United Nations General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly (GA) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. It is made up of all United Nations member states and meets in regular yearly sessions under a president elected from among the representatives.

General Assembly reform

See also: Reform of the United Nations

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On March 21, 2005, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presented a report, In Larger Freedom, that critiqued the General Assembly as focusing so much on consensus that it was passing watered-down resolutions reflecting "the lowest common denominator of widely different opinions." He also criticized the Assembly for trying to address too broad an agenda, instead of focusing on "the major substantive issues of the day, such as international migration and the long-debated comprehensive convention on terrorism." Annan recommended streamlining the General Assembly's agenda, committee structure, and procedures; strengthening the role and authority of its President; enhancing the role of civil society; and establishing a mechanism to review the decisions of its committees, in order to minimize unfunded mandates and micromanagement of the UN Secretariat. Annan reminded UN members of their responsibility to implement reforms, if they expect to realize improvements in UN effectivenesshttp://www.un.org/largerfreedom/chap5.htm:

Related Topics:
2005 - UN Secretary General - Kofi Annan - Migration - Terrorism - President - Civil society - Unfunded mandate - Micromanagement - UN Secretariat

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