When Is A Treaty Not A Treaty? When It Is The United Nations Charter
By
Alan Caruba
Toogood Reports [Tuesday, September 26, 2000; 12:01 a.m. EST]
URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/
Now that all the hoopla about the United Nations Millennium Summit has faded and the heads of various nations have gone home, it will probably come as a surprise to Americans that the Charter of the United Nations is neither politically, nor legally, binding upon the United States of America or its citizens.
This is the finding of Herbert W. Titus, a senior legal advisor to the Liberty Study Committee. (thelibertycommittee.org) Mr. Titus is a constitutional scholar and has authored a study of the United Nations to support H.R. 1146, The American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 1999. We are still waiting for passage of this act that would take the US out of the UN and, no doubt, precipitate its swift decline.
A comparable bill in the Senate, S-510, the American Land Sovereignty Protection Act, was sabotaged by its own sponsor, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) on September 20th when he suddenly withdrew it from being voted upon by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, even though there were enough votes to pass it. Speaking candidly, the action was so odd that Washington insiders are whispering that someone "got" to Sen. Campbell, possibly even blackmailing him to insure the bill did not go to the Senate for a full vote.
Mr. Titus's analysis is twenty pages long and can secured by writing to Kent Snyder, Executive Director, Liberty Study Committee 701 West Broad Street, Fifth Floor, Falls Church, VA 22046. I became aware of the report when I watched a September 7th press conference on C-SPAN during which the American Policy Center presented Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) more than 300,000 citizen petitions supporting H.R. 1146. The year before, the Center had presented some 250,000 petitions, bringing the total to an astonishing half million Americans who want out of the UN!
Here, in brief, are Mr. Titus's findings:
The Charter of the United Nations is commonly assumed to be a treaty. It is not. Instead, the Charter is a constitution. As such, it is illegitimate because it represents a supranational government, deriving its powers, not from the consent of the governed (the peoples of the US and other member nations), but from the consent of the people's government officials. These officials have no authority to bind the American people to any terms of the UN Charter.
The UN Charter is constitutionally illegitimate and void because it runs contrary to the US Constitution in three major respects.
It unconstitutionally delegates to the UN the US Congress's legislative power to initiate war and the US president's power to conduct war. One of the Summit's expressed objectives is to create an independent UN military force. In theory, that force could invade the US or any other nation. We have already seen NATO transformed from a European defense force to one used to make war on the sovereign nation of Yugoslavia.
It unconstitutionally transfers to the UN General Assembly the US House of Representatives' exclusive power to originate revenue-raising measures. This is why we have been subjected to a campaign of lies regarding the payment of US dues and payments to support UN military actions. Payments have been withheld because of UN activities and corruption which members of Congress deem unacceptable.
It unconstitutionally robs the fifty American States of powers reserved to them by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.") No one has voted to permit the UN to declare parts of this nation as UN-designated World Heritage sites or Biosphere Reserves. Those designations, however, exist for our Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Statue of Liberty, and numerous national parks such as the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone.
While Americans have slept, the United Nations has been hard at work seeking to extend its illegitimate control over our nation. From the beginning, Congress has found its power curtailed and ignored. Despite the passage in 1945 of the United Nations Participation Act that laid down several rules by which our participation would be governed, the power of Congress has been eroded. It is solely to Congress and the President that the US Constitution delegates the power of governance.
Thus, we are at the apex of a fifty-five year effort to transform the United Nations into a world government with powers that supercede those of its member nations. It is time for the United States to reclaim its sovereignty by withdrawing from the United Nations and reasserting that the power of our government comes solely from the consent of the governed, the American people.
The bottom line is that the American people have never approved the Charter of the United Nations. The Charter can never be the supreme law of this nation because it was never "made under the authority of the United States" as required by Article VI of the US Constitution. Having never been ratified as is the case of any treaty into which this nation enters the Charter remains nothing more than the expression of noble aspirations for world peace and human rights. That said, it is still illegitimate!
What then will happen if the US does, indeed, withdraw its support from this institution conceived and put together by communists? What happens if we withdraw from a UN in which no American serves in any high level executive position? What happens if we withdraw from a UN whose secretary general has always been an avowed socialist, one of whom was a former Nazi?
Nothing much. The world will still continue as a place where sovereign nations exchange ambassadors and seek peaceful solutions to various conflicts of interest. We will be rid of an institution where 187 other member nations routinely vote against the interests of our nation.
Soon enough, another international forum will be put together where nations can discuss matters of security for a world where we are all connected by an Internet undreamed of when the UN was created in 1945. Right now, however, the priority before this nation is to withdraw and let this insidious institution die of its own dead weight.
Alan Caruba, pulls no punches pointing out environmental lies and liars, political pandering, food police nutcases, animal rights lunatics, and the entire managerie of mis-information and dis-information at The National Anxiety Center. E-mail Mr. Caruba at ACaruba@aol.com.
September 26, 2000
[ Front Page News | Page Two Links | Book Shoppe | Link To Us ]
Copyright 1999, 2000 by Toogood Reports. All rights reserved.
http://www.ajtoogood.com/column/general/caruba/092600.htm
------------------
"those who sacrifice
liberty for security deserve neither"
By
Alan Caruba
Toogood Reports [Tuesday, September 26, 2000; 12:01 a.m. EST]
URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/
Now that all the hoopla about the United Nations Millennium Summit has faded and the heads of various nations have gone home, it will probably come as a surprise to Americans that the Charter of the United Nations is neither politically, nor legally, binding upon the United States of America or its citizens.
This is the finding of Herbert W. Titus, a senior legal advisor to the Liberty Study Committee. (thelibertycommittee.org) Mr. Titus is a constitutional scholar and has authored a study of the United Nations to support H.R. 1146, The American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 1999. We are still waiting for passage of this act that would take the US out of the UN and, no doubt, precipitate its swift decline.
A comparable bill in the Senate, S-510, the American Land Sovereignty Protection Act, was sabotaged by its own sponsor, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) on September 20th when he suddenly withdrew it from being voted upon by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, even though there were enough votes to pass it. Speaking candidly, the action was so odd that Washington insiders are whispering that someone "got" to Sen. Campbell, possibly even blackmailing him to insure the bill did not go to the Senate for a full vote.
Mr. Titus's analysis is twenty pages long and can secured by writing to Kent Snyder, Executive Director, Liberty Study Committee 701 West Broad Street, Fifth Floor, Falls Church, VA 22046. I became aware of the report when I watched a September 7th press conference on C-SPAN during which the American Policy Center presented Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) more than 300,000 citizen petitions supporting H.R. 1146. The year before, the Center had presented some 250,000 petitions, bringing the total to an astonishing half million Americans who want out of the UN!
Here, in brief, are Mr. Titus's findings:
The Charter of the United Nations is commonly assumed to be a treaty. It is not. Instead, the Charter is a constitution. As such, it is illegitimate because it represents a supranational government, deriving its powers, not from the consent of the governed (the peoples of the US and other member nations), but from the consent of the people's government officials. These officials have no authority to bind the American people to any terms of the UN Charter.
The UN Charter is constitutionally illegitimate and void because it runs contrary to the US Constitution in three major respects.
It unconstitutionally delegates to the UN the US Congress's legislative power to initiate war and the US president's power to conduct war. One of the Summit's expressed objectives is to create an independent UN military force. In theory, that force could invade the US or any other nation. We have already seen NATO transformed from a European defense force to one used to make war on the sovereign nation of Yugoslavia.
It unconstitutionally transfers to the UN General Assembly the US House of Representatives' exclusive power to originate revenue-raising measures. This is why we have been subjected to a campaign of lies regarding the payment of US dues and payments to support UN military actions. Payments have been withheld because of UN activities and corruption which members of Congress deem unacceptable.
It unconstitutionally robs the fifty American States of powers reserved to them by the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.") No one has voted to permit the UN to declare parts of this nation as UN-designated World Heritage sites or Biosphere Reserves. Those designations, however, exist for our Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Statue of Liberty, and numerous national parks such as the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone.
While Americans have slept, the United Nations has been hard at work seeking to extend its illegitimate control over our nation. From the beginning, Congress has found its power curtailed and ignored. Despite the passage in 1945 of the United Nations Participation Act that laid down several rules by which our participation would be governed, the power of Congress has been eroded. It is solely to Congress and the President that the US Constitution delegates the power of governance.
Thus, we are at the apex of a fifty-five year effort to transform the United Nations into a world government with powers that supercede those of its member nations. It is time for the United States to reclaim its sovereignty by withdrawing from the United Nations and reasserting that the power of our government comes solely from the consent of the governed, the American people.
The bottom line is that the American people have never approved the Charter of the United Nations. The Charter can never be the supreme law of this nation because it was never "made under the authority of the United States" as required by Article VI of the US Constitution. Having never been ratified as is the case of any treaty into which this nation enters the Charter remains nothing more than the expression of noble aspirations for world peace and human rights. That said, it is still illegitimate!
What then will happen if the US does, indeed, withdraw its support from this institution conceived and put together by communists? What happens if we withdraw from a UN in which no American serves in any high level executive position? What happens if we withdraw from a UN whose secretary general has always been an avowed socialist, one of whom was a former Nazi?
Nothing much. The world will still continue as a place where sovereign nations exchange ambassadors and seek peaceful solutions to various conflicts of interest. We will be rid of an institution where 187 other member nations routinely vote against the interests of our nation.
Soon enough, another international forum will be put together where nations can discuss matters of security for a world where we are all connected by an Internet undreamed of when the UN was created in 1945. Right now, however, the priority before this nation is to withdraw and let this insidious institution die of its own dead weight.
Alan Caruba, pulls no punches pointing out environmental lies and liars, political pandering, food police nutcases, animal rights lunatics, and the entire managerie of mis-information and dis-information at The National Anxiety Center. E-mail Mr. Caruba at ACaruba@aol.com.
September 26, 2000
[ Front Page News | Page Two Links | Book Shoppe | Link To Us ]
Copyright 1999, 2000 by Toogood Reports. All rights reserved.
http://www.ajtoogood.com/column/general/caruba/092600.htm
------------------
"those who sacrifice
liberty for security deserve neither"