Taking part in writing and approval of the United Nations Charter
scroll
Another important event that took place in the Bayat government was Iran’s participation in San Francisco’s international conference to prepare the United Nations Charter. The Second World War was nearing its end with the Japanese surrendering after being hit for the first time in human history with atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The allies decided to organize an international conference in San Francisco to find solutions to prevent such atrocities.
The delegation that Iran’s government sent to this conference consisted of these men: Adl (Mansour al-Saltaneh), Nasr-allah Entezam, Dr. Yahya Abdoh, Dr. Ghasem Ghani, Fazl-allah Nabil, Goodarzi, Ahmad Ardeshir, Ali Akbar Daftari, Hussein Navab, Dr. Ghasemzadeh, Dr. Sooratgar, Kazemi (Mohazab al-Dowleh), Dr. Rezazadeh Shafagh, Alahyar Saleh, Dr. Etebar and Dr. Ali Akbar Siassi. Adl (Mansour al-Saltaneh) was the delegation’s president.
“…We do believe that for the maintenance of a durable peace among nations nothing is more certain than the creation among them of a mutual understanding, and this cannot be achieved except by moral and intellectual education. Siassi, UN San Francisco 1945
In the General Assembly I asked the meeting’s president permission to speak. When my turn came, I spoke about several key issues. I expressed the Iranian Delegation’s suggestions. Specifically, about the necessity of establishing a council or commission whose task was to create understanding through culture among nations i.e. the approval of a suggestion that I had made in one of the committees – I went into more detail and emphasized the importance of such an endeavor
After all the reports of the committees were approved by the General Assembly it was necessary for a committee to be assembled for the approvals to be organized and recorded as the Constitutions of the United Nations. For the selection of twenty members of this committee, after much deliberation the conference members elected a Drafting Committee, of which I was fortunate to be a member. This committee met on numerous occasions each lasting several hours to get our task accomplished.
. I was an active contributing member of this committee, especially I was watchful to make sure that my suggestion of understanding among nations – be included in the statute This statute was approved in the General Assembly almost without any revision and was signed. I was very fortunate, not just because I signed my name on the bottom of the “United Nations Charter”, more so because in the founding UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization), I had a significant part.