UN Charter notches 60

BY RIENZIE T. Wijetilleke

President-United Nations Association in Sri Lanka

THE diamond Jubilee of signing of the United Nations Charter fell on Sunday June 26. This event is very significant and will undoubtedly be observed worldwide.

Sri Lanka's membership in the United Nations also marks the 50 Anniversary later this year. Despite the important role the UN and its connected organizations are playing worldwide I believe many people particularly in developing countries like ours are not fully aware of its importance and its contribution to the cause of peaceful co-existence amongst the world's nations during the past several decades.

United Nations Association in Sri Lanka was established under the guidance of our first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake in August 1950. In the Asia Pacific region UNA of Sri Lanka is the second oldest.

As the current President of the United Nations Associations, I therefore thought it appropriate to place on record the history of the UN Charter and the organization itself for the benefit of our people.

Before

After the First World War, in the aftermath of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the League of Nations was born. President Woodrow Wilson of the USA was the convenor and prime mover but finally the US Congress did not permit America to join the League!

Among the decisions taken at the Treaty Conference by the victorious Allied Powers was the imposition of reparations on the German people collectively for war damage to their countries.

After some years this came to the notice of a Corporal in the German Army called Adolf Hitler who exploded in anger and urged the German people to resist. His anger led to the birth of the fascist Nazi movement which he adroitly spearheaded with such vigour, Venom and skill.

The early rumblings of the Second World War had begun Benito Mussolini of Italy also captured power and sent the King into exile setting up his own fascist movement and decided to join Hitler in his quest for world power.

In 1938 after the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) which heralded the beginning of the end of the League of Nations, followed by the invasion of Poland by Germany at the end of August, 1939, the Second World War began on September 3, 1939 with Great Britain declaring war on Germany if they did not leave Poland by 11 a.m. that day.

Great Britain declaring war meant that the entire Empire and Commonwealth representing about 65 per cent of the World joined in the declaration whether they liked it or not.

As the war progressed with Britain fighting Germany alone with her 'back to the wall' as it were, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came to Her rescue by entering into the famous "Lend-Lease Agreement" with Britain.

The USA began virtually supplying most of the requirements for Britain to fight the War but this was restricted to the British Isles.

Roosevelt who came to be known as the godfather of the UN, began his efforts to come to a common understanding with the Allied Powers for a new organization that would come into force after the War, organizing a series of six conferences with the seventh and final one in April 1945.

The first took place on August 10, 1941 between the President and Prime Minister Winston Churchill on board the battleship HMS "Prince of Wales" anchored in Placenta Bay, Newfoundland. Agreement reached here between them came to be known as the 'Atlantic Charter' and was to lead to four years of negotiations. Four months after their meeting.

The USA was abruptly forced to enter the Second World War after the perfidious attack on the American fleet anchored in Pearl Harbour in Hawaii by the Japanese fascists who had already sided with Hitler and Mussolini.

He himself coined the term "United Nations" In all these efforts Winston Churchill later joined by Josef Stalin, the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and the Soviet Union respectively, fell in line with President Roosevelt's views.

Four years of planning, persuasion and perseverance was later to come to a momentous culmination at San Francisco on April 25, 1945 just before which the life of FDR had come to a close and the European element of the Second World War was drawing to a finish with the unconditional surrender of all fascist land, sea and air fascist forces ranged against the Allied Powers.

If there were disagreements or differences of opinions, they were quickly won over by President Roosevelt's beatific smile and cheerful bonhomie in spite of his being a victim of infantile paralysis and confined to a wheel chair.

They also appreciated perhaps silently the immense prestige which this rare leader of men exuded and his immense popularity in the USA being the only American ever in its history then or now to have been re-elected to that high office four times in succession!

Common goals

Finally in 1945, China, the USSR, the USA and Great Britain jointly invited the free, sovereign and independent nations of the World to gather at San Francisco for the United Nations Conference on International Organisation (UNCIO) and gather they did but there were non-independent states as well.

These were India, the Ukraine and Byelorussia, the latter two being states within the Soviet Union. The Conference had decided to permit India and the two states also to sign at the request of their sponsors, Great Britain and the USSR respectively.

Just before he died, President Roosevelt had named the US Delegation to the Conference led by Edward R. Stetetinius, Jr, his Secretary of State. It included two women. One of them was his wife Eleanor, later to achieve worldwide fame in her own right and the other was Virginia Gildersleeves Dean of Barnard College, New York.

Dean Virgina heard of her appointment when a friend rang and congratulated her having heard the official announcement on the radio!

So the Nations of the World gathered in force for the Conference. Due to the unsettled conditions prevailing in the World with the War in Europe yet drawing to a close, and in the aftermath of President Roosevelt's unexpected demise, followed by days of tedious travel, leaders of 50 nations came to San Francisco filled with hope and determination, to prevent such devastating strife as a War in the future.

Their common goal was to establish an international organization to prevent war, preserve security and maintain fundamental human rights.

Some 2300 delegates, Secretariat personnel and news correspondents arrived in San Francisco. Local transportation was handled by the Army-Navy Coordination Group and consisted of 215 sedans, 25 jeeps, 50 buses and 48 private limousines.

The Conference convened in the War Memorial Veteran's Building in San Francisco. Alger Hiss was appointed Secretary-General of the Conference.

In 1995 Fifty years later, on the eve of a golden jubilee celebration in San Francisco of the signing, Ambassador Boutros Boutros-Ghali, then the incumbent Secretary-General of the UN had this to say "At this moment the first words of the Charter, "We the Peoples of the United Nations" convey a meaning originally intended but perhaps never fully comprehended. We...all of us....are the United Nations".

This then is exactly what Dame Virginia intended although it came from the very top only fifty years later! Even today, these opening words are seldom or never spoken of at official UN fora because they believe that it is best that the words were never included!

Then as President Harry S. Truman arrived, there came the final moments of the Conference - on June 26, 1945, in the Herbst Theatre of the War Memorial Veterans Building where the Conference had taken place - the Singing of the UN Charter in alphabetical order, China was the first country to sign the charter, followed by France and Great Britain and the USA as the host country, signing last. Also signed was the "Interim Arrangements" which covered the period June 26 to October 24, 1945.

One of Britain's top civil servants, Gladwyn Jebb was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Preparatory Commission on the UN, which was delegated the task of overseering the transition.

After

Gladwyn Jebb later Sir Gladwyn and thereafter Lord Gladwyn of Clee, until he died in 1995, (during which time he was made an Honorary Life President of the UNA of Sri Lanka) got down to work.

Soon afterwards, on August 6 and 9 1945, two Atomic bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities bringing that country to its knees, suing for peace and unconditional surrender. The rest is history.

Final Peace dawned on August 14 (VJ-DAY is celebrated on August 15) with the total surrender of all Japanese land, sea and air forces but the actual signing of the surrender took place on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay sometime later.

On October 12, Poland five and a half months after the Charter signing, became the 51st country to sign it and the information was transmitted to Warsaw.

The ratification reached the Preparatory Commission soon after October 20 and the Executive Secretary declared as 3 p.m. EST in the USA as the time of birth of the United Nations.

Jebb's next task was to organize the first session of the UN General Assembly. This he did in Central Hall, Westminster, London on January 10 1946.

When it opened, Paul Henri-Spaak of Belgium was elected as the first President of the General assembly and Jebb as the first and only ever acting Secretary-General of the UN

On January 20, 1946, Trygve Halvdon Lie of Norway was elected as the first Secretary General of the UN and took over his duties from Gladwyn Jebb on February 01, 1946.

And so, the Charter having been signed, the UN being declared a 'living entity' and the first General Assembly having held its first session, the UN began its difficult journey of uniting the World and ensuring peace and prosperity for all people.

Today looking back after 60 years, each of us will have a different perspective of its achievements and failures but the way ahead lies not in defeat and disillusionment but in faith and determination to a better future for us all. The World cannot do without the UN, "it's all we've got" as Kofi Annan said recently.

I therefore believe that we as Sri Lankans particularly the younger generation should be aware of the high values and the objectives that the United Nations have established over the years and as a developing country we certainly will stand to benefit by maintaining a very strong relationship with the UN through the Association and other connected organisations.