December 14th 1955:
The Admission of Italy to the United Nations

On the evening of Wednesday 14 December 1955, during its 555th plenary meeting, the General Assembly discussed two documents under item 21: a letter from the President of the Security Council to the President of the General Assembly [A/3099]; and a draft resolution proposed by forty-one countries [A/L.208] providing for the admission to the United Nations of Albania, Jordan, Ireland, Portugal, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, Ceylon, Nepal, Libya, Cambodia, Laos, and Spain(1).

Each Security Council recommendation to admit these countries was voted on separately, in accordance with the 1948 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice(2). The recommendation concerning Italy was adopted by 56 votes to none.

Draft resolution L.208 was then adopted as a whole as Res. 995 (X), following the procedure outlined in Article 4 of the United Nations Charter. This process was set into motion by the more general resolution on the “Admission of new Members to the United Nations” [Res. 918(X)], previously adopted by the General Assembly on 8 December 1955.

Draft resolutions that recalled the principle of universality underpinning the United Nations Organization had been submitted at both the ninth and tenth sessions of the General Assembly, in connection with the admission of new Members [e.g. Res. 817 (IX), adopted without a vote]. During the tenth session, draft resolution A/3079 on the “Admission of new Members to the United Nations” was approved by an Ad hoc Political Committee and adopted by the General Assembly at its 552nd meeting, with 52 votes in favour, 2 against, and 5 abstensions, becoming Res. 918 (X). In this resolution the Security Council was requested “to consider, in the light of the general opinion in favour of the widest possible membership of the United Nations, the pending applications for membership of all eighteen countries about which no problem of unification arises;” and to make its report on the applications. Italy was one of those countries. In fact, Article 4, para. 2, of the Charter of the United Nations states that "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."”

These Security Council recommendations [Res. 109 (1955)] were made for sixteen of the eighteen countries that were seeking admission. Security Council Resolution 109 [S/3509] was adopted during the 705th meeting, held on the same 14 December, by 8 votes to none, with 3 abstentions (Belgium, China, and United States of America).

At the end of the adoption in the General Assembly of the 16 separate recommendations (one for each new member) the President of the GA, Mr. Jose Maza (Chile), stated: “We have by this vote fulfilled a deep desire which has existed in the General Assembly for many years – the desire to overcome the obstacles preventing the United Nations from becoming a completely international organization representing all peoples and enjoying true universality. It is true that the goal has not yet been achieved. There are still some notable absences, but the progress made today marks a historic advance along this way, which cannot but increase the prestige and vigour of the United Nations. (3)

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