232 POLITICAL AND SECURITY QUESTIONS CHAPTER XV QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER AND MEMBERSHIP IN THE UNITED NATIONS AMENDMENTS TO THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER ENTRY INTO FORCE OF The last of the instruments of ratifica- AMENDMENTS TO tion of the permanent members of ARTICLES 23, 27 AND 61 the Security Council was deposited on 31 August 1965 It will be recalled that, on 17 December Date of entry into force of the amend- 1963, the General Assembly approved amend- ments for all the Members of the ments to Articles 23, 27 and 61 of the United United Nations 31 August 1965 Nations Charter to increase the number of As depositary of the amendments to the members of the Security Council and of the Economic and Social Council and, in the case Charter, the Secretary-General on 31 August 1965 issued a protocol of entry into force of of the Security Council, to increase from seven the amendments. This protocol was commu- to nine the number of votes required for 1 nicated to all Members of the United Na- adoption of decisions by the Council. As at tions and was also submitted to the General 31 December 1964, 47 Member States had Assembly on 27 September 1965, in connex- deposited instruments of ratification of these 2 ion with the elections, at the twentieth ses- amendments. As at 20 January 1966, the sion, to the Security Council and to the Eco- amendments had been ratified by the follow- nomic and Social Council as enlarged by the ing 57 additional Member States: entry into force of the amendments. Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Bulgaria, In communications dated 4 October, 2 and Burma, Burundi, the Byelorussian SSR, Cambodia, 14 December 1965 respectively, the Permanent Chile, China, the Congo (Brazzaville), Cyprus, Missions of the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovakia, Dahomey, Denmark, Dominican Re- Hungary referred to the protocol of entry into public, Ecuador, Finland, France, Greece, Guate- mala, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Laos, force and the listing therein of an instrument Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, of ratification by "the Chiang Kai-shek Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia, Pakistan, Panama, clique." They said their Governments did Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, not recognize any authority other than the Sierra Leone, Somalia, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Government of the People's Republic of Uganda, the Ukrainian SSR, the USSR, the United Kingdom, the United States, Venezuela, Yemen, China as entitled to represent and act on be- Zambia. half of China. Accordingly, they considered that the instruments of ratification which had The amendments to Articles 23, 27 and 61 been made out and deposited by the "Chiang of the Charter entered into force on 31 Au- Kai-shek clique" had no legal force whatso- gust 1965, the requirements of Article 108 of ever. the Charter for their entry into force having The three Governments noted, nevertheless, been fulfilled on that date as follows: that the People's Republic of China had an- nounced that it would not object to the en- Total number of instruments deposited 95 Membership in the United Nations as largement of the two Councils even before at 31 August 1965 114 the restoration of the lawful rights of the Number of ratifications required under People's Republic of China in the United Article 108 of the Charter of the Nations. Czechoslovakia said that, in view of United Nations to bring the amend- this stand taken by the People's Republic, the ments into force (two thirds of the Members of the United Nations, 1 including all the permanent mem- 2 See Y.U.N., 1963, pp. 87-88. bers of the Security Council) 76 See Y.U.N., 1964, p. 467. QUESTIONS RELATING TO THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER AND MEMBERSHIP 233 General Assembly could proceed to fill the 3. If such a conference has not been held before vacancies on the two Councils as enlarged. the tenth annual session of the General Assembly fol- lowing the coming into force of the present Charter, Hungary added, for the same reason, that it the proposal to call such a conference shall be placed accepted and recognized the entry into force on the agenda of that session of the General Assembly, of the Charter amendments. and the conference shall be held if so decided by a In a reply dated 15 October 1965 to the majority vote of the members of the General Assembly and by a vote of any seven members of the Security USSR communication of 4 October, the Per- Council. manent Representative of China said that the Republic of China, a permanent member The Secretary-General pointed out that a of the Security Council, had ratified the discrepancy existed between the amended text amendments to the Charter on 6 July 1965 of Articles 23 and 27 and the existing text of and that the instrument of ratification had Article 109, requiring a consequential amend- been deposited with the Secretary-General on ment to paragraph 1 of the latter Article, so 2 August 1965. There was no doubt that the that a vote of "any nine members of the Se- protocol of entry into force was valid in its curity Council" instead of "any seven mem- entirety. If any part of the provisions of Arti- bers of the Council" would be required for cle 108 of the Charter had not been fulfilled, fixing a date and venue for a General Con- the amendments would not be deemed to have ference to review the Charter. entered into force. The allegations made by As far as paragraph 3 of Article 109 was the USSR, said the representative of China, concerned, the Secretary-General's note con- were untenable both in law and in fact and tinued, no similar amendment was required, could in no way affect the'Validity of the pro- as the provisions of that paragraph had al- tocol or the entry into effect of the amend- ready been complied with. ments. He also recalled that the General Assembly had adopted a resolution on the matter on AMENDMENT TO 3 November 1956 (whereby, among other ARTICLE 109 things, it was decided that a General Con- On 16 September 1965, the Secretary- ference to review the Charter should be held General asked that an item entitled "Amend- "at an appropriate time"3 and that, on 16 ment to Article 109 of the Charter of the December 1955, the Security Council had United Nations" be included in the agenda concurred in that Assembly decision.4). Para- of the General Assembly's twentieth session. graph 3 of Article 109 of the Charter, the In an explanatory memorandum accom- Secretary-General's note added, could there- panying this request, the Secretary-General fore be considered obsolete. drew attention to the fact that, on 31 August The Secretary-General accordingly sub- 1965, the amendments to Articles 23 and 27 mitted a draft resolution, for the Assembly's of the Charter had entered into force, thereby consideration, to enable the necessary amend- increasing the number of members of the Se- ments to be made to paragraphs 1 and 3 of curity Council from 11 to 15 and changing Article 109 of the Charter. the majority votes required for decisions of In 1965, at the Assembly's twentieth ses- the Council from seven to nine. He then re- sion, the Assembly's Sixth (Legal) Commit- ferred to the text of Article 109 of the Char- tee devoted one meeting to the question of ter, paragraphs 1 and 3 of which read as fol- amending Article 109 of the Charter. It was lows: unanimously agreed that paragraph 1 of Arti- 1. A General Conference of the Members of the cle 109 should be amended. United Nations for the purpose of reviewing the In the opinion of the representatives of present Charter may be held at a date and place to Australia, China and the United Kingdom, be fixed by a two-thirds vote of the members of the General Assembly and by a vote of any seven members of the Security Council. Each Member of the United 3 See Y.U.N., 1955, pp. 76-77. 4 Nations shall have one vote in the conference. Ibid., p. 77. 234 POLITICAL AND SECURITY QUESTIONS among others, paragraph 3 of Article 109 had the Assembly would adopt and submit for already been acted upon at the tenth ses- ratification by Member States an amendment sion of the General Assembly and was, in this to paragraph 1 of Article 109, to the effect sense, no longer operative. Nevertheless, it that a vote by any nine Security Council should be retained for historical reasons. The members (instead of a vote by any seven Australian spokesman also pointed out that Council members) would be required for a a practical purpose might be served by re- Council decision on the date and venue of a taining paragraph 3 in its present form, as General Conference of United Nations Mem- the decision at the Assembly's tenth session bers to review the Charter. In addition, the to convene a conference for the purpose of Assembly would also call on all United Na- reviewing the Charter at an appropriate time tions Member States to ratify this amendment had not yet been fully implemented. To de- at the earliest possible date. This draft reso- lete paragraph 3 might give rise to the ques- lution was adopted unanimously by the Sixth tion whether the decision remained in effect. Committee on 14 December 1965. On 20 Czechoslovakia and others considered that any December, this decision was endorsed at a conference convened to review the Charter in plenary meeting of the Assembly with the the future should be convened only under unanimous adoption of resolution 2101 (XX).