Document 21: "Preamble to the United Nations Charter," 26 June 1945

Documents selected and interpreted by Danelle Moon and Kathryn Kish Sklar

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Document 21: "Preamble to the United Nations Charter," 26 June 1945, in Sydney Dawson Bailey and Sam Daws, The United Nations: A Concise Political Guide (Lanham, MD: Barnes & Noble, 1995), pp. 114-15. Included in How Did Florence Kitchelt Bring Together Social Feminists and Equal Rights Feminists to Reconfigure the Campaign for the ERA in the 1940s and 50s?, Documents selected and interpreted by Danelle Moon and Kathryn Kish Sklar. (Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press, 2010).

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Introduction

Available online at http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/.

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This statement of "equal rights" in the founding document of the most important post-World War II international institution reflected the international activity and competition of social justice feminists and equal rights feminists since the 1920s and 30s. It provided Florence Kitchelt with a powerful lever for the promotion of equal rights in the United States.

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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

Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

Document 21: "Preamble to the United Nations Charter," 26 June 1945, in Sydney Dawson Bailey and Sam Daws, The United Nations: A Concise Political Guide (Lanham, MD: Barnes &amp; Noble, 1995), pp. 114-15.

Document 21: "Preamble to the United Nations Charter," 26 June 1945, in Sydney Dawson Bailey and Sam Daws, The United Nations: A Concise Political Guide (Lanham, MD: Barnes & Noble, 1995), pp. 114-15.