United Nations General Committee

United Nations General Committee

Legal status	Active
Headquarters	New York, United States
Membership	28 members
President	Philemon Yang
Parent organization	United Nations General Assembly
Website	www.un.org/en/ga/general/general.shtml

The United Nations General Committee is a committee of the United Nations General Assembly whose main purpose is to organize the body's agenda, among other things.

Mandate

The Mandate of the General Committee consists of the following: ^{[1] [2] [3]}

• Creating a provisional agenda for the General Assembly, as well as any supplementary lists,
• Assisting the President of the General Assembly and the General Assembly in drawing up the agenda for each plenary meeting,
• Making recommendations to the General Assembly concerning the recess and closing dates of the session,
• Coordinating the proceedings of the main committees by allocating agenda items, as well as determining the priority of said items,
• Entertaining requests for the inclusion of additional items in the agenda,
• Assisting in the general conduct of the work of the General Assembly,
• Making recommendations to the General Assembly.

The Committee meets periodically to review the progress of the General Assembly and its committees. It also meets at such times as the President deems necessary or upon the request of any other of its members.

An individual Vice-President of the General Assembly does not have the power to unilaterally add an item to the General Assembly's agenda, not even if they are a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council such as the United States. For example, the General Committee has regularly rejected agenda items about the participation of the Republic of China (Taiwan), ^[4] even when raised by a sitting Vice-President who formally recognizes the Republic of China (such as Guatemala in 1993). ^{[5] [6]}

Regional Groups

The rules of the General Assembly state that the President and 21 Vice-Presidents must be elected from the following Regional Groups: ^[7]

• 5 from the African Group
• 3 from the Asia-Pacific Group
• 3 from the Eastern European Group
• 3 from the Latin American and Caribbean Group
• 2 from the Western European and Others Group
• 5 from the Permanent Members of the Security Council

In addition, the chairs of the six Main Committees must consist of one from each group, with the remaining chair rotating unevenly between the three non-European groups. ^{[a] [7]}

(Prior to 1994, there were seven Main Committees, with two chairs from the African Group, one chair from every other group, and the remaining chair rotating between the Asian Group and the Latin American Group "every alternate year".) ^[7]

The rules also state that every member of the General Committee must be from a different country. ^[8] As the permanent members of the Security Council are always vice-presidents, this rule officially bans the permanent members from being President of the General Assembly or chairs of any Main Committee.

Members

The composition of the Committee for the 79th Session of the General Assembly is as follows: the President of the United Nations General Assembly, the 21 Vice-Presidents of the Assembly and the chairs of the six main committees. The current members are as follow: ^[1]

President of the General Assembly

Name	Country	Position
Philemon Yang	Cameroon	President of the General Assembly

Vice-Presidents

African States	Asia-Pacific States	Eastern European and Other States	Latin American and Caribbean States	Western European and Other States	Permanent Members of the Security Council
Algeria	Micronesia	Kyrgyzstan	Barbados	Austria	China
Angola	Tonga	Moldova	Guatemala	Italy	France
Ghana	Thailand	Turkmenistan	Venezuela		Russian Federation
Madagascar					United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Senegal					United States of America

Chairpersons of the Six Main Committees

Name	Country	Position
Maritza Chan Valverde	Costa Rica	Chair of the First Committee
Muhammad Abdul Muhith	Bangladesh	Chair of the Second Committee
Zéphyrin Maniratanga	Burundi	Chair of the Third Committee
Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes	Latvia	Chair of the Fourth Committee
Egriselda Aracely González López	El Salvador	Chair of the Fifth Committee
Rui Vinhas	Portugal	Chair of the Sixth Committee

See also

• United Nations Credentials Committee

Notes

1. The rule states the pattern ABAC→ABAC→BABC→ABAC→BABC repeating every 20 years, where A is the African Group, B is the Asia-Pacific Group, and C is the Latin American and Caribbean Group.

References

1. "General Committee: Composition for the 79th session". General Assembly of the United Nations. United Nations. n.d. Retrieved 2025-03-17.
2. Manhire, Vanessa, ed. (2021). "United Nations Handbook 2021–22" (PDF). United Nations Handbook:: An Annual Guide for Those Working within the United Nations (58th ed.). Wellington: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand. ISSN   0110-1951. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2019.
3. Ruder, Nicole; Nakano, Kenji; Aeschlimann, Johann (2017). Aeschlimann, Johann; Regan, Mary (eds.). The GA Handbook: A Practical Guide to the United Nations General Assembly (PDF) (2nd ed.). New York: Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations. ISBN   978-0-615-49660-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 November 2018.
4. Damm, Jens; Lim, Paul (2012). European Perspectives on Taiwan. Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 160–63. ISBN   9783531943039. By mid 2009, 16 applications for membership on behalf of Taiwan had been sent to the UN, but, in each of these cases, the General Assembly's General Committee, which sets the Assembly's agenda, decided against even raising the question during the Assembly's session.
5. United Nations General Assembly Session 48 Agenda item A/48/191 1993-08-09.
6. United Nations General Assembly Session 64 Agenda item A/64/100 2009-06-15.
7. "Who are the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly?". United Nations.
8. "General Committee, Rules of Procedure | UN General Assembly". United Nations.