AnEmergency Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly is an unscheduled meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to make urgent recommendations on a particular issue. Such recommendations can include collective measures and can include the use of armed force when necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression when the United Nations Security Council fails to exercise its responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security due to lack of unanimity of its permanent ("veto") members.
Under Chapter Five of the Charter of the United Nations, the Security Council is normally entrusted with maintaining international peace and security. However, on 3 November 1950, the General Assembly passed Resolution 377 (Uniting for Peace) which expanded its authority to consider topics that were previously reserved solely for the Security Council. Under the Resolution, if the Security Council cannot come to a decision on an issue because of a lack of unanimity, the General Assembly may hold an emergency special session within 24 hours to consider the same matter.[1][2][3][4]
The mechanism of the emergency special session[5] was created in 1950 by the General Assembly's adoption of its "Uniting for Peace" resolution, which made the necessary changes to the Assembly's Rules of Procedure.[6] The resolution likewise declared that:
... if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case 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 with a view to making appropriate recommendations to Members for collective measures, including in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and security. If not in session at the time, the General Assembly may meet in emergency special session within twenty-four hours of the request therefor. Such emergency special session shall be called if requested by the Security Council on the vote of any seven members, or by a majority of the Members of the United Nations...
Emergency special sessions are rare, a fact reflected in that there have been only eleven such sessions in the history of the United Nations. Additionally, most emergency special sessions run for a single session, with the exception of the 7th, 10th and 11th, which have been reconvened four, seventeen, and nineteen times respectively.[7]
The procedure to call an emergency special session are laid out in the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly. The rules pertaining to emergency special sessions are as follows (as amended by Res. 1991 that increased majority needed from 7 to 9):[8]
| Emergency special session | Topic | Convened by | Date | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Suez Crisis |  United Nations Security Council
|
1–10 November 1956 | A/3354 |
| Second | Soviet invasion of Hungary | 4–10 November 1956 | A/3355 | |
| Third | Lebanon crisis | 8–21 August 1958 | A/3905 | |
| Fourth | Congo Crisis | 17–19 September 1960 | A/4510 | |
| Fifth | Six-Day War |  Soviet Union
|
17 June – 18 September 1967 | A/6798 |
| Sixth | Soviet invasion of Afghanistan | United Nations Security Council
|
10–14 January 1980 | ES-6/1, 2 |
| Seventh | Israeli–Palestinian conflict |  Senegal
|
22–29 July 1980
|
|
| Eighth | South African occupation of Namibia (South West Africa) |  Zimbabwe
|
3–14 September 1981 | ES-8/1, 2 |
| Ninth | Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights (Golan Heights Law) | United Nations Security Council
|
29 January – 5 February 1982 | ES-9/1 |
| Tenth | Israeli-Palestinian conflict (East Jerusalem and Israeli-occupied territories) | Various |
24–25 April 1997
|
ES-10/1, 2
|
| Eleventh | Russian invasion of Ukraine | United Nations Security Council
|
28 February–2 March 2022
|