NAME: KELVIN GUPTA

ROLL NO. : 2018HIS1053

COURSE: B.A (HONS) HISTORY

SEMISTER: IVth

PAPER: UNITED NATIONS AND GLOBAL CONFLICTS

Topic: Discuss the structure and functions of

the UN General Assembly.

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization founded in

1945. It is currently made up of 193 Member States. Its mission and
work guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding
Charter and implemented by its various organs and specialized
agencies. Analysis of United Nations functioning is not possible without
discussing the nature, structure of the United Nations General
Assembly along with its social, economical, political achievements as
well as role in making world peace and security. Here we will discuss
about the organizations of general assembly and its working, it’s
functions and reforms in general assembly.
General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United
Nations In fact, it is the only organ in which all the members are
represented. It has 193 members presently. South Sudan is the most
recent addition to the United Nations which became the UN member in
2011. Each member in the assembly has equal voting right. It is
primarily a deliberative, supervisory and reviewing organ of the United
Nations.
General assembly is often compared with the parliament but since it
represents the member-state not people and the decisions and
resolutions of the Assembly are mostly recommendations and not of a
statutory nature, as only some of its resolutions are legally binding. But
they reflect the broader world opinion on the issue as well as they carry
a moral obligation for the world community at large.

UN General Assembly's organization’s and it’s working :-

The General assembly meets for its regular session on the Tuesday in
the third week of September every year. Each member-state is entitled
to a delegation of five deputies in the Assembly. The session of the
General Assembly begins under the President of the previous year and
the first task of the General assembly in each year's session is to elect
new President. However, it is now a convention that the President is
not the representative of any powerful country. The Presidency of the
Assembly is however rotated every year among the five group or states
-African, Asian, East European, West European and Latin American and
Caribbean countries and the other states.
Assembly can also held the special session apart from these regular
sessions in these situation:
(a)At the request of the security council
(b) or of one member Supported by the majority of member-states.
Besides, Emergency Special Sessions may also be called within 24hours
on the request of the Security Council supported by any nine members
of the Council, or by a majority of United Nations members, or by one
member if supported by the majority members of the Assembly.
What is the role plays by the member state? Member States discuss
and express their views on the most important international issues in
the general debate which is held at the beginning of each regular
session every year. Most questions are then discussed in the six Main
Committees. General Assembly functions with help of six Main
Committees, two Procedural Committees: General Committee and the
Credential Committee, Plenary meetings and occasionally through
some Adhoc Committees.
There are, however, certain issues which are dealt only in the plenary
meeting and not in any of the Main Committees. All the discussions in
the General Assembly are decided by voting through resolution passed
in the plenary meetings after the issues have been considered by the
respective Committees and report have been submitted by Committees
in the plenary meetings. In plenary meetings, resolutions may be
adopted by acclamation, without objection or without a vote may be
recorded or taken by roll-call.
Voting system:-
 Power of vote- One member: One Vote;
 Decisions and declarations made by two-third (2/3) majority of
the members (Present & Voting).
Voting right of the members include:-
 Admission of new member of the UN
 Suspension of Rights & privileges of memberships;
 Expulsion of members
 Operations of trusteeship system;
 Budgetary matters.
Thus, the work of the United Nations is carried out in three ways. First ,
the committees and other bodies established by the Assembly study
and prepare their reports on these specific issues such as disarmament,
peacekeeping, development and human rights which are then
discussed and resolutions are passed in the Assembly meetings. So the
Main Committees and the Procedural Committees help the functioning
of the General Assembly. Secondly, decisions are also taken in the
International Conferences called by the Assembly. Thirdly, a bulk of
work is carried out by the Secretariat of the United Nations. It is
however noticeable that a substantial amount of work load and
decision-making is shared by the General Assembly in the functioning of
the United Nations.

Main Committees
The Main Committees carry out major share of the responsibilities of
the General Assembly. They consider the agenda items when referred
to them by the General Assembly, and they also prepare draft
recommendations and resolutions for submission to the General
Assembly. However, these Committees cannot include any item on the
agenda on their initiative. All member-states have a right to be
represented on these Committees. Decisions are taken by majority vote
of the members present and voting. Each Main Committee elects a
chair three vice-chairs and a Rapporteur. The six Main Committees are
as follows:
Procedural Committees
As discussed earlier, there are two Procedural Committees:
(a) General Committee
The General committees consists of the President of the General
assembly, the 21 Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly, and six
chairs of the Main Committees. The President of the Assembly presides
over the meetings of this Committee. It is a steering Committee which
determines the agenda and the priorities of the general debate.
Besides, it allocates items to seven standing committees and assists the
President in conducting of his responsibilities like in drawing up agenda
for plenary meetings, determining the priorities of the agenda,
coordinating the activities of the Committees and so on.
(b)The Credential Committee
The Credentials Committee consists of nine members and is appointed
in the beginning of each session of the General Assembly on the
proposal of the President. The Committee is mandated to examine the
credentials of representatives of member States and to report to the
General Assembly thereon. However, the member whose credentials
are objected to is treated by the Assembly as a regular member unless
the Committee submits its report and a decision on the issue is taken by
the General Assembly.

Functions of the General Assembly :-

The General Assembly occupies a central position as the chief
deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the United
Nations. It provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of the
full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter. It also
plays a significant role in the process of standard-setting and the
codification of international law. The Assembly meets in regular session
intensively from September to December each year, and thereafter as
required.
 The General Assembly plays an important role in the
maintenance of international peace and security. The history of
General Assembly Can be understood as a progressive increase in
its authority and influence especially in relationship to the
Security Council between the 1945 and 1980 and then followed
by a substantial decline thereafter. General assembly have some
powers with regards to matters of security in the sounding session
of the United Nations under the Articles 10, 11, 14 and 35 of the
UN Charter.
Article 10 empowers the Assembly to discuss and make
recommendations to the UN members or to the Security council or to
both any issue and any matter that falls within the scope of the UN
Charter. Article 11 further empowers the Assembly to draw attention o
issues or situations which might endanger international peace and
security. Article 35, provided that such issue is not under the
Consideration of the Security Council." As a result of the assertion of
the smaller countries, the General Assembly was given under the
Charter, tie powers to consider and recommend on matters of peace
and security, provided such matter is not under the Security Council
consideration.
 It is important to note here that during the initial years of the UN
the functioning of the Security Council was frustrated by the cold
war politics between the US and Soviet bloc due to their use of
veto powers the Council. This almost paralyzed the working of the
Security Council. It was at this time that the General Assembly
provided a definite alternative to the Security Council which can
be seen during Korean crisis. This made necessary to vest some
 special powers in the General Assembly in order to enable UN to
function normally. Thus, a decision step was taken in the form of
"Uniting for peace Resolution" (UPR) in 1950 which enabled the
General Assembly to call, on the recommendation of the majority
of at least seven members of the Council or by simple majority of
members of the General Assembly, for a special Assembly session
at any time. when the Security Council comes to a halt due the
excessive use of the veto powers by its permanent members. A
Peace Resolution Commission and a Collective Measures
Committee were created under the authority of General Assembly
by this Resolution, to work for international peace and security.
The use of this resolution can be seen in Suez crisis 1956,
Hungarian crisis 1956, Lebanon crisis 1958 and Congo problem in
1960.
The Council it is true, has an upper hand in two aspect
(i) one Council is a smaller body.
(ii) authority to demand participation of the member-states in a military
action under the provisions of Chapter Vll of the Charter. Thus, on the
whole the role of General Assembly has been secondary to Council.
 The General Assembly has played an essentially constructive role
in its efforts to counter the problems of disarmament by
formulating general principles and facilitating the cause of nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament, through the establishment of
appropriate institutions and machinery, for investigation and
negotiation regarding the matters of disarmament. The Assembly
has held three special sessions on disarmament in 1978, 1982,
and 1988 in order to further and encourage the cause of
disarmament. It provides substantive and organizational support
 for seeking international norms through the work of the General
Assembly.

 The Assembly has asserted itself by performing its supervisory

functions over the trusteeship Council. The Assembly facilitated
and accelerated the process of decolonization through its active
participation and assertiveness on the colonial questions. The
Fourth Committee of the assembly had been very active in this
task. As M.J. Peterson puts it across, ‘it devoted many meetings
to hearing from inhabitants and others with information about
conditions in each colony, constantly urged an early end of
colonial rule, and commented in detail on conditions and progress
toward independence in individual countries'. Assembly passed
the Resolution 1514-The Declaration on the Granting of
Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. and also
established a Standing Committee in order to fasten up
decolonization process. However, the Trusteeship Council is
redundant today with end of the problem of colonialism.

 The Assembly's relation with the Economic and Social Council

(ECOSOC) has been a little more complex. The influx of new
members to the assembly led to the expansion of the ECOSOC,
where now the Third World became the majority and the decision
which was based on majority vote also obviously got in the favour
of the developing countries in the 1960s. Thus, ECOSOC got
relegated to background The establishment of UN Conference on
Trade and Development, G-77 and the struggle for NIEO
weakened the ECCOSOC immensely Thus, General Assembly came
to be utilized as a forum to voice Third World concerns.
 The General Assembly elects and admits new members to the
other organs and specialized agencies of the UN. it shares its
elective power with the Security Council in election of the
Secretary-General the election judges of the International Court
of Justice and admitted of new members in the United Nations. A
new member is admitted to the UN by the General Assembly on
the recommendation of Security Council acting as per the
provisions of the Article 4 also suspends and expels its members
on the recommendation of the Council, if the Council takes any
preventive measure against the Charter Apart from admitting new
members to the UN the Assembly member, if the member
violates any of the provisions of the Charter or if the member fails
to pay its financial contribution to the Organization Besides, the
General Assembly electes the ten non-permanent member of the
Council, and all 54 members of the Economic and Social council
Moreover, it also has the responsibility of electing some
members of the Trusteeship Council as per the provisions of
Article 86 of the Charter Thus, the Assembly plays a decisive role
in the composition and organization of the UN and its specialized
agencies.

 Article 17 of the Charter vests in the General Assembly important

financial power to 'consider and approve the budget of the
Organization and then to apportion the expenses to the member-
states'. It further has the power to consider and approve the
budgetary arrangements of the specialized agencies of the UN
under the provisions of the Article 17 and 57. The Assembly
advices the specialized agencies in the administration of their
financial matters. These provisions render to the Assembly some
amount of control over the organization because of it control over
 the budget. However it some limitations as well which can be
seen in 1960s financial crisis in which big countries withheld their
contribution.

 Another role that General Assembly plays is in its capacity of

legislative body whereby it has attempted time and again to kind
of legislate, formulate, codify and institutionalize the international
norms by making some international laws, through declarations
and conventions. this is how it tries to codify-norms for behavior
by the member states in the conducting international relations.
the International Law Commission created in 1948 is one such
example.

 The General Assembly also has significant constitutional powers

has important role in carrying our constitutional amendments
under the Articles 108 and 109. Under the provisions of Article
108 of the Charter, amendments to the present Charter shall
come into force tor all members of the United Nations when they
have been adopted by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the
General Assembly and ratified in accordance with their respective
constitutional processes by two thirds of the members of the
United Nations, including all the permanent members of the
Security Council." The UN Charter has been amended five times
till date. Article 109 provides for the calling of a "General
Conference of the members of the United Nations at a date and
time fixed by two-thirds majority of the members of the General
Assembly and at least nine members of the Security Council when
the review of the Charter is deemed necessary.
Post-1960, the expansion of UN membership took place due to the
decolonization and resultant creation of new States. This was the time
when General assembly focused on some budgetary and constitutional
problems, Besides, the admission of new members in the Assembly
brought to the fore new issues under the Assembly debate and
discussions. These Third World countries raised their voice against neo-
colonialism, racism, Zionism and apartheid and in support of human
rights, disarmament, their demand for a New Economic International
Order (NEIO) and environmental issues. The Non-Alignment Movement
(NAM) and G-77 took the leadership role during this period. But
detente that eased the tensions between the two blocs and the desire
of the permanent members to assert their authority, brought the
Security Council again to the forefront of the United Nations picture. In
the post-cold war period the Assembly has taken up issues of
environment, human rights, famine, poverty, gender, children, etc. to
the forefront of its discussion and debate.
The General Assembly also unequivocally condemned the terrorist
attacks US on 11September 2001. it also condemned the attacks on
India's Parliament on December 13, 2001. Bur the General Assembly
could not do much to stop US unilateral action and its intervention in
Afghanistan-its War on Terror and in Iraq in 2003.

The General Assembly at Work with the Changing Majorities :-

The mosaic of the General Assembly has been transformed with the
culmination of the decolonization process and the collapse of the Soviet
Union. These two developments have also led to the increase in the
membership of the General Assembly from 51 at the first session to 193
today.
 M.J. Peterson has discussed the post-cold war scenario of the decision
making in the General Assembly as follows: The collapse of the Soviet
bloc in the 1989, and then of the USSR itself in 1991, did not
fundamentally change the political structure within the General
assembly because the Third World states remained in vast majority.
Yet, it did have a significant impact on how that majority defined its
goals, by comprehensively discrediting central planning. of the USSR
itself in 1991, did not fundamentally change the political structure
within the General assembly because the Third World states remained
in vast majority. Yet, it did have a significant impact on how that
majority defined its goals, by comprehensively discrediting central
planning.
Thus, the shift in the balance of membership towards a Third world
majority has brought a pletho1a of new issues to be discussed in the
general Assembly:, These issues are related to the challenges the world
community faces today regarding human rights, equitable economic
development for all states, environmental issues, issues of climate
change disarmament, weapons of mass destruction, women and
children and so on. These are related to a wide range of areas and
demand international attention and action. However, how far general
Assembly could be utilized as a forum to absorbs these challenges in a
different question all together Their are broad prospects and
possibilities of cooperation and coalition by developing and developed
countries on issues like human rights, environment, equitable economic
development, poverty alleviation, gender and child related issues,
technological and Cultural issues etc. It is up to the member-states to
use the general Assembly platform for finding our solutions of these
pressing issues in the present times.
Reforms in the General Assembly:-
There have been several proposals of reforming and restructuring the
general assembly. it has been argued that the representative of
member State in the assembly are not elected and so the authority of
the assembly gets limited. thus, it has been proposed that other type of
bodies could be constituted which would have directly elected
representatives. However, there is a little possibility that non-
developing countries accept such a proposal. Nor is this a practical or
feasible solution.
It is only the governments which have the authority to implement their
commitments made at the international level. The best that can be
done is to make it more democratic in its functioning and increase
democratic legitimacy of the body by spreading pro-democracy and
inclusive institution in member-states. Moreover, General Assembly
should take initiatives to involve and build connections with NGOs and
other corporations in dealing with various current pressing issues like
gender, human rights, environmental issues, etc.
what actually is needed is a long-term planning and streamlining of its
agenda, so that the issues included in the agenda can reach a fruitful
debate and discussion which could then culminate in a substantial
declaration or a resolution. This would further contribute in building up
of a world opinion on that particular issue and would set the
international norms for the world community.

CONCLUSION
An evaluation of the above mentioned functions and powers of the
General Assembly reveals that General Assembly is an essential and
necessary principal organ of The United Nations without which it
cannot function. It provides the member states the sufficient space to
discuss and debate on issues of international importance. It provides a
platform for multilateral negotiation and multilateral diplomacy as it
gives equitable treatment to all its members, no matter how big or
small in size or power they are. Each member enjoys equal voting rights
in the Assembly.
The powers of the Assembly reached its zenith on the adoption of the
'Uniting for Peace Resolution, 1950 as it empowered the Assembly to
take necessary actions with regard to the matters of international
peace and security when the Security Council stood paralyzed due to
excess use of veto power by its permanent members.
However, in the post-cold war period it has been easier to reach a
consensus on issues of common concern and urgency like ones related
to human rights, gender, children, environment, and climate change
and so on. Though most of the decisions of the General Assembly are
only recommendations but these recommendations are very important
as they have a moral force and set new norms for the world community
on the whole. Thus, as long as the United Nations exists, so would the
General assembly, as its deliberative body providing guidelines for
world peace, development and cooperation.