Obviously the urgent and fundamental needs of the peoples are freedom from war and from fear of war. The first purpose of the United Nations is defined as the maintenance of international peace and security.
The organisation is to employ all peaceful means to prevent or remove threats to peace and suppress acts of aggression and other breaches of peace.
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It is required to adjust or settle in accordance with justice and international law, international disputes and situations which may lead to conflict. To achieve these results, the United Nations was required to take effective measures.
The second aim of the United Nations is to adopt means to develop friendly relations among the peoples of all nations so as to cement the ties of international brotherhood. This friendship among nations should be based on respect for the principle of the equal rights of and equal self-determination by peoples.
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The most fruitful cause of international conflicts is the economic rivalries between nations and other maladjustments. The United Nations aims to strive for cooperation among countries for solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural and humanitarian character. This is the third purpose of the United Nations.
Closely connected with it is the object of promoting and encouraging basic human rights and freedoms for all peoples without distinction of race, sex, language or religion.
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Finally, the United Nations, as the principal world organisation, shall work as a centre for harmonising national action in order to achieve these common ends. This is described as the fourth purpose of the United Nations.
The above four purposes are the cause and object of the Charter to which the member-States collectively and severally subscribe. The Charter, then, defines the basic principles on which the United Nations Organisation is based. These principles are the seven general obligations which bind member-States and the United Nations Organisation as a whole. The seven obligations are:
1. The United Nations Organisation is based on the sovereign equality of all its members;
2. Each member-State shall fulfil its obligations under the Charter in good faith;
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3. All member-States shall settle disputes by peaceful means and in such a manner that peace, security and justice are not endangered;
4. No member-State shall use force or the threat of force against the territory or independence of any State or in any manner not consistent with the purpose of the United Nations;
5. No member-State shall help any State against which the United Nations is taking enforcement actions, and every member-State shall support the Organisation in any action that it takes in accordance with the Charter.
6. The United Nations shall ensure that States which are not members act in accordance with these principles as far as it is necessary for the maintenance of peace and security; and
7. The United Nations shall not intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State, or compel any member-State to submit any matter to settlement by the United Nations a principle which will not apply when coercive measures are applied in order to deal with threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression.
