On UN Amendments. (was Re: IRAQ: Why a new Resolution is NEEDED.)

From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@ocean.com.au)
Date: Wed Feb 26 2003 - 15:26:42 MST

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    Robert Bradbury wrote:
    > On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Wei Dai wrote:
    > > I haven't been able to find any amendments to the U.N. charter. Do
    > > any exist?

    Yes. A number of amendments are listed in the "Introductory note"
    at the following link http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/index.html.

    I'm not clear how often this UN web site version of the Charter
    is updated. It not purely historic (despite the date at the bottom)
    as some of the amendments (eg. the one changing the number of
    security council votes - which is described in the Introductory
    Note - has been amended in the linked document.)

    The General Assembly is able to change the Charter that much is
    said in the Charter.

    But I haven't yet found a General Assembly equivalent of Handsard.

    [Wei Dai again]
    >For example has the Security Council chapter been amended to
    > > change one of the permanent members from the Soviet Union to Russia?
    >>
    [Robert]
    >
    > Very interesting point. If it hasn't been amended, then one has to
    > presume that any votes (vetos, etc.) by Russia are null and void.
    > I believe that there was a lot of legislation within Russia in the
    > early '90s to "assume" all obligations (rights?) that were held
    > by the S.U. Now whether such legislation is recognized by
    > everyone else is an interesting question indeed.

    Yes.

    The Security Council chapter in the link above (ie Chap 5) has
    not changed.USSR to Russian Federation
    i.e. http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/index.html states:

    "The Security Council shall consist of fifteen Members of the United
     Nations. The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist
    Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
    and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the
    Security Council."

    Yet at the UN Membership page
    http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html the following appears: 

    ---
"Russian Federation -- (24 Oct. 1945)"
"The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was an original Member
of the United Nations from 24 October 1945. In a letter dated
24 December 1991, Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian
Federation, informed the Secretary-General that the membership
of the Soviet Union in the Security Council and all other United
Nations organs was being continued by the Russian Federation
with the support of the 11 member countries of the Commonwealth
of Independent States."
----
So perhaps there is some residual uncertainty as to whether this 
substitution can be validly done (hence the lack of change to the 
Charter). Could be the substitution gets to ride until someone finds
grounds to challenge it (and so possibly the Russian Federation has
to factor in some uncertainty here) and/or perhaps the Charter 
(especially the one put out for Joe public on the UN site just does
 not get updated particularly diligently.)
It would be nice to know a bit more about UN processes. Is the
linked Charter the official up to date version? Is there a General
Assembly version of Hansard available to the public etc. Its
a bit harder to find out about the UN from Oz then it was to find
out about the Oz government. Just ringing up and asking is not
so easy. 
Brett Paatsch

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