The Permanent Mandates Commission and the Trusteeship Council

Abstract

Like the Permanent Mandates Commission which was constituted to advise the League Council on all maters relating to the observance of the Mandates, the Trusteeship Council operates under the authority of the General Assembly and the Security Council in carrying out all functions relating to the non-strategic and strategic Trust Territories. Both may be regarded as the pivot of international supervision over the Mandated or Trust administration. The Trusteeship Council, though theoretically it enjoys the status of one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (Art. 7), functions, practically, like the Commission which was a subsidiary body to the League Council, as an auxiliary organ to the General Assembly and the Security Council. Unlike the Constitution of the Mandates Commission which could be altered or amended by the League Council, the provisions of the Charter concerning the Trusteeship Council cannot be changed without an amendment of the Charter itself. In spite of some striking similarities in their spheres of actions, the Trusteeship Council represents a radical departure from the composition and functions of the Mandates Commission.