No. 446 NAI TSCH/3/S13750B
Memorandum by the Department of External Affairs
'Note on the present position regarding Ireland's application for membership of the United Nations Organisation'
Dublin, 13 May 1950
- With the unanimous approval of the Dáil, the Government applied for the admission of Ireland to the United Nations Organisation in 1946.2
- Article 4 of the Charter of the United Nations states
- 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 Organisation, 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.
- Ireland's application has come before the Security Council on several occasions but has been opposed by the U.S.S.R., one of the five permanent members of the Council. The Charter of the United Nations requires that the decision of the Security Council in a matter of this kind shall be made by an affirmative vote of seven members including the concurring votes of the five permanent members.
- The grounds for the opposition of the U.S.S.R. to Ireland's application were stated by the Soviet representative to be
- the absence of diplomatic relations between Ireland and the Soviet Union;
- Ireland's behaviour during the war when, he alleged, Ireland did not help the Allies and had expressed sympathy with the Axis Powers and Franco Spain. The Soviet representative added that no justification of Ireland's behaviour during the War had been produced since the war ended.
- On the 13th September, 1949, the Security Council had before it a draft resolution recommending the admission of Ireland to the United Nations. Nine members of the Council supported the draft resolution but two members opposed it - the U.S.S.R. and the Ukraine. Because of the opposition of one permanent member of the Council - the U.S.S.R. - no recommendation could be made by the Council to the General Assembly.
- At a meeting on the 22nd November, 1949, the General Assembly adopted a resolution which noted what had occurred in the Security Council on the 13th September, 1949, and went on to say
'Deeming it important to the development of the United Nations that all applicant States which possess the qualifications for membership set forth in Article 4 of the Charter should be admitted,
Considering that the opposition to the application of Ireland was based on grounds not included in Article 4 of the Charter,
Recalling the recommendation of the General Assembly in resolution 197 (III)A of 8 December 1948 that each member of the Security Council and of the General Assembly, in exercising its vote on the admission of new Members, should act in accordance with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of 28 May 1948, which declared that a State was not juridically entitled to make its consent to the admission dependent on conditions not expressly provided by paragraph 1 of Article 4,
- Reaffirms its determination that Ireland is in its judgment a peace-loving State within the meaning of Article 4 of the Charter, is able and willing to carry out the obligations of the Charter, and should therefore be admitted to membership in the United Nations;
- Requests the Security Council to reconsider the application of Ireland, in the light of this determination of the General Assembly.'
So far, the Security Council has not reconsidered the matter.
- The General Assembly also adopted on 22nd November, 1949, a further resolution requesting the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on the following question
'Can the admission of a State to membership in the United Nations, pursuant to Article 4, paragraph 2, of the Charter, be effected by a decision of the General Assembly when the Security Council has made no recommendation for admission by reason of the candidate failing to obtain the requisite majority or of the negative vote of a permanent member upon a resolution so to recommend?'
- On the 3rd March, 1950, the International Court of Justice gave its advisory opinion stating that the admission of a State to membership in the United Nations cannot be effected by a decision of the General Assembly when the Security Council has made no recommendation for admission.
- It was reported in the Press of the 10th May 1950 that Mr. Trygve Lie, Secretary General of the United Nations Organisation had stated in the course of a speech he made on the occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of a new wing of the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva, that the admission of Ireland and the eight other European nations who have applied for membership of UNO would help to bridge the differences between East and West. According to Press reports, Mr. Lie continued:
'If Ireland, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Rumania were admitted, the voice of Europe in the United Nations would be stronger.
Their absence meant that almost as many European countries had been refused admission to the United Nations as there were European members.
In some respects this situation merely reflects the changed realities of power which, at the moment, is concentrated heavily in Moscow and Washington. In other respects the situation is artificial and ought to be remedied.'