  | |
| United Nations membership | |
|---|---|
| Represented by |
|
| Membership | Full member |
| Since | 14 December 1955 |
| UNSC seat | Non-permanent |
| Ambassador | Héctor Gómez Hernández |
The Spain-United Nations relations are the international relations between the United Nations (UN) and Spain.
The forerunner of the United Nations was the League of Nations, an organization that was established in 1919, after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, "to promote international cooperation and achieve peace and security", and to which Spain adhered as a founding country included in Annex I of the Treaty of Versailles (1920). [1] The outbreak of the World War II revealed the failure of the League of Nations. [2]
The newly formed United Nations was initially reluctant to admit Francoist Spain because:
Thus, on 12 December 1946, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 39(I), [5] which excluded the Spanish government from international organizations and conferences established by the United Nations. Resolution 39 further recommended that the Security Council take the necessary measures if, within a "reasonable time", no new government was established in Spain whose authority emanated from the consent of the governed and, in addition, recommended the immediate withdrawal of ambassadors accredited to the Government of Spain. The resolution was adopted with 34 votes in favour, 6 votes against, 13 abstentions and one absence. [6] [7]
The outbreak of the Cold War, however, caused the US government to change its attitude towards Francoist Spain since its geographical situation and anticommunist government was seen as a valuable asset to the plans of the "free world". At the same time, Spain was gaining sympathy among several member countries of the UN. [8] [7] [9] [10] In January 1950, The New York Times published a letter by the U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson that admitted that Resolution 39 had been a failure. [9]
Accordingly, on 4 November 1950, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 386, which revoked the recommendation for the withdrawal of ambassadors accredited to the Spanish government and repealed the recommendation that prevented Spain from being a member of the international agencies established by or linked to the United Nations. The resolution was adopted with 38 votes in favour, 10 against, 12 abstentions and no absences. [7]
Spain presented its application for membership on 23 September 1955 [11] and joined the UN the following 14 December. [12] [lower-alpha 1] It has been an elected member of the Security Council on five occasions: approximately once every ten years, most recently in 2015–2016. Throughout this period, and especially since the return of democracy following Franco's death in November 1975, Spain has been actively involved in the organization, reiterating the need for the international community to be based on the pillars of security, development and respect for human rights. [2]
Spain ranks eleventh on the scale of financial contributions to the United Nations Regular Budget and is a member of the Geneva Group, made up of the largest contributors, which carries out exhaustive monitoring of administrative and budgetary issues in the United Nations system, including the specialized agencies and international technical organizations. [2]
The UN has several of its own organizations with headquarters in some Spanish cities:
Spain Madrid: World Tourism Organization. Spain Barcelona: United Nations University – Institute for Globalization, Culture and Mobility.
Francoist Spain, also known as the Francoist dictatorship, was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title Caudillo. After his death in 1975 due to a heart attack, Spain transitioned into a democracy. During this time period, Spain was officially known as the Spanish State.
Carlos Arias Navarro, 1st Marquess of Arias Navarro was the prime Minister of Spain during the final years of the Francoist dictatorship and the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy.
The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as la Transición or la Transición española, is a period of modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system, in the form of constitutional monarchy under Juan Carlos I.
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Mexico–Yugoslavia relations were historical foreign relations between Mexico and now split-up Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Mexico and Yugoslavia established diplomatic relations on 24 May 1946 on the initiative of the President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito. Both countries shared their views on Francoist Spain and cooperated with the Spanish Republican government in exile. On 31 July 1952 the two countries protested strongly against a decision of a United Nations committee to ask the Franco Government what it might be able to do to strengthen the collective security.
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Modesto Seara Vázquez was a Spanish-born Mexican jurist and academic. He lived in several countries but has spent most of his life in Mexico. He has actively participated in Mexican life as a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and since 1988 as the Rector of the Oaxaca State University System in the State of Oaxaca. He died in Mexico City on 26 December 2022, at the age of 91.
Events in the year 1946 in Spain.
The Spanish question was the set of geopolitical and diplomatic circumstances that marked the relationship between Spain and the United Nations between 1945 and 1955, centred on the UN's refusal to admit Spain to the organization due to Francoist Spain's sympathy for the Axis powers, defeated in World War II.
José Solís Ruiz was a Spanish politician, known for his role in Francoist Spain, during which he occupied a number of important posts.
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Eduardo Alejandro Roca was an Argentine lawyer, academic, and diplomat. He was Ambassador of Argentina to the United States (1968–1970) and was appointed as a permanent representative to the United Nations during the 1982 Falklands War.
Spain–Syria relations are the bilateral and diplomatic relations between these two countries. Syria has an embassy in Madrid. Spain has an embassy in Damascus. Both countries are charter members of the Union for the Mediterranean, although Syria suspended its membership in 2011.
Ismael Saz Campos is a Spanish historian, specialised in the study of Falangism, Francoist Spain and the Spanish-Italian relations during the Spanish Civil War. He is a professor at the University of Valencia.
The Línea P, officially the Pyrenees Defense Organisation, was a fortified line of defense built in the Pyrenees between 1944 and 1948 to prevent an invasion into Spanish territory.
Licinio de la Fuente y de la Fuente was a Spanish Francoist politician who served as Minister of Labour from 1969 to 1975. Promoter of the Democracia Social party during the Spanish Transition, he was one of the "Magnificent Seven", the seven political leaders who founded the federation of People's Alliance (AP) in 1976.
Egriselda López is a Salvadoran diplomat.
The Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations is the official representative of the government of Argentina to the United Nations.
The Government-in-exile of José Giral—also known by its supporters as el gobierno de la esperanza— was an executive branch created on 21 August 1945 by the institutions of the Second Spanish Republic in exile and headed by José Giral, the former prime minister during the first months of the Civil War. It tried to put up a united front before the United Nations and the international community with the aim of isolating General Francisco Franco's regime, as well as obtaining international recognition as the only legitimate government of Spain in order to reestablish the Republic.