UN General Assembly
1954

83. In Guatemala, there developed an identifiable threat to the peace and security of this hemisphere. The American States exchanged views about this danger and were about to meet to deal with it collectively when the Guatemalan people themselves eliminated the threat. 84. In this connexion, there was occasion for the United Nations to apply the principles of our Charter, which, while affirming the universal jurisdiction of this Organization, do call for a resort first to regional arrangements, before resort to the Security Council. Those provisions had been hammered out in the course of debate at San Francisco, when our Charter was adopted. The American States at that time urged that their tested relationship should be co-ordinated with, and not totally replaced by, the United Nations, which they felt might not be dependable because of the veto power in the Security Council. It was therefore decided at that time to make regional associations a major feature of the United Nations peace system.