In June 1945 fifty-one states signed the United Nations Charter in San Francisco, establishing a permanent international organisation to maintain peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations and promote human rights and cooperation. Its principal organs included the Security Council, with veto-holding permanent members, and the General Assembly, in which all members are represented. The UN created a standing framework for diplomacy, peacekeeping and the negotiation of international law. Its membership expanded rapidly with decolonisation to encompass almost all states.
It became the institutional framework of the post-war international order and of human-rights, development and environmental law. Its specialised agencies, notably UN-Habitat and UNESCO, later set much of the global agenda for cities, housing and heritage.
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