In 1945, representatives of 50 countries
met
in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organization
to draw up the
Charter
of the United Nations. The approval of this document represented the
creation of the
United Nations.
The imminent attack on Iraq, lead by the United States, and seconded
by Spain and Great Britain, together with other countries, is widely criticised
as being military action adopted without respecting the international legality
and carried out outside that expressed in the Charter of the United Nations
nor respecting the resolutions of the maximum international organisation.
In this respect, the
Charter
of the United Nations contains a very significant prologue :"We the
peoples of the united nations determined to save succeeding generations
from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold
sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in
the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and
women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under
which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and
other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social
progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and for these
ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another
as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international
peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and
the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in
the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion
of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, have resolved to
combine our efforts to accomplish these aims".