Articles 106 and 107 of the UN Charter do not give Russia the right to attack Ukraine, or any of the other countries listed on the post, for its “attempts to revive Nazism”, as the post claims. Article 107 is no longer relevant since enemy states no longer exist as they used to be defined by the UN, and every country deemed an enemy state during the Second World War is now a member of the UN. Regarding Article 106, it presents just a transitional agreement that, just like Article 107, is no longer relevant since the UN Security Council decides on measures for sustaining peace, writes Thuthmeter.
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We are fact-checking a post on Facebook claiming that the UN Charter gives Russia the right to attack Ukraine. This is not true.
Articles 106 and 107 of the UN Charter gives Russia, the legal successor of the USSR, the right – as the victor in the Second World War – to undertake all measures, including military measures against Germany, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine in the attempts to revive Nazism, states the post that we are fact-checking.
It is not true that Articles 106 and 107 of the UN Charter give Russia the right to attack Ukraine for reviving Nazism, as claimed by the post we are fact-checking. The text of the UN Charter contains completely different principles to those claimed in the post.
This disinformation is not new and it was already debunked by fact-checkers from Germany (Correctiv.org) in October 2022.
The United Nation’s Charter was signed in 1945 in San Francisco by 50 countries. Article 39 of this founding treaty specifies that the UN Security Council determines “the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security”.
The Security Council has five permanent members with veto rights: France, Russia, United Kingdom, USA and China. It also has non-permanent members. Hence, Russia cannot make decisions on its own, specifies Correctiv.org in its analysis.
The International Criminal Court in the Hague, the most important body under the jurisdiction of the United Nations, requested Russia to terminate the illegal intervention in Ukraine back in March 2022.
The reports on human rights violations committed by the Russian Armed Forces during the war against Ukraine had consequences within the UN. In April last year, the UN General Assembly voted for Russia to be suspended from the Human Rights Council of the UN. With 93 nations voting in favour and 24 against and 58 abstaining from the process, the Assembly suspended Russia for ”gross and systematic violations of human rights” and ”violations of international law committed against Ukraine”.
Article 107 refers to measures undertaken as a result of the Second World War against “enemy states”. The UN Committee in 1995 proposed deleting the clauses on “enemy states”, including Article 107 of the Charter. The Committee reported that this Article was obsolete since enemy states no longer existed and every country deemed an enemy state during the Second World War, including Germany and Japan, are now UN Member-States.
Therefore, the “enemy state” clause no longer has any practical relevance today, specifies the document of the Bundestag.
Furthermore, Ukraine was not considered an enemy state. On the contrary, one of the founding countries of the UN and part of the Soviet Union was Ukraine. Therefore, the “enemy state” clause cannot be applied to Ukraine.
Speaking to the fact-checkers of Correctiv, Patrick Rosenow from the non-governmental organization “German Society for United Nations” (DGVN) also confirmed that Article 107 was no longer relevant.
Due to the fact that Articles 106 and 107 of the UN Charter date back to the founding days of the United Nations, Article 106 confirms that “the parties to this Declaration” should be in contact with each other if specific measures need to be undertaken to preserve peace. This measure should be applied until the moment the Security Council can perform its duties in accordance with Article 42.
Rosenow stated for Correctiv that five permanent Member-States of the Security Council hold a special responsibility in preserving international peace and security.
In that respect, Article 106 is just a transitional agreement which is no longer relevant because the Security Council is the body which adopts decisions on measures for sustaining peace, says Rosenow for Correctiv.
Ther findings of the fact-checkers of Veridica were similar to those of Correctiv.
From all of the above-noted, we can conclude that Article 106 and 107 of the UN Charter do not give Russia the right to attack Ukraine or any other of the countries listed in the post for its “attempts to revive Nazism”, as the post claims. Article 107 is no longer relevant since enemy states do not exist and each of the countries deemed an enemy state during the Second World War is now a member-state of the UN. Article 106 is considered to just be a transitional agreement, which, just as Article 107, is no longer relevant since the UN Security Council decides on the measures for preservation of peace. Consequently, the post we are fact-checking is assessed as untrue.
