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The United Nations General Assembly
All
member states are represented by a delegation of government representatives in
the UN General Assembly. Each country has one vote in this organ, which
constitutes the organisational centre of the United Nations system.
The
United Nations is an international organisation of traditional character,
meaning that the world organisation is made up of states. The representatives of
national governments meet in its organs. This applies to the General Assembly in
particular, which is often wrongly characterised as a 'world parliament'. It is
certainly not a parliament, but a forum for intergovernmental cooperation and
consultation, even if the plenary's work - as known from the work of parliaments
- is carried out in committees.
Besides
the General Assembly and other committees, numerous ancillary and
auxiliary organs supplement the structure of the General Assembly. The
differentiation out into innumerable committees counts as one of the
landmark features of the UN system. Article 7 of the UN
Charter
empowers
the principal organs of the UN to create auxiliary and ancillary organs,
and great use has been made of this throughout the organisation’s
history.
The
annually session of the General Assembly starts at the beginning September
at the UN’s headquarters in New York. The main bodies are elected first
followed by a general debate which is usually headed up by the foreign
ministries of the member states, where large media interest can normally
be noted. Whereas the session usually ended in December in former times,
the General Assembly now usually meets throughout the year. |
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Main
Bodies
 | 1.
Committee:
Disarmament and International Security |
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2.
Committee:
Economic and Financial |
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3.
Committee:
Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Issues |
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4.
Committee:
Special Political and Decolonisation |
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5.
Committee:
Administrative and Budget (internal) |
| 6.
Committee:
Legal
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As a
rule, decisions are reached by a simple majority. A three-quarters majority is
required for important issues, such as accepting or excluding new members or the
election of non-permanent members of the
Security Council.
Over
the last few years, making decisions without a formal vote in the consensus
procedure has become standard.
The
General Assembly makes important decisions (for instance, concerning budgets for
ancillary organs) internally, i.e. within the system of the United
Nations, recommendations are made externally which are not
internationally legally binding for member states. However, this does not mean
that these recommendations remain ineffective, as the "Universal
Declaration of Human Rights"
passed
in 1948 demonstrates, and which the following text excerpt highlights:
"Even if
the General Assembly has no weighty instruments at its disposal such as
sanctions, this does not mean that its decisions and declarations remain without
effect. Together with the political and moral authority of the world
organisation, public pressure has aided numerous declarations and
recommendations by the General Assembly to become universally accepted and has
advanced the development of political and legal standards worldwide."
[taken from: Sven Gareis/Johannes Varwick, Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen;
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Schriftenreihe Band 403, Bonn 2003, P.
49]
More pages on UN Bodies:
[Author: Ragnar Müller]
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