The
Charter of the United Nations (UN Charter) of 1945 is the foundational
treaty of the
intergovernmental organization; the
United Nations. It was signed at the
San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on 26 June 1945, by 50 of the 51 original member countries. (
Poland, the other original member, which was not represented at the conference, signed it two months later.) It entered into force on 24 October 1945, after being ratified by the original
five permanent members of the
Security Council—the
Republic of China (later replaced by the
People's Republic of China),
France, the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (later replaced by the
Russian Federation), the
United Kingdom, and the
United States—and a majority of the other signatories.