Explainer: The What & How of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 3, 2019
Every year, the United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meets in New York. But what happens at the
UNGA? How are things decided? Here is a detailed explainer.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan madehis maiden speech at the 74 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).His speech, which mainly targeted the abrogation of Article 370 by the IndianGovernment exceeded the stipulated time limit for each leader by more than 30minutes. But what is the time allocated for each leader to speak? What are thelanguages that can be used? How many representatives from each country areallowed to participate? Here is a detailed explainer on what the UNGA is andwhat its Rules of Procedure are.
What is the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)?
The General Assembly is a diplomatic forum wherethe 193 member nations of the UN are represented in order to engage in discussionsand take action on international issues such as peace, security anddevelopment. The UNGA, established in 1945, is one of the six main organs of the organisation,the rest five being the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the TrusteeshipCouncil, the International Court of Justice and the UN Secretariat.
The objective of the UNGA is to promoteinternational co-operation among all nations in the political, social,cultural, economic, educational and also health fields while assisting inrealization of human rights and fundamental freedom for everyone. Developmentof international law and its codification also takes place at the UNGA as perthe UN charter.
When does the Assembly gather?
The Assembly would meet every year inregular session commencing on the third Tuesday of the month of September atthe UN headquarters in New York, USA. Special sessions can be summoned by theGeneral Secretary at the request of the Security Council or majority ofmembers. This year, the 74 General Assembly began on 24 September2019 and came to an end on 30 September 2019.
How are decisions made?
In order to make decisions on importantquestions related to maintenance of international peace and security, electionand admission of members, budgetary questions and more, voting takes place. Thequorum for the meetings to take place is that at least one third of the membersof the General Assembly are present. Of these, two thirds majority of themembers present and voting is required to make a decision on the abovementioned issues. Those members who have not paid their contributions may not be permitted to vote. Each membernation has only one vote.
The General Assembly elects a President andtwenty one Vice Presidents for each session. The election will be highlyrepresentative in nature. A total of six representatives from the Africanstates, five from Asian, one from Eastern Europe, three from Latin Americanstates, two from Western European states or others and five from the permanentmembers of the Security Council. All elections are held by secret ballot. ThePresident cannot vote, but in his place can designate another member of hisdelegation to vote. The President of the 74th session is TijjaniMuhammad-Bande of Nigeria.
How many representatives are allowed for each member Nation?
The delegation of a member nation can haveonly a maximum of five representatives and five alternate representatives inthe General Assembly. They are also permitted to have as many advisers,technical advisers and experts as per their requirement.
What are the languages that can be used in UNGA?
Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russianand Spanish are the official languages and the working languages of the UNGA,committees and sub-committees. If speeches are made in one of these languages,interpretation is made in the remaining five languages. If a representativespeaks in any other language apart from these six, an interpretation of his/herspeech has to be submitted in one of the six languages. Interpretation intoremaining working languages is done by the Secretariat on the basis of thesubmitted speech. Verbatim, summary records, Journals, resolutions and otherdocuments will also be published in the official languages of UNGA. Since PrimeMinister Narendra Modi spoke in Hindi, the interpretation of his speech musthave been provided in one of the six official languages.
What happens at the beginning and end of each session?
At the commencement of the first plenarymeeting and at the end of the closing of the final plenary meeting of eachsession of the General Assembly, the President invites all the representativesfor a one minute silent prayer or meditation. He/She declares the meeting open andgrants the permission for debate when at least one third of the Assemblymembers are present, which is the quorum.
Who are permitted to speak?
Only those representatives who havepreviously obtained the permission to speak are allowed to address theAssembly. The order in which the speakers are called upon by the President isbased on their desire to speak. In case the speaker does not adhere to thesubject of discussion, the President has the authority to call the speaker toorder.  The Chairman and Rapporteur ofany committee will be given precedence in order to explain the conclusionsarrived at by their committee. In this year’s UNGA, as is tradition, Brazilian PresidentJair Bolsonaro was the first to speak at the general debate podium. FollowingBrazil, USA being the host country gets its turn.
What is the time allocated for each speaker?
A detailed agenda is drawn up before every session of UNGA. The General Assembly decidesthe time allocated for each speaker and how many times each representative mayspeak on any question. The limit is set through a debate in which tworepresentatives speak in favour of and two representatives speak against theproposal which contains the details of limits. If a speaker exceeds theallocated time, the President has the authority to call him/her without delay. Duringthe course of the debate, the President announces the list of speakers. Thelist will be closed upon receiving the consent of the Assembly. However, thespeakers in the general debate are expected to observe a voluntary fifteenminutes time limit for statement.
In addition, the chairman of the delegationof each country addresses the General Assembly. In most cases, this could bethe Prime Minister of a country, the President, the Foreign Minister etc. The video recordings of all thesespeeches are available on the UN website.
How is the theme for general debate selected?
The general debate usually takes place at the beginning of every General Assembly session in which the Heads of State and Government participate. The theme for the general debate, which is usually of global relevance, is suggested by the President elect based on discussions with member nations. Usually, by early August, the President sends a letter to all the member nations in which the theme is announced so that the representatives can focus on these topics for their speeches. The theme for this year’s UNGA was ‘Galvanizing multilateral efforts for poverty eradication, quality education, climate action and inclusion.’
In this year’s Assembly, most leaders fromacross the globe stressed on the efforts taken by their nation to improvehealth care and education during the general debate. The general debate came to an end withthe President concluding that the survival of the world relies on multilateralism.He added that in the highly polarized world, multilateralism is the onlyguarantee for peace, security and sustainable development.