San Francisco and the Charter of the United Nations (1945)

The United Nations Conference on International Organization was held in San Francisco between April and June 1945, bringing together delegations from fifty countries that had declared war on the Axis. The conference continued the technical work begun at Dumbarton Oaks and ratified at Yalta, while opening new debates over expanding the future organization's economic and social functions and over pressure from small and medium powers for greater participation in decision-making. The final text of the Charter was approved on June 25, 1945, and solemnly signed the next day, June 26, 1945. It entered into force on October 24, 1945, once ratified by the five permanent members and a majority of other signatories — a date later commemorated as United Nations Day. The Charter defined the organization's founding purposes as maintaining peace, fostering cooperation, and promoting human rights, enshrined the sovereign equality of states and non-interference in internal affairs, and established the prohibition on the use of force except in self-defense or when authorized by the Security Council. Defeated Germany and Japan took no part in the founding, and New York was established as the permanent headquarters thanks to a donation of land by the Rockefeller family.