UN General Assembly
1968

172. Although it is the essential function of the United Nations as the organization of the international community to express world public opinion and thus give a predominantly political character to General Assembly resolutions, these do not thereby lose the legal quality which the writings of eminent jurists and the practice of the United Nations have attributed to them. They frequently clarify law: for example, resolution 95(I) affirmed the principles of condemnation of war which were recognized by the Charter of the Nürnberg tribunal and which had already been incorporated in the United Nations Charter. Or they may be a source of international law and contribute to its progressive development, as when they establish and affirm the rules of jus cogens. In any case those General Assembly resolutions which are more than recommendations are the basis for the dynamic evolution of the United Nations.