United Nations General Assembly

United Nations General Assembly, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It is made up of all the UN member nations, with each having one vote. According to the UN Charter, the General Assembly may discuss any question or matter brought before it and may make recommendations to member nations and also to the UN Security Council; the Assembly may not, however, make recommendations on matters that the Council has under consideration, except at the request of the Council. The most important and frequently misunderstood aspect of the General Assembly is that, according to the charter, its resolutions are not legally binding; the force of its recommendations rests on their representation of world public opinion.

The Assembly meets in one regular session each year, opening on the third Tuesday of September and ordinarily concluded by Christmas. It may also meet in special sessions at the request of the Security Council or a majority of Assembly members. On the basis of the “Uniting for Peace” resolution of November 1950, the Assembly may also meet in emergency session within 24 hours at the request of any nine members of the Security Council or a majority of Assembly members. This mechanism allows the Assembly to act if the Security Council, because of a lack of unanimity among its permanent members, “fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”

The Assembly passes resolutions by simple majority, except on important questions, such as recommendations on peace and security; election of members to any of the other five UN organs; admission, suspension, and expulsion of members; and budgetary matters. Decisions in these matters require a two-thirds majority. The assembly elects a president and 21 vice presidents for each session. The agenda, which rarely contains less than 100 items, is distributed among six main committees. Two of these committees deal with political and security questions while the remaining committees deal with economic and financial; social, humanitarian, and cultural; administrative and budgetary; and legal questions.

The organization of the work of each session is the task of the General (Steering) Committee, which consists of the president, the 21 vice presidents, and the chairpersons of the seven main committees (who are elected by those bodies). A nine-member Credentials Committee passes on the validity of accreditations. The assembly is assisted by two standing committees and may set up ad hoc bodies.

The General Assembly has exclusive authority to set the UN budget, paid for by all members according to an agreed-upon quota. The U.S. makes the largest contribution, amounting to 22 percent of the budget.