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Preamble:
- We, the intelligent life-forms of the United Federation of Planets determined:
To save succeeding generations from the scourge of intra-galactic war which has brought untold horror and suffering to our planetary social systems, and
- To reaffirm faith in the fundamental intelligent life-form rights, in the dignity and worth of intelligent life-form persons, to the equal rights of male and female and of planetary social systems large and small, and
- To establish conditions under which justice and mutual respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of interplanetary law can be maintained, and
- To promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
- And to these ends:
To practice benevolent tolerance and live in peace with one another as good neighbors, and
- To unite our strength to maintain intra-galactic peace and security, and
- To ensure by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods that armed force shall not be used except in the common defense, and
- To employ intra-galactic machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all intelligent life-forms,
- Have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.
Accordingly, the respective social systems, through representatives assembled on the planet Babel, who have exhibited their full powers to be in good and due form, have agreed to these Articles of Federation of the United Federation of Planets, and do hereby establish an interplanetary organization to be known as the United Federation of Planets.
CHAPTER I: Purposes and Principles
Article 1
The purposes of the United Federation of Planets are:
- To maintain interplanetary peace and security within the treaty exploration territory, and to that end:
- To take effective collective measures for the prevention of threats to the peace, the suppression of acts of aggression, and to bring about by peaceful means, and employing the principles of justice and intragalactic law, adjustment or settlement of interplanetary disputes which might lead to a breach of the peace;
- To develop friendly relations among planets based on respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of intelligent life-forms, and to other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
- To achieve interplanetary cooperation in solving intra-galactic problems of economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character; in promoting and encouraging respect for intelligent life-form rights; and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to culture, sex, life-form, or religious belief; and
- To be a center for conciliation of the actions of all social systems in the attainment of these common ends.
Article 2
The United Federation of Planets and its members, in pursuit of the purposes stated, shall act in accordance with the following principles:
- The United Federation of Planets is based on the sovereign equality of all its members;
- In order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, all members shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with these Articles of Federation;
- All members shall settle their interplanetary disputes by peaceful means in such manner that intragalactic peace, security, and justice, are not endangered;
- In all interplanetary relations, all members shall refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any planetary social system, or in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Federation of Planets;
- All members shall give the United Federation of Planets every assistance in any action taken in accordance with these Articles of Federation, and shall refrain from assisting any planetary social system against which the United Federation of Planets is taking preventive or enforcement action;
- The United Federation of Planets shall ensure that planetary social systems which are not members of the United Federation of Planets act in accordance with these principles as necessary for the maintenance of intra-galactic peace and security;
- Nothing within these Articles of Federation shall authorize the United Federation of Planets to intervene in matters which are essentially the domestic jurisdiction of any planetary social system, or shall require the members to submit such matters to settlement under these Articles of Federation; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.
CHAPTER II: Membership
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