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The chief deliberative organ of the United Nations. It consists of all UN members, each of them having one vote. The Assembly\'s resolutions are passed by either a two-thirds or a simple majority of those present and voting. On external matters its resolutions are only recommendatory, but on matters internal to the UN – such as budgetary questions and the election of non-permanent members of the UN Security Council – the Assembly\'s resolutions are binding on the members and the organization.
The General Assembly meets each year in regular session between mid-September and late December; sometimes this session is continued in the next calendar year. Special sessions of the Assembly are convoked at the request of the Security Council or of a majority of UN members.
The fact that since about 1960 most of the world\'s states have been UN members, and hence represented in the Assembly, has resulted in a tendency to refer to some of its most popular themes as expressive of world public opinion. More cogently, what they represent is the numerical balance of the opinion of member states, which some observers have called diplomatic opinion. However, there can be little doubt that the work of the Assembly had a powerful influence on moulding some of the key ideas of the latter part of the twentieth century, such as the need to remedy economic inequality and, especially, the impropriety of colonialism and racism.
See also Committee of 24; Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples; multilateral diplomacy; open diplomacy; self-determination. |
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