Today, there are 193 members

General Assembly

Since its inception, the UN General Assembly, also known as UNGA, has been a forum for lofty declarations, sometimes audacious rhetoric, and rigorous debate over the world’s most vexing issues, including poverty, development, peace, and security. As the most representative organ of the United Nations, the assembly holds a general debate in the organization’s New York headquarters from September to December and convenes special sessions at other times to address a range of issues.

The UN General Assembly is the only universally representative body of the United Nations. The other major bodies are the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice. 

As delineated in the Charter of the United Nations, the function of the General Assembly is to discuss, debate, and make recommendations on subjects pertaining to international peace and security, including development, disarmament, human rights, international law, and the peaceful arbitration of disputes between nations.

It elects the non-permanent members of the Security Council and other UN bodies, such as the Human Rights Council (HRC), and appoints the secretary-general based on the Security Council’s recommendation. It considers reports from the other four organs of the United Nations, assesses the financial situations of member states, and approves the UN budget, its most concrete role. The assembly works with the Security Council to elect the judges of the International Court of Justice.

Membership

Membership in the Organization, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, “is open to all peace-loving States that accept the obligations contained in the United Nations Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able to carry out these obligations”. States are admitted to membership in the United Nations by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.

The Council has grown to 193 UN member states, each with a vote in the General Assembly. The assembly’s president changes with each annual session and is elected by the body itself. The president of the seventy-seventh session is Korosi, who serves as director of environmental sustainability in Hungary’s presidential office and has spent nearly forty years as a diplomat. The president is empowered to enforce rules of procedure, such as opening debate, setting the agenda, limiting speaking times for representatives, and suspending or adjourning debates.

Membership can be contentious. Taiwan has been denied UN membership for more than two decades due to objections from China, which holds a permanent seat on the Security Council and considers Taiwan part of its sovereign territory. In 2018, Taiwanese officials visited New York ahead of the General Assembly to tout the island’s fulfillment of some SDGs, seen as part of broader efforts to join UN agencies. 

Regime changes can also present challenges for UN representation. After Myanmar’s military junta seized power in a coup against the democratically elected government in February 2021, Myanmar’s existing permanent representative refused to leave despite the junta dismissing him. In Afghanistan, the Taliban also attempted to replace the ousted government’s representative. No representatives from either country spoke at the 2021 session, and at the end of the year, the General Assembly adopted a resolution indefinitely delaying a decision on who would represent the countries. Neither country is expected to be represented during the 2022 session.

According to Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations, “Permanent membership in the Security Council was granted to five states based on their importance in the aftermath of World War II.” Sometimes referred to as the P5, the permanent members of the Security Council have a unique role that has evolved over time.

The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: China, France, the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Punishment

The General Assembly has the power to censure states for violating UN Charter principles. “A Member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.”

For example, it can bar countries from serving on UN panels and kick countries out of the UN Human Rights Council if they commit egregious human rights abuses. 

In the 1960s, the assembly suspended the South African delegation from the United Nations because the country was practicing apartheid, in violation of Security Council resolutions and international law.

In recent years, Russia has been the target of General Assembly resolutions. In 2014, the body adopted a nonbinding resolution—passed 100–1, with 58 abstentions—declaring Russia’s annexation of Crimea illegal. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the General Assembly called an emergency session and voted 141–5, with 35 abstentions, to condemn the invasion and demand that Russia immediately withdraw its forces. It later voted to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. (Libya was the last country to lose its seat on the council, in 2011.)

Human Rights Council Membership