• Preamble • Chapter I: Purposes and Principles • Chapter II: Membership • Chapter III: Organs • Chapter IV: The General Assembly • Chapter V: The Security Council • Chapter VI: Pacific Settlement of Disputes • Chapter VII: Action with Respect to Threats to th

e Peace, Breaches of the Peace and Acts of Aggression

• Chapter VIII: Regional Arrangements

• Chapter IX: International Economic and Social Co-operation

• Chapter X: The Economic and Social Council• Chapter XI: Declaration regarding Non-Self-Governing

Territories • Chapter XII: International Trusteeship System• Chapter XIII: The Trusteeship Council • Chapter XIV: The International Court of Justice• Chapter XV: The Secretariat• Chapter XVI: Miscellaneous Provisions • Chapter XVII: Transitional Security Arrangements • Chapter XVIII: Amendments • Chapter XIX: Ratification and Signature

Publications of the Permanent Court of International Justice (1922-1946)

The establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), the predecessor of the International Court of Justice, was provided for in the Covenant of the League of Nations. It held its inaugural sitting in 1922 and was dissolved in 1946.

• The Reports of Series A, B  and A/B (from 1931) contain the decisions (Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders) delivered by the Permanent Court of International Justice from 1922 to 1940.

• The written pleadings, records of the public hearings and correspondence for each case are available in the Series C Reports:  “Acts and Documents Relating to the Judgments and Advisory Opinions given by the Court” (until 1930) and “Pleadings, Oral Arguments, Documents” (from 1931).

Series D contains acts and documents concerning the organization of the Court, as well as the preparation of its Rules of Court and the modifications to those Rules.  The Court’s Yearbooks (entitled Annual Reports) can be found in Series E.   Series F contains the catalogues of the Court’s publication

The work of the PCIJ, the first permanent international tribunal with general jurisdiction, made possible the clarification of a number of aspects of international law, and contributed to its development.

Between 1922 and 1940 the PCIJ dealt with 29 contentious cases between States, and delivered 27 advisory opinions.

JurisdictionThe International Court of Justice acts as a

world court. The Court has a dual jurisdiction : it decides, in accordance with international law, disputes of a legal nature that are submitted to it by States (jurisdiction in contentious cases);

and it gives advisory opinions on legal questions at the request of the organs of the United Nations or specialized agencies authorized to make such a request (advisory jurisdiction).

The Council's 54 member Governments are elected by the General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. Seats on the Council are allotted based on geographical representation with fourteen allocated to African States, eleven to Asian States, six to Eastern European States, ten to Latin American and Caribbean States, and thirteen to Western European and other States.

Article 92The International Court of Justice shall be the

principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It shall function in accordance with the annexed Statute, which is based upon the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice and forms an integral part of the present Charter.

• ECOSOC Functional Commissions• Statistical Commission • Commission on Population and Development • Commission for Social Development • Commission on the Status of Women • Commission on Narcotic Drugs • Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Ju

stice • Commission on Science and Technology for Devel

opment • Commission on Sustainable Development • United Nations Forum on Forests

• ECOSOC Regional Commissions • Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) • Economic and Social Commission for Asia and

the Pacific (ESCAP)

• Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) • Economic Commission for Latin America and

the Caribbean (ECLAC)

• Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)

ECOSOC Standing Committees

Committee for Programme and Coordination Committee on Non-Governmental Organizatio

ns Committee on Negotiations with

Intergovernmental Agencies

• Expert bodies composed of governmental experts

• Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals

• Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting

• United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names

• UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM)

• Expert bodies composed of members serving in their personal capacity

• Committee for Development Policy • Committee of Experts on Public Administratio

n • Committee of Experts on International Coope

ration in Tax Matters • Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural

Rights • Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

• Other related bodies • Committee for the United Nations Population Award • Executive Board of the International Research and Training Institute for the

Advancement of Women • International Narcotics Control Board • Programme Coordinating Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS• About ECOSOC• Bureau• Members• Substantive Sessions• Subsidiary Bodies• Elections• New Functions• Strengthening of ECOSOC• Hot Topics• Rules of Procedure• NGO Participation• FAQs

• Status• The Trusteeship Council suspended operation

on 1 November 1994, with the independence of Palau, the last remaining United Nations trust territory, on 1 October 1994. By a resolution adopted on 25 May 1994, the Council amended its rules of procedure to drop the obligation to meet annually and agreed to meet as occasion required -- by its decision or the decision of its President, or at the request of a majority of its members or the General Assembly or the Security Council.

• Background • In setting up an International Trusteeship System,

the Charter established the Trusteeship Council as one of the main organs of the United Nations and assigned to it the task of supervising the administration of Trust Territories placed under the Trusteeship System. Major goals of the System were to promote the advancement of the inhabitants of Trust Territories and their progressive development towards self-government or independence.

TheTrusteeship Council is made up of the five permanent members of the Security Council --China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States. The aims of the Trusteeship System have been fulfilled to such an extent that all Trust Territories have attained self-government or independence, either as separate States or by joining neighbouring independent countries.

• Functions and powers • Under the Charter, the Trusteeship Council is

authorized to examine and discuss reports from the Administering Authority on the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the peoples of Trust Territories and, in consultation with the Administering Authority, to examine petitions from and undertake periodic and other special missions to Trust Territories.

• Article 76• The basic objectives of the trusteeship system, in

accordance with the Purposes of the United Nations laid down in Article 1 of the present Charter, shall be:

• to further international peace and security;• to promote the political, economic, social, and

educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement;

• to encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion, and to encourage recognition of the interdependence of the peoples of the world; and

• to ensure equal treatment in social, economic, and commercial matters for all Members of the United Nations and their nationals, and also equal treatment for the latter in the administration of justice, without prejudice to the attainment of the foregoing objectives and subject to the provisions of Article 80.

CHAPTER XVIII: AMENDMENTS Article 108

Amendments to the present Charter shall come into force for all Members of the United Nations when they have been adopted by a vote of two thirds of the members of the General Assembly

and ratified in accordance with their respective constitutional processes by two thirds of the Members of the United Nations, including all the permanent members of the Security Council.

• Article 93• All Members of the United Nations are ipso

facto parties to the Statute of the International Court of Justice.

• A state which is not a Member of the United Nations may become a party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice on conditions to be determined in each case by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.

• Article 96• The General Assembly or the Security Council

may request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on any legal question.

• Other organs of the United Nations and specialized agencies, which may at any time be so authorized by the General Assembly, may also request advisory opinions of the Court on legal questions arising within the scope of their activities.