Assignment #2 Trusteeship Council
Assignment #2 Soe Myint
P11.2210 [email protected]
United Nations Trusteeship Council
The United Nations Trusteeship Council, engendered at the 1945 UN San Francisco Conference, was mandated by the United Nations Charter to promote the political, economic and social advancement of the 11 original United Nations Trust Territories and their development towards self-government or independence. 3
Trust Territories are those Non-Self-Governing Territories held under mandates established by the League of Nations after the First World War; Territories detached from enemy States as a result of the Second World War; and Territories voluntarily placed under the System by States responsible for their administration. The Council was not mandated to supervise the administration of other Non-Self-Governing Territories, some of which fall under the purview of committees of the General Assembly3. The Trusteeship Council is made up of the five permanent members of the Security Council, the States administering Trust Territories, and enough other members elected by the Assembly for a three-year term to make an equal division between administering and non-administering countries (UN Charter Article 86). However, the five permanent Security Council members would be only members of the Trusteeship Council when all trust territories had achieved their goals. 2
The Trusteeship Council got more teeth than its ancestor, the Permanent Mandates Committee. It got more broader objective of "to further international peace and security" rather than "well-being and development" of colonial peoples stated in the League Covenant (Article 22). It was composed of government representatives instead of private experts. It was given means of inquiry into the conduct of trust administration superior to those of the League system. Annual report, based on comprehensive questionnaire, was borrowed from the Permanent Mandates Commission. It was given the right to receive petitions directly, without relying on the administering power as intermediary, and the right to send visiting missions to gain firsthand knowledge of conditions in trust territories. If an administrating authority, in the trusteeship agreement, chose to designate even a part of a trust territory as a "strategic area", all matters relating to the area became the province of the Security Council, where the veto could forestall any adverse recommendation1. Formal changes to the mandate of the Trusteeship Council would require changes to the UN Charter. Any changes must be adopted by a two-thirds majority the General Assembly, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, followed by ratification by two thirds of the Members according to their domestic constitutional processes.
Although the Trusteeship Council lifted the face of UN in the international territorial affairs, many member states felt the process was too long than what local peoples' wish. Many think that the Trusteeship Council had just fulfilled its mandate of 11 Trust Territories, but it failed to cover its broader objective to reach the expectation of the UN San Francisco Conference. It contributed to a climate of world opinion friendly to decolonization, but the system itself was swept along in the broader current. Many States got independence outside the Trusteeship system. Many other States having the same situations were not brought into the Trusteeship system.
Ten of the eleven trust territories had achieved their goals by 1975. Palau, the last trust territory was declared independent in 1994. Under General Assembly resolution 50/52, the Special Committee had been requested to consider proposals on the Trusteeship Council. Recently, the Special Committee on the Charter of the UN and on Strengthening the Role of the Organization was told that the United Nations Trusteeship Council should be abolished, as it had fulfilled its mandate2. It would be good saving for the United Nations at the time of financial constraints. Its future is very thin and mostly depends on the written comments from Member States.
Reference:
1. Lawrence Ziring, Robert Riggs, Jack Plano. The United Nations International Organization and World Politics, third Edition, Harcourt College Publishers, 2000.
2. Press Release TR/2425 Trusteeship Council Elects Officers, 26 October 1998.
3. Press Release L/2755, 213th Meeting (PM). Trusteeship Council has fulfilled mandate, should be abolished, special committee on Charter told, 28 February 1996.
File: NYU-A2-SM - - - - - September 24, 2000