UN at 80: The General Assembly

The General Assembly is the main forum and policy-making organ within the United Nations (UN) where all 193 member states are represented. Within the assembly, states can discuss, deliberate and construct policies on any of the issues that fall within the UN Charter. The assembly is based at the UN Headquarters in New York.

How the UN General Assembly works

The UN General Assembly meets in regular sessions from September to December each year, and then as required.

Each year, in September, all 193 member states meet annually in New York for the General Assembly session and general debate.

The General Assembly makes important decisions for the UN, including:

• appointing the UN Secretary General on the recommendation of the Security Council
• electing the non-permanent members of the Security Council
• approving the UN budget

Each state has an equal vote, as enshrined in Article 18(1) of the UN Charter. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly. Decisions on other questions are made by a simple majority.

Each year, the General Assembly elects a General Assembly President to serve a one-year term of office. This is through a simple majority vote, usually after a candidate is proposed by one of the five regional groups (African States, Asia-Pacific States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States, and Western European and other States). The General Assembly presidency system differs from the rotating presidency of the Security Council, which is not an election but a monthly rotation among member states by alphabetical order.

Presidents of the Assembly are elected on a yearly basis. The former German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, was elected President of the 80th General Assembly on 2 June 2025. The Bangladeshi Foreign Minister, Khalilur Rahman, was elected President of the 81st General Assembly on 2 June 2026. His term as President will start on 8 September 2026.

Important events in the history of the UN General Assembly

Since its founding in 1945, the UN General Assembly has played a central role in shaping international norms and responding to global challenges.

One of the assembly’s earliest milestones was the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, alongside the Genocide Convention.

In 1950, the assembly passed the “Uniting for Peace” resolution, enabling it to recommend collective action when the Security Council is deadlocked. This authority was demonstrated during crises such as the Suez Canal conflict and, more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In 1952, Iceland presented the President of the UN General Assembly with a gavel, used to open and close sessions, adopt an agenda and vote on resolutions.

In 1960, Fidel Castro, the then Prime Minister of Cuba, spoke for more than four hours during a UN General Assembly plenary session.

In 1965, Indonesia made history by becoming the first and only country to submit a letter of intent to withdraw from the UN following a dispute with Malaysia. Indonesia returned to the General Assembly in September 1966.

In 2020, the UN General Assembly held its first-ever online session, in response to the covid-19 pandemic.

Overview of the 79th session (2024–25)

The 79th session of the UN General Assembly opened on 10 September 2024. It included high-level meetings on issues of importance such as antimicrobial resistance and the global threat of sea level rise.

The UN’s Summit of the Future also took place in September 2024. The summit was the first of its kind, and brought together leaders, advocates and activists of all ages to determine how the UN can better meet the needs of current and future generations.

The President of the 79th session of the General Assembly was the former Prime Minister of Cameroon, Philemon Yang.

The 80th session of the General Assembly

The 80th session of the UN General Assembly opened on 9 September 2025 and will close on 8 September 2026. The theme of the 80th session is “Better Together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights”.

In her acceptance speech, the President of the 80th session, Annalena Baerbock, outlined three priorities for her presidency:

• making the United Nations more efficient and effective
• advancing the2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• making the assembly a “truly inclusive forum”

She also highlighted the importance of promoting gender equality, multilingualism and engagement with civil society and youth.

The General Assembly started with the official opening plenary session, followed by a sequence of high-level meetings during the high-level week (22 to 30 September 2025) to mark the UN’s 80th anniversary and address major global challenges. Significant events included:

• the Sustainable Development Goals Moment, where governments met to reflect on the progress made on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
• the continuation of a high-level conference on the peaceful settlement relating to the status of Palestine and a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, where several members announced their formal recognition of the State of Palestine
• a commemoration of 30 years since the Fourth World Conferenceon Women, where 189 countries adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, recognising and reaffirming states’ commitments to equality and women’s rights
• the General Debate, featuring speakers from governments worldwide, occurred from 23 to 29September
• other concurrent summits and high-level meetingsincluding:
  • the first Sustainable, Inclusive, Resilient Global Economy Summit
  • the Climate Summit
  • the launch of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance
  • a meeting commemorating the International Day for the total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
  • discussions on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar

The work of the General Assembly continues beyond these high-level meetings, through its plenary sessions throughout the whole year, covering numerous international issues that the UN is involved in.

Powers and responsibilities of the General Assembly for international peace and security

The main body for responding to issues of international peace and security is the UN Security Council. It has far-reaching powers to restore international peace and security, including authorising military action and mandating sanctions that every state should impose.

However, the UN General Assembly still has a residual responsibility for maintaining peace and security under articles 10 and 11 of the UN Charter.

The assembly’s residual responsibility has been recognised in cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In the ICJ’s 1962 Advisory Opinion, Certain Expenses of the United Nations, the court considered how member states, under Article 24 of the UN Charter, conferred ‘primary’ responsibility on the Security Council for maintaining international peace and security. In considering this, the court said that the responsibility conferred is “primary” but not exclusive, explaining that the General Assembly also has responsibility for peace and security. The court said that although only the Security Council can order mandatory enforcement action, the General Assembly can take other security actions (PDF):

while it is the Security Council which, exclusively, may order coercive action, the functions and powers conferred by the Charter on the General Assembly are not confined to discussion, consideration, the initiation of studies and the making of recommendations; they are not merely hortatory.

These findings have also been repeated by the ICJ in a subsequent 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Beyond Security Council deadlock: Uniting for Peace

The ‘Uniting for Peace’ process is set out in resolution 377A(V), which was adopted by the General Assembly on 3 November 1950. Under this process an emergency special session of the United Nations can be convened within 24 hours when the UN Security Council is unable to act.

The Uniting for Peace Resolution foresees that the assembly may need to recommend that member states take ‘collective measures’ to maintain or restore peace. In the preamble to the resolution, the assembly notes that member states are still obliged to maintain international peace and security when the Security Council fails to do so:

failure of the Security Council to discharge its responsibilities on behalf of all the Member States, particularly those responsibilities referred to in the preceding paragraphs [the maintenance of international peace and security], does not relieve Member States of their obligations or the United Nations of its responsibility under the Charter to maintain international peace and security.

The resolution then goes on to recognise that “such a failure does not deprive the General Assembly of its rights or relieve it of its responsibility under the Charter in regard to the maintenance of international peace and security.”

The Uniting for Peace procedure has been used 11 times to establish emergency special sessions of the General Assembly. These have included the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, various instances discussing the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and, most recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The veto explanation initiative

In 2022, an initiative led by Liechtenstein created a new procedure where the General Assembly will meet for a debate every time a permanent member of the Security Council (the UK, France, Russia, China or the US) casts their veto. Resolution 76/262 created a standing mandate to have such a debate within 10 working days of the veto being used and provided the basis for a permanent member to speak first to explain their use of the veto. The Security Council is also asked to produce a special report to the General Assembly detailing the context of the veto.

In practice, the permanent members have not always used the opportunity to explain their veto to the General Assembly but may often do so during their statements in the Security Council itself.

What are the General Assembly’s powers?

The full extent of the General Assembly’s powers is still subject to much research and debate. For example, in 2021, legal experts from the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect produced guidance on the General Assembly’s powers, some of which are highlighted below. In 2024, the United Nations University’s Centre for Policy Research (UNU CPR) published a similar overview of the Assembly’s powers based on a survey of its past practice.

The breadth of the assembly’s powers is evident in Article 10 of the UN Charter, which gives it the broad scope to discuss and make recommendations on any issue within the scope of the UN Charter:

The General Assembly may discuss any questions or any matters within the scope of the present Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any organs provided for in the present Charter, and, except as provided in Article 12, may make recommendations to the Members of the United Nations or to the Security Council or to both on any such questions or matters.

All resolutions and decisions of the General Assembly are ‘recommendations’ under articles 10 to 14 of the UN Charter. This means that, unlike some Security Council decisions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding on member states. Similarly, Article 12 prevents the General Assembly from making any recommendations “while the Security Council is exercising” its powers. However, in practice, Article 12 has been interpreted to allow the assembly to make recommendations while the Security Council is technically considering a situation in general but not strictly exercising its powers in relation to a specific issue. This interpretation was confirmed by the ICJ in its 2004 Advisory Opinion, where the Uniting for Peace procedure was used to bring the situation between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to the General Assembly as part of its 10th Emergency Special Session.

Peacekeeping

The Uniting for Peace procedure was used in 1956 during the Suez Crisis to establish the UN’s first peacekeeping force. This was because the Security Council was unable to agree a way forward due to vetoes by France and the UK. This mission set a precedent, and now peacekeeping missions are usually based on the consent of all parties to a dispute. Peacekeeping missions are meant to play an impartial role in monitoring a ceasefire or peace process.

Military action

According to the Uniting for Peace resolution, the General Assembly could, if it wished, recommend that states use military force to restore international peace and security.

The exact legal basis for recommending the use of military force is still debated by experts, with some suggesting this might only extend to force that would already be legal, such as defending a state from an aggressor. The General Assembly has rarely made such a recommendation, with the clearest example being a resolution adopted during the Korean War that called upon UN member states to assist the UN force established there after recommendations by the Security Council.

Although the power to recommend force might be available, states do not always consider force to be appropriate because of the risks of escalation. In Ukraine, for example, the preference of allies has been to support Ukraine through military aid rather than direct military assistance, to avoid risking direct confrontation with Russia.

Adopting sanctions

The General Assembly could also recommend that states adopt sanctions. According to research by the UNU CPR, the General Assembly has on many occasions recommended both that the Security Council should impose sanctions, in other cases it has made recommendations to UN member states to adopt sanctions measures.

The exact legal basis for this is undetermined, but some legal experts have suggested that member states can rely on the doctrine of countermeasures, allowing sanctions to be coordinated through the General Assembly. Whether a legal basis is required at all is also debated and may depend on whether sanctions amount to an unlawful coercive interference in a state’s internal or external affairs. While some authors argue that most coercive sanctions are not inherently unlawful, the debate is not completely settled.

The Commons Library has detailed the legal background to this issue, and the international law relating to sanctions more generally, in the briefing Sanctions, International Law, and Seizing Russian Assets.

Other avenues for action through the General Assembly, such as suspending or expelling members, have been labelled ‘rabbit holes’ by the former UN Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs, Larry D. Johnson. This is because those decisions require a recommendation by the Security Council and are therefore subject to the veto of permanent members.

Further reading and commentary

For more information about the UN General Assembly and its 80th session, see:

• Commons Library, The United Nations at 80: Paper Series
• General Assembly of the United Nations, High-level Meetings of the 80thSession
• General Assembly of the United Nations, Workings of the General Assembly
• United Nations Foundation, UNGA 80
• World Economic Forum,Why the 80th UN General Assembly marked a turning point for youth leadership at the UN