1945 · Charters, declarations and treaties

Charter of the United Nations

International

The founding treaty of the United Nations, which states the purposes of the organisation, bans the use of force and commits states to respect human rights.

Why it matters

It is the base of modern international law, and the legal source of the human-rights work that produced the Universal Declaration.

Built on

No earlier text on this timeline is a documented model for it.

Went on to shape

1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations

was drawn up under the Charter's commitment to human rights

Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 10 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.

Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.