81 Years of the UN Charter: How the United Nations Came About

On 26 June 1945, delegates from 50 nations signed the Charter of the United Nations at San Francisco, a document of 111 articles across 19 chapters agreed after two months of negotiation. The conference, formally the United Nations Conference on International Organisation, had begun on 25 April 1945, while the Second World War was still on; the Charter was adopted on 25 June and signed the next day. 26 June 2026 marks 81 years of the Charter.

Article 1 of the Charter set out four core purposes: maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation on economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems, and serving as a centre for harmonising the actions of nations. Notably, the Charter made no mention of the environment, sustainable development, climate, nuclear weapons, pandemics or cyberwarfare — issues that dominate global affairs today.

The Charter built on earlier wartime declarations. The idea took shape with the Atlantic Charter (August 1941) by Roosevelt and Churchill; the Moscow Declaration (October 1943) brought the first firm Soviet commitment to a general international organisation; the Cairo Conference (November 1943) addressed the war against Japan; and the Tehran Conference (late 1943) saw the "Big Three" endorse a peacekeeping body to succeed the failed League of Nations.

For aspirants, the key facts are the date and place of signing, the four purposes under Article 1, the lineage from the Atlantic Charter to the UN, and the link to the League of Nations.