UN General Assembly
1953

74. The majority of States accepted the terms of the Charter at San Francisco because of the urgency of the need for reaching a compromise which would reconcile differences of opinion which might have delayed the solution of particular problems. We are certain, however, that none of the countries that signed it or subsequently acceded to it did so with the intention of committing themselves irrevocably to immutable provisions, or regarded the Charter as untouchable and not susceptible of improvement. That view would have been contrary to the concept of law as a body of rules arising out of the conditions of social life which change in time and in space. Only reactionary thinkers could today maintain that the laws governing relations among States are immutable and eternal, as did the old school of natural law. Thus the Charter had to be accepted as a flexible document, adapted to the circumstances of the time, but admitting of amendment to adjust it to new aspirations and ideals.