,
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (1978). The sign reads "Please release us from the bondage of your trusteeship agreement."|275x275px Provisions to form a new UN agency to oversee the
decolonization of dependent territories from colonial times were made at the
San Francisco Conference in 1945 and were included in Chapter 12 of the
Charter of the United Nations. Those dependent territories (
colonies and
mandated territories) were to be placed under the international trusteeship system created by the
United Nations Charter as a successor to the
League of Nations mandate system. Ultimately, eleven territories were placed under trusteeship: seven in Africa and four in
Oceania. Ten of the trust territories had previously been League of Nations mandates; the eleventh was the
Trust Territory of Somaliland. In order to implement the provisions of the trusteeship system, the
General Assembly passed resolution 64 on 14 December 1946, establishing the United Nations Trusteeship Council. The Trusteeship Council held its first session in March 1947. In March 1948, the United States announced a
trusteeship proposal for the territory of
Mandatory Palestine after the expiration of the
British mandate as a peaceful solution to the ongoing
1948 Palestine war. However, the US did not make an effort to implement this proposal, which became moot with the
Israeli declaration of independence in May 1948. Under the Charter, the Trusteeship Council was to consist of representatives of United Nations member states administering trust territories and an equal number of representatives of non-administering states. Thus, the Council was to consist of (1) all U.N. members administering trust territories, (2) the five permanent members of the
Security Council, and (3) as many other non-administering members as needed to equalize the number of administering and non-administering members, elected by the General Assembly for renewable three-year terms. Over time, as trust territories attained independence, the size and workload of the Trusteeship Council was reduced. Ultimately, the Trusteeship Council came to include only the five permanent Security Council members (China, France, the Soviet Union/Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States), as the only country administering a Trust Territory (the United States) was a permanent member. With the independence of
Palau, formerly part of the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, in 1994, there presently are no trust territories, leaving the Trusteeship Council without responsibilities. Since the
Northern Mariana Islands, which was a part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, became a
commonwealth of the USA in 1986, it is technically the only area not to have joined as a part of another state or gained full independence as a sovereign nation. The Trusteeship Council was not assigned responsibility for colonial territories outside the trusteeship system, although the Charter did establish the principle that member states were to administer such territories in conformity with the best interests of their inhabitants. ==Present status==