28, 1948, gave an advisory-opinion concerning the conditions of admission of a state to membership in the United Nations. By nine votes to six it held:

that a Member of the United Nations which is called upon, in virtue of Article 4 of the Charter, to pronounce itself by its vote, either in the Security Council or in the General Assembly, on the admission of a State to membership in the United Nations, is not juridically entitled to make its consent to the admission dependent on conditions not expressly provided by paragraph 1 of the said Article;

and that, in particular, a Member of the Organization cannot, while it recognizes the conditions set forth in that provision to be fulfilled by the State concerned, subject its affirmative vote to the additional condition that other States be admitted to membership in the United Nations together with that State.

Type
Notes on Legal Questions Concerning the United Nations
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , April 1949 , pp. 288 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1949

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References

1 Admission of a State to the United Nations (Charter, Art. 4). Advisory Opinion, I. C. J. Reports, 1947-1948, p. 57; full text of opinion of the Court reprinted in this Journal, Vol. 42 (1948), pp. 927-934.

2 Resolution 113 (II) B, Admission of New Members, General Assembly, 2nd Sess., Official Becords.

3 U.N. Doc. S/565.

4 U.N. Doc. A/406, pp. 2-3.

5 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.204, pp. 46, 47-50.

6 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.204, p. 76.

7 Applications of Albania, Mongolia, Afghanistan, TransJordan, Ireland, Portugal, Iceland and Sweden (the Siamese application had been then temporarily withdrawn).

8 U.N. Doc. S/177, p. 5; Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., No. 4, p. 42.

9 Special Report of the Security Council, U.N. Doc. A/108, pp. 4-7.

10 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.206, pp. 131-140.

11 U.N. Doc. A/406.

12 U.N. Doc. A/C.l/242.

13 U.N. Doc. A/C.1/SR.98, pp. 92-102.

14 U.N. Doc. A/C.1/SR.101, pp. 103-110.

15 U.N. Doc. A/C.1/SR.99, pp. 242-251.

16 U.N. Doc. A/C.1/SR.100, pp. 52-53.

17 Ibid., p. 161.

18 U.N. Doc. A/471, par. 11.

19 U.N. Doc. A/P.V.118.

20 Advisory Opinion, I. C. J. Reports, 1947-1948, p. 62.

21 Statement by the representative of the United Kingdom. U.N. Doc. S/133, pp. 6-14; Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., Supp. No. 4, pp. 56-64.

22 Statement by the representative of Greece. Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., No. 4, p. 75.

23 Statement by the representative of the United States. U.N. Doc. S/479, pp. 3-8 ; Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, pp. 3-8.

24 Memorandum of July 5, 1946, by the Permanent Greek Delegation to the U.N. and Memorandum of Aug. 15, 1946, by the representative of Greece, Security Couneil, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., Supp. No. 4, pp. 24-26 and 41, 42; also Statement by the representative of Greece, Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., No. 4, pp. 77, 78.

25 U.N. Doc. S/133, pp. 6-14; Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., Supp. No. 4, pp. 56-64; also U.N. Doc. S/479, pp. 3-8; Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, pp. 3-8.

26 Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, pp. 8-13.

27 Security Council, Official Records (1st Tear), 2nd Ser., Supp. No. 4, pp. 20-26.

28 General Assembly, 92nd Plenary Meeting, Sept. 30, 1947. General Assembly, 2nd Sess., Official Records, Verbatim Eecord, Plenary Meetings, Vol. I, pp. 313, 314.

29 General Assembly, 96th Plenary Meeting. Ibid., p. 338.

30 U.N. Doc. S/479, pp. 3-8; Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp., No. 3, pp. 3-8.

31 Ibid.

32 Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., Supp. No. 4, pp. 64-67; Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, pp. 8-13.

33 Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., Supp. No. 4, pp. 68-72; ibid., No. 5, pp. 92, 98-100; Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, pp. 14-15.

34 Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, p. 24.

35 Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., No. 4, pp. 68-80.

36 Ibid., Supp. No. 4, pp. 92-114 and 117-120.

37 Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, pp. 21, 22, 24-28.

38 Ibid., p. 27.

39 Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., Supp. No. 4, p. 64.

40 Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, p. 11.

41 Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., Supp. No. 4, pp. 70, 72 and 74; Ibid., No. 5, pp. 91, 102 and 103.

42 Ibid., Supp. No. 5, pp. 91-103.

43 Security Council, Official Records (2nd Year), Spec. Supp. No. 3, pp. 15-17.

44 Ibid., p. 16.

45 U.N. Journal, No. 29, Supp. No. 1, p. 38 ; ibid., No. 32, Supp. No. 1, p. 39.

46 Security Council, Official Records (1st Year), 2nd Ser., No. 4, pp. 68-80.

47 Ibid., No. 5, p. 109.

48 Ibid., No. 4, pp. 20-24.

49 Ibid., p. 76.

50 Ibid., pp. 76, 77.

51 U.N. Doc. A/AC.24/6.

52 U.N. Docs. A/AC.24/7-11, 14.

53 U.N. Doc. A/AC.24/SR.6, pp. 3-4.

54 U.N. Docs. A/AC.24/SR.6 to 16, SR.22-23.

55 U.N. Doc. A/AC.24/SR.7, pp. 5-6.

56 Ibid., p. 9.

57 Ibid., p. 12.

58 Ibid., p. 10.

59 U.N. Doc. A/AC.24/SR.7, p. 11.

60 U.N. Doc. A/AC.24/SR.9, pp. 3-5.

61 U.N. Doc. A/AC.24/SR.10, p. 13.

62 Ibid., SR.11, pp. 4-5.

63 U.N. Docs. A/P.V.175-177.

64 в4 These were : Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mongolian People’s Republic, Portugal, Humania and Transjordan.

65 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.384, pp. 137-140.

66 U.N. Doc. S/820.

67 U.N. Doc. 8/P.V.318, p. 6.

68 U.N. Docs. S/859; S/C.2/SR.26.

69 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.351, pp. 16, 17-20 and pp. 46-50, 51, 52-55, 56-60.

70 Ibid., p. 91; see also this Journal, “Vol. 43 (1949), pp. 144-154, for a note in this department entitled “Admission of Indian States to the United Nations,” in which the consideration by the Security Council for the first time of the application of Ceylon, as well as the admission of Burma and Pakistan to the United-Nations, is discussed.

71 Made at the 383rd meeting, Dec. 2, 1948, U.N. Doc. S/P.V.383, pp. 21-35 (verbatim report of speech by Dr. Philip C. Jessup).

72 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.383, p. 36.

73 For text of draft resolution, see U.N. Docs. S/1121; S/P.V.384, pp. 47-60; and S/P.V.386, p. 72.

74 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.383.

75 U.N. Docs. S/P.V.385, pp. 23, 24-30; S/P.V.386, p. 92; and S/1125.

76 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.386, p. 92.

77 U.N. Docs. S/1267; S/P.V.414.

78 U.N. Doc. S/1238.

79 U.N. Doc. S/P.V.409.

80 U.N. Doc. A/788. In paragraph 2 of this resolution the General Assembly declared that “there has been established a lawful Government (the Government of the Republic of Korea), having effective control and jurisdiction over that part of Korea where the Temporary Commission was able to observe and consult and in which the great majority of the people of all Korea reside, that this Government is based on elections which were a valid expression of the free will of the electorate of that part of Korea and which were observed by the Temporary Commission; and that this is the only such Government in Korea.”

81 U.N. Doc. S/1256.

82 For record of proceedings, see U.N. Docs. S/409, 410.

83 U.N. Doc. S/1247.

84 For text of paragraph 2 of the resolution of the General Assembly, see note 79 above. Rule 6 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure of the Security Council reads: “The Secretary-General shall immediately bring to the attention of all representatives on the Security Council all communications from States, Organs of the United Nations, or the Secretary-General concerning any matter for the consideration of the Security Council in accordance with the provisions of the Charter.”