ABSTRACT
Both of these sets of activities were initially quite peripheral to the main purposes of the UN Charter. The UN’s purposes related to the first set of activities were originally captured in three short passages in the preamble to the Charter: “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”; “to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”; and “to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples”. An array of UN specialized agencies, commissions, offices, committees, and funds has sprung up one after another over the past sixty-five years to help the UN realize these difficult tasks.
