The mandate to register and publish treaties takes its origin in the provisions of Article 102 of the UN Charter which provides that: 1. Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it. 2. No party to any such treaty or international agreement which has not been registered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article may invoke that treaty or agreement before any organ of the United Nations. Under Article 102 of the Charter, the Member States of the United Nations have a legal obligation to register treaties and international agreements with the Secretariat, and the Secretariat represented by the Treaty Section is mandated to publish registered treaties and international agreements. Article 102 of the Charter reflects the objectives of Article 18 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, i.e. to ensure that all treaties remain in the public domain thus discouraging secret diplomacy between States and advancing the cause of peace. **In terms of Article 102, para. 2, the registration is the prerequisite for a treaty or international agreement to be invoked before the International Court of Justice or any other organ of the United Nations. The General Assembly, by resolution 97(I), established Regulations to give effect to Article 102 of the Charter. Furthermore, the Treaty Section's legislative mandate to carry out the treaty registration and publication functions was unequivocally stated in the General Assembly resolutions 23 (I) (Registration of treaties and international agreements), 24 (I) (Transfer of certain functions, activities and assets of the League of Nations), 364 (IV) (Registration and publications of treaties and international agreements), 482(V) (Registration and publications of treaties and international agreements), 33/141 (Registration and publications of treaties and international agreements pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations), 51/158 (Electronic treaty database), 54/28 (United Nations Decade of International Law, 55/2 (United Nations Millennium Declaration), 56/77 (United Nations Programme of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law). The terms "treaty" and "international agreement" have not been defined either in the Charter or in the Regulations, and the Secretariat follows the principle that it acts in accordance with the position of the Member State submitting an instrument for registration that, so far as that party is concerned, the instrument is a treaty or an international agreement within the meaning of Article 102. Registration of an instrument submitted by a Member State, therefore, does not imply a judgement by the Secretariat on the nature of the instrument, the status of a party or any similar question. It is the understanding of the Secretariat that its acceptance for registration of an instrument does not confer on the instrument the status of a treaty or an international agreement if it does not already have that status, and does not confer upon a party a status which it would not otherwise have. To register and publish treaties and international agreements, the Treaty Section relies on the integrated Treaty Information and Publication System.