The General Assembly and the Security Council

1. The General Assembly: composition

The General Assembly consists of all the Members of the UN (Article 9(1)). Each Member may have not more than five representatives (Article 9(2)) but has one vote (Article 18(1)). It meets in regular annual session, beginning in September, and in special sessions convoked by the Secretary-General at the request of the Security Council or a majority of Members (Article 20). It elects its President for each session (Article 21).

2. Functions and powers of the General Assembly

(a) Deliberative. It may discuss any questions or matters within the scope of the Charter or relating to the powers and functions of any organ, and make recommendations to Members or the Security Council (Article 10). It may consider the general principles of co-operation in maintaining peace and security, including disarmament (Article 11(1)), and discuss any question relating to peace and security brought before it (Article 11(2)); but a question on which action is necessary must be referred to the Security Council. It may call the Council's attention to situations likely to endanger peace (Article 11(3)).

Limit: Article 12. While the Security Council is exercising its functions in respect of any dispute or situation, the Assembly shall not make any recommendation with regard to it unless the Council so requests. In the Wall advisory opinion (ICJ, 2004), the Court noted that practice has developed so that the Assembly and the Council deal in parallel with the same matter.

(b) Studies and codification (Article 13): initiating studies and making recommendations for promoting international co-operation in the political field and encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification, and for realising human rights. The International Law Commission (1947) was set up under this power.

(c) Peaceful adjustment (Article 14) of any situation likely to impair friendly relations.

(d) Supervisory: it receives and considers annual and special reports from the Security Council and other organs (Article 15).

(e) Financial (Article 17): it considers and approves the budget and apportions expenses among Members. These decisions bind. In Certain Expenses of the United Nations (ICJ advisory opinion, 1962), the costs of the peacekeeping forces in the Middle East (UNEF) and the Congo (ONUC) were held to be expenses of the Organisation under Article 17(2), which Members were bound to pay.

(f) Elective: it elects the ten non-permanent members of the Security Council (Article 23), the 54 members of ECOSOC (Article 61), and, with the Security Council, the judges of the ICJ (Statute, Articles 8 and 10); it appoints the Secretary-General on the recommendation of the Council (Article 97); and it admits, suspends and expels Members on the Council's recommendation (Articles 4 to 6).

(g) Trusteeship functions for non-strategic areas (Articles 16 and 85), now spent.

(h) Subsidiary organs (Article 22): such as UNICEF, UNDP, UNCTAD and the Human Rights Council (2006).

(i) Advisory opinions: it may request an advisory opinion of the ICJ on any legal question (Article 96(1)). Examples: Reparation (1949), Nuclear Weapons (1996), the Wall (2004), and the Chagos opinion (2019).

3. Voting in the General Assembly

Article 18: each Member has one vote. Decisions on important questions are made by a two-thirds majority of the Members present and voting. These include recommendations on peace and security, elections to the Councils, admission, suspension and expulsion, trusteeship questions and budgetary questions (Article 18(2)). Other questions, including the determination of additional categories of important questions, are decided by a simple majority (Article 18(3)). In practice many resolutions are adopted by consensus.

Legal effect. Resolutions of the Assembly are recommendations, except on internal matters such as the budget and admissions. They may, however, be evidence of customary law or opinio juris (see the note on sources).

4. The Uniting for Peace Resolution

Resolution 377 (V), 3 November 1950, adopted during the Korean War after the USSR returned to the Security Council and blocked action by veto. It provides that if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately, and may recommend collective measures, including the use of armed force in case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression. An emergency special session may be called within 24 hours at the request of any seven (now any nine) members of the Council or a majority of Members. It was used for Suez (1956, creating UNEF), Hungary (1956), and Ukraine (2022). Its validity was questioned (since Article 11(2) reserves “action” to the Council), but the Certain Expenses opinion read “action” narrowly as coercive enforcement action.

Since 2022, under Resolution 76/262, the General Assembly meets within ten working days whenever a veto is cast in the Security Council, to debate the situation.

5. The Security Council: composition

Article 23: fifteen members. Five are permanent: China, France, the Russian Federation (as continuing the USSR), the United Kingdom and the United States. Ten are non-permanent, elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms, five each year, with due regard to contribution to peace and security and to equitable geographical distribution; a retiring member is not eligible for immediate re-election. The Council originally had eleven members; the Charter was amended in 1963 (in force 1965) to raise it to fifteen. The Council is so organised as to be able to function continuously (Article 28). India has been a non-permanent member eight times, most recently in 2021–2022.

6. Functions and powers of the Security Council

• Primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, conferred by Members, the Council acting on their behalf (Article 24(1)).
• Binding decisions: Members agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Council in accordance with the Charter (Article 25). In the Namibia opinion (1971), Article 25 was held not to be confined to Chapter VII decisions.
• Pacific settlement (Chapter VI, Articles 33 to 38): calling on parties to settle disputes, investigating any dispute or situation (Article 34), and recommending procedures or terms of settlement (Articles 36 and 37). These are recommendations.
• Enforcement (Chapter VII, Articles 39 to 51):
  • Article 39: the Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression and make recommendations or decide on measures;
  • Article 40: provisional measures, such as a call for a ceasefire;
  • Article 41: measures not involving the use of armed force: interruption of economic relations, communications, severance of diplomatic relations (sanctions on Southern Rhodesia, 1966; Iraq, 1990). Under this power the Council created the criminal tribunals for Yugoslavia (1993) and Rwanda (1994);
  • Article 42: action by air, sea or land forces as necessary to maintain or restore peace. In practice the Council authorises Member States to use “all necessary means” (Resolution 678 (1990) on Kuwait), since the Article 43 agreements to provide forces were never concluded;
  • Article 51: the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs, until the Council has taken necessary measures.
• Regional arrangements (Chapter VIII): no enforcement action by regional agencies without the Council's authorisation (Article 53).
• Other: recommending admission, suspension and expulsion and the appointment of the Secretary-General; electing ICJ judges with the Assembly; enforcing ICJ judgments (Article 94(2)); requesting advisory opinions (Article 96(1)); and peacekeeping, which is not mentioned in the Charter (sometimes called “Chapter VI and a half”).

7. Voting in the Security Council: the veto

Article 27: each member has one vote. Decisions on procedural matters are made by an affirmative vote of nine members (Article 27(2)). Decisions on all other matters are made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members (Article 27(3)); in decisions under Chapter VI and Article 52(3), a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting.

• A negative vote by any permanent member on a non-procedural matter defeats the resolution: this is the veto.
• The double veto: whether a matter is procedural is itself a non-procedural question (San Francisco Statement of the four sponsoring powers, 1945), so a permanent member can veto that preliminary question too.
• Abstention by a permanent member is not a veto: by consistent practice accepted by Members, a voluntary abstention does not prevent adoption (Namibia opinion, ICJ, 1971).
• Absence: the Soviet boycott in 1950 did not prevent the Korean resolutions; practice treats absence like abstention.

8. Reform

Criticism: the permanent membership reflects 1945; Africa and Latin America have no permanent member; the veto has paralysed action in Syria and Ukraine. India, with Brazil, Germany and Japan (the G4), seeks permanent membership; the African Union seeks two permanent seats with veto (the Ezulwini Consensus). Any amendment requires a two-thirds vote of the Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of Members, including all five permanent members (Article 108), so each holds a veto over reform.

How this is examined

For the General Assembly: composition (Article 9), the nine functions (a) to (i) with their Articles, voting (Article 18), legal effect, and Uniting for Peace with Certain Expenses. For the Security Council: composition (Article 23), functions under Articles 24 and 25, Chapters VI and VII, voting under Article 27 with the veto, abstention and the double veto, and a closing paragraph on reform.