CUN: Charter of the United Nations, 1945

The Charter is the founding document of the United Nations (UN), which was established after World War II to maintain international peace and security. One of the purposes of the UN, spelled out in the Charter, is to achieve international cooperation aimed at promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for everyone, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see below) was the first official enumeration of the human rights that the Charter sets out to promote.