United Nations member states
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article lists the member states of the United Nations (UN). There are currently 192 UN member states, and each of them is a member of the United Nations General Assembly.
According to the United Nations Charter, Chapter 2, Article 4:[1]
- Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.
- The admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.
In principle, only sovereign states can become UN members, and today all UN members are fully sovereign states. However, four of the original members (Belarus, India, the Philippines, and Ukraine) were not independent at the time of their admission. Moreover, because a state can only be admitted by the approval of the Security Council and the General Assembly, some entities which may be considered sovereign states according to the Montevideo Convention are not members due to the fact that the UN do not consider them to be sovereign states, the lack of international recognition or opposition from certain members.
International organizations, non-governmental organizations, and entities whose statehood or sovereignty are not precisely defined, can only become United Nations General Assembly observers by invitation, allowing them to speak, but not vote, in General Assembly meetings.
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[edit] Current members
The member states are listed below with their respective dates of admission. There were 51 original members of the UN which were admitted in 1945, of which 49 are either still UN members or have their seats continued by a successor state (e.g., the USSR's seat has been continued by Russia). The other two original members were Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, as both had dissolved and their seats were not continued by any state (see Former members: Czechoslovakia and Former members: Yugoslavia respectively). 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).
The names used below are the official names of the member states used by the UN; however, the list is sorted by the common names of the member states for ease of navigation. To sort the member states by their official names used by the UN or their dates of admissions, click on the buttons in the column headers.
- Background color indicates original members
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