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| Authors: | Lauren Vriens |
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Updated: September 17, 2009
Since its inception more than sixty years ago, the United Nations General Assembly has been a forum for lofty declarations, sometimes audacious rhetoric, and debate over the world's most vexing issues, from poverty to peace and security. In the 2009 session, attention will likely focus on the global economic crisis, nuclear proliferation, climate change, and global health issues. As the deliberative and representative organ of the United Nations, the assembly holds general debate in the UN's New York headquarters from September to December, with special sessions convened thereafter as required.
Policy debate could also take place in the delegates' lounge over Iran's nuclear ambitions and the Middle East peace process, as the United States attempts to invigorate talks between the Israelis and Palestinians. The sixty-fourth assembly president is Dr. Ali Abdessalam Treki, who has outlined themes for the session, including "the reform of the UN, environment, the international financial situation, social issues, disarmament, education, [and] diseases."
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is the only universally representative body of the five principal organs of the United Nations. The other major bodies are the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice. As delineated in the Charter of the United Nations, the function of the General Assembly is to discuss, debate, and make recommendations on a range of subjects pertaining to international peace and security - including disarmament, human rights, international law, and peaceful arbitration between disputing nations. It elects the nonpermanent members of the Security Council and other bodies such as the Human Rights Council, and appoints the secretary-general based on the Security Council's recommendation. It considers reports from the other four organs of the United Nations, assesses the financial situations of member states, and approves the UN budget - its most concrete role. The Assembly also works with the Security Council to elect the judges of the International Court of Justice.
The General Assembly is the only part of the United Nations that represents all 192 member states, each of which has one vote. In addition, the UN's nonmember observer states, which include the Vatican and the Palestinian Authority, have the right to speak at assembly meetings but cannot vote on resolutions. Resolutions need a two-thirds majority to pass. Often voting blocs are formed around groups such as the G-77, a loose coalition of member states from the developing world. The assembly's president changes with each annual session. Ali Abdessalam Treki was elected president of the sixty-fourth session in June 2009, having served three times as Libya's ambassador to the United Nations. As president, Treki's priorities for the sixty-fourth session are poverty and human rights issues as a means to promote international peace and security. "Freedom and human rights in social, economic and cultural terms--rights to food, to housing, to education and health care --these are all extremely important issues that have to do with our peace and security," he says. Moreover, he has emphasized the need to formulate a more influential assembly, with greater responsibilities and power, so it can effectively respond to the growing challenges that it faces.
Yes, say many UN experts and leading donor nations. Efforts towards revitalizing its work have been ongoing for many years. Key motivating factors (PDF) are considered to be increasing the power of the assembly vis-ą-vis the Security Council, as well as making debates more constructive and less repetitive. But, the assembly has continued to resist deep-seated reforms, a reflection of the rift between its many members from the developing world, who want to retain a strong say in its deliberations, and wealthy nations that serve as its main donors. Small improvements do take place, however. In April 2007, the General Assembly, for the first time in sixty years, mandated a significant overhaul of the UN system of internal justice, declaring it "slow, cumbersome, ineffective and lacking in professionalism." The new system, which became functional in 2009, formally established a mediation division within the UN. The Internal Justice Council has already begun interviewing potential judges to ensure their independence.
In 2005, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented a report that criticized the assembly for focusing excessively on consensus and passing resolutions that reflected "the lowest common denominator" of opinions. Michael W. Doyle, an international affairs expert who teaches at Columbia University, says the assembly is "an important institution that has never quite sorted out its role" in terms of being a truly deliberative, functional body, and has "insufficient deliberation and not enough genuine discussion." Doyle, who was an aide to Annan, says that the assembly could enhance its relevance by holding hearings with expert testimony. The assembly has made an effort in recent years to make its work more substantive and relevant. Resolution 59/313, adopted in 2005, established a more influential role for the assembly's president to help achieve this goal.
The General Assembly has the power of censuring states for violating UN Charter principles. In the 1960s the assembly refused to seat the South African delegations because the country was practicing apartheid, in violation of both Security Council resolutions and principles of international law. In 1992, the assembly refused to give Serbia the former Yugoslavian seat in the assembly. Belgrade later was given representation under the name of Yugoslavia.
Separately, Israel for many years was barred from serving on UN commissions and panels because Arab states blocked it from meeting with the Mideast regional group at the United Nations. This changed in 2000 when Israel was permitted into another regional group.
"The General Assembly is not an action body. It is just that - an assembly," says Ambassador Donald McHenry, former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. On some issues, such as the U.S. embargo on Cuba, resolutions get passed every year, but have yet to stir policy change. General Assembly resolutions are still significant, however, as indicators of Member States' positions on a given issue. They can also prove useful by outlining organizing principles and proposing initiatives for Member States, says McHenry. Some assembly actions have had more influence or incited more opposition than others:
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