The movement was founded by the developing countries in 1961 during the Cold War era when world was ruled based on a bipolar system of Capitalism and Communism.
A significant milestone in the development of the Non-Aligned Movement was the 1955 Bandung Conference, a conference of Asian and African states hosted by Indonesian president Sukarno, who gave a significant contribution to promote this movement. The 29 attending nations declared their desire not to become involved in the Cold War and adopted a "declaration on promotion of world peace and cooperation."
During the conference the Ten Principles of Bandung were formed which included:
1. Respect for fundamental human rights and for the purposes and principles for the Charter of the United Nations.
2. Respect for the sovereignty and territories integrity of all nations.
3. Recognition of equality of all races and of the equality of all nations large and small.
4. Abstention from intervention or interference in the internal affairs of another country.
5. Respect for the right of each nation to defend itself, singly or collectively, in conformity with the charter of the United Nations.
6. (A) Abstention from the use of arrangements of collective defence to serve the particular interests of any of the big powers.
(B) Abstention by any country from exerting pressures on other countries.
7. Refraining from acts or threats of aggression or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any country.
8. Settlement of all international disputes, by peaceful means, such as negotiation, conciliation, arbitration of judicial settlement as well as other peaceful means of the parties' own choices, in conformity with the charter of the United Nations.
9. Promotion of Mutual interest and cooperation.
10. Respect for justice and international obligations.
Six years after Bandung, an initiative of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito led to the first Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, which was held in September 1961 in Belgrade. The term non-aligned movement appears first in the fifth conference in 1976, where participating countries are denoted as members of the movement.
The organization was founded in Belgrade in 1961, and was largely the brainchild of Yugoslavia's president, Josip Broz Tito, India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah, and Indonesia's first president, Sukarno. All five leaders were prominent advocates of a middle course for states in the Developing World between the Western and Eastern blocs in the Cold War.
The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and contain 55% of the world population. Membership is particularly concentrated in countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World.
The Bases for NAM's membership, set during its preliminary meeting in Cairo, Egypt, in 1961 before the body's summit was held in Belgrade, indicated that NAM was not to play a passive role in international arena but, instead, was to adopt independent positions serving the interests of its member states.
The current requirements are that the candidate country has displayed practices in accordance with the ten "Bandung principles."
Presently the movement is pursuing the following objectives:
- Strengthening multilateralism and promotion of UN key role
- Playing the role of a political coordinator among the developing countries to boost and defend their common interests at the international system
- Strengthening unity and solidarity among the developing countries based on their common values and priorities.
- Protecting global peace and security and solving international conflicts through peaceful means in accordance to the UN Charter and international laws
- Encouraging friendly relations among all nations based on international laws.
- Improving sustainable development among world nations through international cooperation
- Encouraging mutual respect and practicing human rights and basic freedoms for every nations.
- Promoting peaceful co-existence among nations regardless of their political, economic and social systems.
- Condemning all forms of unilateralism or hegemony in the international relations.
- Coordinating common efforts to counter any threat against international peace and security including the use of force or aggression, any acts of occupation or colonialism or other forms of human rights violations.
- Boosting the UN and helping the process of its democratization
- Consistent following up of global nuclear disarmament
- Condemning the grouping of the world countries upon unjust and unreasonable bases
- Encouraging world nations to voluntarily join mutual agreements reached by regional states for nuclear disarmament
- Promoting international cooperation for peaceful use of nuclear energy
- Strengthening initiatives to promote South-South cooperation as well as the cooperation between NAM and the G-77
- Showing due reaction towards challenges of globalization
- Promoting the role of international bodies including the NGOs to enhance NAM's goals and principles.
The movement has currently 120 members including 53 African, 40 Asian and 26 Latin American countries along with Belarus in Europe.
Iran became the 88th member of the movement in 1979 and has, ever since, been an active member of the body, particularly during the eight years of the imposed war against the country under the Iraqi dictator Saddam Husseni (1980-1988).
In the past three decades, Tehran has actively participated in NAM's meetings, cooperating in its decision-making process regarding major international developments.
One of the major points of Iran-NAM cooperation was the body's support for Iran's peaceful nuclear program in the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and also in the UN Security Council. The movement has issued several statements supporting Tehran's peaceful nuclear activities including the one published at the end of NAM's foreign ministerial meeting in Indonesia in 2006 and another statement which was issued three months later during the body's 14th Summit in Havana, Cuba.
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Tehran, Aug 13, IRNA - The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members and 21 observer countries.
