United Nations Resolutions

• A United Nations General Assembly Resolution is a decision or declaration voted on by all member states of the United Nations in the General Assembly.
• General Assembly resolutions usually require a simple majority (50 percent of all votes plus one) to pass. However, if the General Assembly determines that the issue is an “important question” by a simple majority vote, then a two-thirds majority is required.
• Important questions, are those that deal significantly with the maintenance of international peace and security, admission of new members to the United Nations, suspension of the rights and privileges of membership, the expulsion of members, operation of the trusteeship system, or budgetary questions.

Significant Resolutions of UNGA

1947

• Resolution 181: The 1947 UNGA ‘Partition resolution’ regarding the British Mandate of Palestine.

1948

• Resolution 194: Recommends the “Right of return” for Palestinian refugees.
• Resolution 217: Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Resolution 260: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

1949

• Resolution 273: Admits the State of Israel to membership in the United Nations.
• Resolution 303: On the Question of an international regime for the Jerusalem area and the protection of the Holy Places: restated the United Nation’s stance on corpus separatum for Jerusalem.

1951

• Resolution 498: calling on the People’s Republic of China to cease all hostilities on the Korean peninsula.

1956

• Resolution 1001 (ES-1): The Suez Crisis

1960

• Resolution 1514: Declaration on the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples.

1962

• Resolution 1761: Recommended sanctions against South Africa in response to the governments policy of apartheid.

1963

• Resolution 1962: One of the earliest resolutions governing Outer space.
• Resolution 1991: Amended the UN Charter, enlarging the Security Council to fifteen members.

1971

• Resolution 2758: Expelled the collective representatives of Chiang Kai-shek and replaced it with the representatives of People’s Republic of China. It also recognized the PRC as the sole legal authority of China.

1972

• Resolution 3010: Adopted to make the year 1975 International Women’s Year.

1976

• Resolution 31/72: Adopted the 1977 Environmental Modification Convention

2005

• Resolution 60/7: designated the International Holocaust Remembrance Day

2006

• Resolution 61/106: Adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

2007

• Resolution 61/295: Establishes the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• Resolution 62/149: Called for a universal moratorium on capital punishment with a view to total abolition, and in the meantime, respect for the rights of those on death row. Calls on states which have abolished the death penalty not to reintroduce it.

2012

• Resolution 67/19: Recognizing the State of Palestine as a non-member observer state.

2014

• Resolution 68/262: Territorial integrity of Ukraine.

2015

• Resolution 69/292 – Development of an international legally-binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
• Resolution 70/1 – Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

2017

• Resolution A/ES-10/L.22: Status of Jerusalem