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The General Assembly occupies a central position as the chief representative, deliberative and policy-making organ of the United Nations. Comprising all 192 members of the United Nations, it provides a forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter. The Assembly meets in regular session each year from September to December, and thereafter as required.
The 61st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA61) began on 12 September 2006. According to the Rules of Procedure, each session of the Assembly is opened by a General Debate, at which Ministers and other heads of delegation deliver statements outlining their respective countries’ main interests in the United Nations. Member States then seek to address all items on the session’s agenda through concurrent meetings of the Assembly’s plenary and six thematic committees. These committees correspond to the United Nations’ major fields of responsibility: Disarmament and International Security; Economic and Financial; Social, Humanitarian and Cultural; Special Political and Decolonisation; Administrative and Budgetary; and Legal. At the same time as these committees meet, the plenary session deals with the big political or overarching issues which do not fit readily into the work of the thematic committees. Nearer the end of the session, recommendations and resolutions from the committees are taken back to the plenary for final agreement. New Zealand is actively engaged in all of the committees on a range of priority issues including development, disarmament, human rights and the rule of law.
The General Assembly is assisted in the fulfilment of its many mandates by a number of subsidiary bodies, including procedural and standing committees, expert bodies and informal working groups. New Zealand is involved in many of these bodies, including the International Law Commission, the Conference on Disarmament and the ad hoc Working Group on General Assembly Revitalisation.
Over the years, various informal regional groupings have evolved in the General Assembly as vehicles for consultation and to facilitate procedural work. The groups are: African States, Asian States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States, and Western European and Other States. New Zealand is a member of the Western European and Other States Group (WEOG). The post of President of the General Assembly rotates among the regional groups, and for the sixty-first session is Ms Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain.
