1114 Ch. 27 • Rebuilding Divided Europein San Francisco in 1945 drew up the UN Charter. The UN headquarters
was placed in New York, where a secretary-general would coordinate its activ
ities. The United Nations would consist of a General Assembly of member
nations (fifty-one at the organization’s inception), each of which would have
one vote, and a Security Council of eleven members (fifteen after 1965). The
United States and Britain agreed to Stalin’s demand that the Soviet Union
would have one of the five permanent seats—and thus veto power—on the
Security Council once the proposed United Nations had been established.
The United States, Great Britain, the U.S.S.R., France, and the Republic of
China (Taiwan) were designated as “permanent members of the Security
Council,” each with a veto over deliberations, and the other five seats (ten
after 1965) would be filled on a revolving basis by states chosen by the Gen
eral Assembly. When China was admitted to the UN in 1971, it received the
Republic of China’s permanent seat on the Security Council.
The United Nations helped the European state system reemerge after the
war. Furthermore, in some cases the UN provided necessary mediation in
disputes between nations. However limited its powers, the United Nations,
unlike the defunct League of Nations, could send peacekeeping forces to
various hot spots on the globe, although the accomplishments of these efforts
would vary considerably. Moreover, the UN provided emergency relief funds
in the immediate post-war period to Czechoslovakia, Poland, Italy, and
Greece.
In 1941, the Atlantic Charter (see Chapter 26), which had defined
Allied war aims, had led to agreement that trials for war crimes would fol
low the war, once national sovereignty had been restored when Germany
had been defeated. At the Saint James Conference in January 1942 the
Allies declared their intention to punish war criminals. Gradually, consen
sus had emerged that an international order had to be constructed that
went beyond state sovereignty. In 1944, the Permanent Court of Justice in
The Hague organized a commission to consider definitions of war crimes,
with the assumption that the United Nations would bring such criminals
to justice.
The concept of war crimes that had developed during the war led in
1948 to the UN General Assembly adopting the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. This document has subsequently served as the basis for
efforts to protect the rights of individuals. Building in part on the Bill of
Rights of the United States and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of Citizen of the French Revolution, the Universal Declaration proclaimed
civil and political rights; the right to a fair trial; the freedoms of assembly,
belief, and speech; and the rights to education, an adequate standard of
living, and to participation in cultural life. Moreover, slavery and torture
were acknowledged as violations of human rights. The Genocide Conven
tion of 1949 made genocide a crime under international law.
Besides joining the United Nations to mediate disputes, the states of Eu
rope also hedged their bets by establishing military alliances, whereby they