Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations
The preamble comes before the XIX chapters of the Charter of the United Nations and defines important goals and principles of the Charter. The charter was signed by 50 founding states at the end of the conference on an international organization on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco and entered into force on October 24, 1945. The statute of the International Court of Justice is part of the charter. The text printed here includes the changes made to the charter to date. The German text was published on June 9, 1973 as the official version of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Federal Law Gazette. The official wording in German is given by the United Nations Regional Information Center for Western Europe ( UNRIC ) as follows:
WE, THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS - DETERMINED TO
to save future generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime brought unspeakable suffering to humanity,
to reaffirm our belief in the basic human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human personality , in the equality of men and women and of all nations, large and small,
Create conditions under which justice and respect for obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained,
promote social progress and a better standard of living in greater freedom,
AND FOR THESE PURPOSES
To practice tolerance and to live in peace with one another as good neighbors,
to join forces to maintain world peace and security,
Adopt principles and establish procedures to ensure that armed force is used only in the common interest of using international institutions to promote the economic and social progress of all peoples,
HAVE DECIDED TO WORK TOGETHER IN OUR EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS.
Accordingly, our governments, through their representatives gathered in the city of San Francisco, whose powers have been presented and found to be in good and due form, have accepted this Charter of the United Nations and are hereby establishing an international organization to be called the “United Nations”.