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United Nations member states

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Image:United Nations Members.PNG As of 2006, there are 192 United Nations (UN) member states. Each member state is a member of the United Nations General Assembly.

According to the UN Charter, Chapter 2, Article 4, the admission of any state to membership in the UN "will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council." [1] In principle, only sovereign states can become UN members, and today all UN members are fully sovereign states. However, four of the original members (India, the Philippines, Belarus, and Ukraine) were not independent at the time of UN's creation. Moreover, because a state can only be admitted by the approval of the Security Council and the General Assembly, some entities which can be considered sovereign states according to the Montevideo Convention are not members due to lack of international recognition or opposition from certain members.

Other intergovernmental or legal entities can only be General Assembly observers, allowing them to speak, but not vote in Assembly meetings.

Contents

[edit] Current members

Image:United Nations member countries world map.PNG The members are listed below by alphabetical order in their short-form English names, with their respective dates of admission. There were 51 original members of the United Nations (shown in bold) which were admitted in 1945, of which 49 are either still in the organization or had their seats taken by a successor state (e.g. the USSR's seat was succeeded by Russia). The other two original members were Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, as both had dissolved and their seats were not succeeded by any state. For China's seat in the UN, the Republic of China was replaced by the People's Republic of China on 25 October 1971, even though the governments of both have existed well before and after this date (see Seat of China).

[edit] Former members

[edit] Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia joined the UN as an original member on 24 October 1945. On 10 December 1992, Czechoslovakia informed the United Nations Secretary-General that it would cease to exist after 31 December 1992, and that both its successor states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, would apply for UN membership. They were admitted on 19 January 1993.

[edit] East Germany and West Germany

Both the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) were admitted on 18 September 1973. The two countries were reunified on 3 October 1990, through the accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany, and have since been represented as one member under the name Germany.

[edit] Tanganyika and Zanzibar

Tanganyika was admitted on 14 December 1961, and Zanzibar was admitted on 16 December 1963. The two countries were unified to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on 26 April 1964, later changing its name to the United Republic of Tanzania on 1 November 1964, and have since been represented as one member.

[edit] United Arab Republic

Both Egypt and Syria joined the UN as original members on 24 October 1945. The two countries were unified to form the United Arab Republic following a plebiscite on 21 February 1958, and had been represented as one member until 13 October 1961, when Syria resumed its status as an independent state and a separate UN member. Egypt continued as a UN member under the name United Arab Republic until 2 September 1971, when it changed its name back to Egypt.

[edit] USSR

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was one of the five original founders of the UN in 1945 and joined the UN as an original member on 24 October 1945. On 24 December 1991, Boris Yeltsin, the President of Russia, informed the United Nations Secretary-General that the membership of the USSR in the United Nations Security Council and all other UN organs was being continued by the Russian Federation following the dissolution of the USSR, with the support of the 11 members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The remaining former Soviet Republics are currently all UN members:

[edit] North Yemen and South Yemen

Yemen (North Yemen) was admitted on 30 September 1947, first represented by the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, then by the Yemen Arab Republic. Democratic Yemen (South Yemen) was originally admitted as "Southern Yemen" on 14 December 1967, represented by the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. The two countries were unified to form the Republic of Yemen on 22 May 1990, and have since been represented as one member under the name Yemen.

[edit] Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia joined the UN as an original member on 24 October 1945, represented by the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, which later changed its name to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). After the dissolution of the SFRY, the UN refused to allow the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), formed on 28 April 1992 by the former Yugoslav Republics of Serbia and Montenegro, to continue automatically the membership of the former SFRY, and decided that the FRY had to apply for UN membership and was not allowed to participate in the work of the General Assembly (General Assembly resolution A/RES/47/1 on 22 September 1992). The former Yugoslav Republics are currently all UN members:

[edit] Seat of China

Main article: China and the United Nations

China, represented by the government of the Republic of China (ROC), was one of the five original founders of the UN in 1945 and joined the UN as an original member on 24 October 1945. However, as a result of the Chinese Civil War, the Kuomintang-controlled ROC government fled to Taiwan in 1949, with the Communist government of the People's Republic of China (PRC), declared on 1 October 1949, taking control of most of the territory of China. Representatives of the ROC government continued to represent China at the UN, despite the size of the ROC's jurisdiction of Taiwan (and other islands not considered part of Taiwan Province) compared to the PRC's jurisdiction of the Chinese mainland. On 25 October 1971, Resolution 2758 was passed by the United Nations General Assembly, withdrawing recognition of the ROC as the legitimate government of China, and recognising the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China. This effectively expelled the ROC from all UN organs and replaced the seat of China in the United Nations (including the seat on the Security Council) with the PRC government. Since the 1990s, multiple attempts by the Republic of China to re-join the UN, no longer to represent "China" as a whole but the "twenty-three million people of Taiwan," have not made it past committee. Currently, 23 UN member states and the Holy See maintain diplomatic relations with the ROC.

[edit] Observers and non-members

Main article: United Nations General Assembly observers

In addition to the member states discussed above, there is one non-member observer state, the Holy See (which holds sovereignty over the state of Vatican City). It has been a permanent observer since 6 April 1964. Non-member observer states are recognized as sovereign entities, and are free to submit a petition to join the General Assembly at their discretion. For example, Switzerland was also a permanent observer state from 1948 to 2002, but became a full member on 10 September 2002 after a national referendum.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was granted observer status by General Assembly resolution 3237 on 22 November 1974. After the declaration of the State of Palestine by the PLO, its designation in the UN was changed to Palestine by General Assembly resolution A/RES/43/177 on 15 December 1988. However, Palestine's status in the UN is not as a non-member state but as an "entity".

The sovereignty status of Western Sahara is in dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front. Most of the territory is administered by Morocco, the remainder (the Free Zone) by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), proclaimed by the Polisario Front. Currently, the SADR maintains diplomatic relations with 43 UN member states and is a full member of the African Union, but is neither a member nor observer of the UN.

The associated states of New Zealand, the Cook Islands and Niue, while self-governing in their domestic affairs, have their foreign affairs represented by New Zealand, and therefore do not have UN membership.

Some international organizations, non-governmental organizations, or entities whose statehood or sovereignty has not been precisely defined, such as the European Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, are also UN observers.

[edit] Naming conventions and notes

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[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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United Nations (UN)
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UN System: General Assembly • Security Council • Economic and Social Council • Secretariat • Trusteeship Council • International Court of Justice

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United Nations resolutions: General Assembly • Security Council

Membership: Member states • Observers

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