Sir, - Article 2, Subsection 7 of the United Nations Charter states: "Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorise the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter."
Does the news that the United Nations has brokered a settlement providing for an all-party government for Afghanistan mean that the Charter is not worth the paper it is written on? Or is it to be regarded more as an α la carte menu from which we can pick and choose which articles are to be adhered to and which are to be ignored? - Yours, etc.,
Michael O'Flanagan, Emmet Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8