UN General Assembly
1958

11. How did these two conceptions originate? In the past, the colonial Powers had their armies and fleets in most parts of the world, and they controlled widely- spread colonial territories. It was then possible for them to use their armed forces either in territories under their own control or in others with a view to coercing the peoples of those countries and to maintaining certain political systems and situations. But that was a time when the rules of international law did not carry much weight and the United Nations and its Charter did not exist. In other words, that was at a time when the great Powers formulated and assumed responsibility in the way they considered appropriate for the maintenance of their own interests, and sought no authority from any quarter. Both the responsibility and the authority emanated from the self-interest of the colonial empires.