An Emergency Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly is an unscheduled meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to make urgent recommendations on a particular issue. Such recommendations can include collective measures and can include the use of armed force when necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression when the United Nations Security Council fails to exercise its responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security due to lack of unanimity of its permanent ("veto") members.
Under Chapter Five of the Charter of the United Nations, the Security Council is normally entrusted with maintaining international peace and security. However, on 3 November 1950, the General Assembly passed Resolution 377 (Uniting for Peace) which expanded its authority to consider topics that were previously reserved solely for the Security Council. Under the Resolution, if the Security Council cannot come to a decision on an issue because of a lack of unanimity, the General Assembly may hold an emergency special session within 24 hours to consider the same matter. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The mechanism of the emergency special session [5] was created in 1950 by the General Assembly's adoption of its "Uniting for Peace" resolution, which made the necessary changes to the Assembly's Rules of Procedure. [6] The resolution likewise declared that:
... if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately with a view to making appropriate recommendations to Members for collective measures, including in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and security. If not in session at the time, the General Assembly may meet in emergency special session within twenty-four hours of the request therefor. Such emergency special session shall be called if requested by the Security Council on the vote of any seven members, or by a majority of the Members of the United Nations...
Emergency special sessions are rare, a fact reflected in that there have been only eleven such sessions in the history of the United Nations. Additionally, most emergency special sessions run for a single session, with the exception of the 7th, 10th and 11th, which have been reconvened four, seventeen, and nineteen times respectively. [7]
The procedure to call an emergency special session are laid out in the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly. The rules pertaining to emergency special sessions are as follows (as amended by Res. 1991 that increased majority needed from 7 to 9): [8]
Emergency special session | Topic | Convened by | Date | Resolution |
---|---|---|---|---|
First | Suez Crisis | ![]() | 1–10 November 1956 | A/3354 |
Second | Soviet invasion of Hungary | 4–10 November 1956 | A/3355 | |
Third | Lebanon crisis | 8–21 August 1958 | A/3905 | |
Fourth | Congo Crisis | 17–19 September 1960 | A/4510 | |
Fifth | Six-Day War | ![]() | 17 June – 18 September 1967 | A/6798 |
Sixth | Soviet invasion of Afghanistan | ![]() | 10–14 January 1980 | ES-6/1, 2 |
Seventh | Israeli–Palestinian conflict | ![]() | 22–29 July 1980 | |
Eighth | South African occupation of Namibia (South West Africa) | ![]() | 3–14 September 1981 | ES-8/1, 2 |
Ninth | Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights (Golan Heights Law) | ![]() | 29 January – 5 February 1982 | ES-9/1 |
Tenth | Israeli-Palestinian conflict (East Jerusalem and Israeli-occupied territories) | Various | 24–25 April 1997 | ES-10/1, 2 |
Eleventh | Russian invasion of Ukraine | ![]() | 28 February–2 March 2022 |
The United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 78th session, its powers, composition, functions, and procedures are set out in Chapter IV of the United Nations Charter. The UNGA is responsible for the UN budget, appointing the non-permanent members to the Security Council, appointing the UN secretary-general, receiving reports from other parts of the UN system, and making recommendations through resolutions. It also establishes numerous subsidiary organs to advance or assist in its broad mandate. The UNGA is the only UN organ where all member states have equal representation.
A United Nations General Assembly resolution is a decision or declaration voted on by all member states of the United Nations in the General Assembly.
The tenth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly centers on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The session was first convened in 1997 under the president of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail of Malaysia. This occurred when the Security Council failed to make a decision on the issue at two different meetings. The session is currently ongoing as of October 26, 2023.
A United Nations resolution is a formal text adopted by a United Nations (UN) body. Although any UN body can issue resolutions, in practice most resolutions are issued by the Security Council or the General Assembly.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 377 A, the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, states that in any cases where the Security Council, because of a lack of unanimity among its five permanent members (P5), fails to act as required to maintain international security and peace, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately and may issue appropriate recommendations to UN members for collective measures, including the use of armed force when necessary, in order to maintain or restore international security and peace. It was adopted 3 November 1950, after fourteen days of Assembly discussions, by a vote of 52 to 5, with 2 abstentions. The resolution was designed to provide the UN with an alternative avenue for action when at least one P5 member uses its veto to obstruct the Security Council from carrying out its functions mandated by the UN Charter.
Resolution 82 was adopted by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 25 June 1950. It condemned the "armed attack on the Republic of Korea by forces from North Korea", while calling for "the immediate cessation of hostilities" and for "the authorities in North Korea to withdraw forthwith their armed forces to the 38th parallel". The measure was adopted with 9 voting for, none opposed, and one abstention by the Soviet Union, who was boycotting the UN at the time for its recognition of the Republic of China as China's representative to the organization.
The first emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly was convened on 1 November and ended on 10 November 1956 resolving the Suez Crisis by creating the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) to provide an international presence between the belligerents in the canal zone. The emergency special session was convened due to the failure of the Security Council to resolve the instability at the Suez Canal, invoking "Uniting for Peace" resolution which transferred the issue from the Security Council to the General Assembly. On the fourth day of the session the Canadian representative, Lester B. Pearson, introduced the concept of a UN police force. The creation of the United Nations Emergency Force was approved by the General Assembly with 57 supports and zero opposes. The vote had 19 countries abstaining, including the United Kingdom, France, Egypt, the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries.
The sixth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly was held between 10 and 14 January 1980 to consider the situation in Afghanistan. As the Soviet–Afghan War began members of the United Nations General Assembly requested the Security Council consider the situation. The USSR veto of a resolution led the other members to invoke the 'Uniting for Peace' resolution to defer the issue to the General Assembly in an emergency special session. It was the sixth emergency special session since the 'Uniting for Peace' resolution was adopted in 1950. The session was dominated by questions of its legitimacy since the Afghanistan government had invited the Soviet intervention in their civil war. Led by the non-aligned members, the session ended with a resolution from the General Assembly calling for the immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and the cessation of all outside intervention, subversion, coercion or constraint, of any kind whatsoever, so that its people could freely choose its own economic, political and social systems.
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United Nations Security Council resolution 462, adopted on 9 January 1980, after considering an item on the agenda of the council and given the lack of unanimity amongst its permanent members, the council decided to call an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
United Nations Security Council resolution 500, adopted on 28 January 1982, after considering an item on the agenda of the council and given the lack of unanimity amongst its permanent members, the council decided to call an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights.
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