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Part 1

Political Affairs

Security Council

The UN Charter places on the Security Council primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. It authorizes the Council to act to achieve the peaceful settlement of disputes (Chapter VI), and to deal with threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression (Chapter VII). The Council can make recommendations only for actions on matters raised under Chapter VI. In areas covered by Chapter VII, however, it may take decisions which are binding on all member states-including imposition of collective political, economic and military sanctions.

The 15-member Council meets as necessary throughout the year. It is composed of 5 Permanent Members-France, China, Russia (which succeeds the Soviet Union effective January 1, 1992), United Kingdom and the United States—and 10 nonpermanent members, elected by the General Assembly. Half this number, or five new members, are elected annually to serve 2year terms. The 10 nonpermanent members in 1991 were: Austria, Belgium, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Romania, Yemen, Zaire and Zimbabwe. The Council presidency rotates monthly by alphabetical order among member states; the United States did not serve as President in 1991 for the first year since 1979.

The Security Council met formally on 53 occasions in 1991 and informally on many occasions. Twenty-nine of these meetings concerned either peacekeeping operations or the Gulf War and its aftermath. The Council considered and adopted 42 resolutions, 36 unanimously; this was the highest total in its history and only the second time it had adopted as many as 30. The United States did not exercise its veto power in 1991 for the first year since 1979; there were no permanent member vetoes in the Council for the first time since 1978.

Eleven UN peacekeeping and peace-monitoring operations were active in 1991. Six were in existence throughout the year:

the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP); UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), based in Jerusalem; UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP); UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights; UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL); and UN Observer Group in Central America (ONUCA). Under resolution 696 of May 30, a seventh, UN Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM) was given a new mandate and renamed UNAVEM II. The mandate for an eighth, the UN Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group (UNIIMOG), was allowed to lapse on February 28.

The Security Council approved the creation of three new peacekeeping forces in 1991: the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), established pursuant to resolution 689 of April 9 to monitor the Khor Abdullah and a demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait; the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), established by resolution 690 of April 29 and charged with referendum preparations and execution, and for supervising the repatriation of Western Saharans identified as eligible to vote; and the UN Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL), established by resolution 693 of May 20 was initially mandated to monitor the human rights agreements and later expanded to monitor all agreements between the Government of El Salvador and the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN). The Council also set up the UN Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC), established by resolution 717 of October 16 and responsible for assisting the parties to the Cambodian conflict in maintaining the informal ceasefire and in preparing for the later deployment of a UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), expected to be the largest UN peacekeeping operation ever.

General Assembly

The General Assembly meets annually from mid-September to late December. The work of the Assembly takes place in seven main committees and in plenary. Political and security issues are dealt with in the First Committee; other political issues not discussed in the First Committee in the Special Political Committee; economic and financial issues in the Second Committee; social, humanitarian and cultural issues in the Third Committee; dependent territory and trusteeship issues in the Fourth Committee; administration and budgetary matters in the Fifth Committee; and legal issues in the Sixth Committee. Most issues are

referred to the main committees by the General Assembly, but some are handled directly in plenary.

The 46th General Assembly convened on September 17 and was suspended on December 20 after 79 plenary sessions. It adopted a total of 281 resolutions, of which 207 (74 percent) were by consensus. There were 88 recorded plenary votes: 74 on resolutions as a whole, 10 on separate paragraphs, 2 on decisions and 2 motions. Of these 88 votes, the United States voted no 55 times and yes 15 times; it abstained on 15 votes and did not participate on 3.

Continued international cooperation and lessened superpower tension were the hallmarks of the 1991 General Assembly. Political invective was diminished, and the body's work was increasingly achieved by consensus. Undoubtedly, the Assembly's crowning achievement-and the United States' greatest diplomatic success-was revocation of the unacceptable determination in a previous General Assembly resolution (Resolution 3379 of 1975) that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination, by an overwhelming vote of 111 (U.S.) to 25, with 13 abstentions. Another major triumph for UN cooperation in the post cold war era was the failure by the Government of Cuba to obtain support for an inflammatory resolution condemning the United States for its trade embargo.

Finally, the 46th General Assembly confirmed the appointment of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt, to a 5-year term as UN Secretary General beginning January 1, 1992. Mr. Boutros-Ghali succeeded Javier Perez de Cuellar (Peru), who assumed office in 1981.

The aftermath of the Gulf War was felt throughout the 46th General Assembly: Iraq used every opportunity in general debate to attack the UN sanctions regime and to urge it be eliminated or softened. There were several clashes between Iraq and Kuwait over Iraqi accounting for and repatriation of missing Kuwaiti and third-country detainees, and responsibility for pollution in the Persian Gulf resulting from destruction of Kuwaiti oil installations. Iraq failed to break out of its isolation when it failed to amend the yearly UN General Assembly resolution approving the report of the IAEA to include language censuring Israeli nuclear practices. The General Assembly also adopted, by an overwhelming margin, resolutions critical of human rights conditions in Iraq and in Iraqi occupied Kuwait.

Relaxation of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union allowed Eastern European countries to adopt posi

the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP); UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), based in Jerusalem; UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP); UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights; UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL); and UN Observer Group in Central America (ONUCA). Under resolution 696 of May 30, a seventh, UN Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM) was given a new mandate and renamed UNAVEM II. The mandate for an eighth, the UN Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group (UNIIMOG), was allowed to lapse on February 28.

The Security Council approved the creation of three new peacekeeping forces in 1991: the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), established pursuant to resolution 689 of April 9 to monitor the Khor Abdullah and a demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait; the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), established by resolution 690 of April 29 and charged with referendum preparations and execution, and for supervising the repatriation of Western Saharans identified as eligible to vote; and the UN Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL), established by resolution 693 of May 20 was initially mandated to monitor the human rights agreements and later expanded to monitor all agreements between the Government of El Salvador and the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN). The Council also set up the UN Advance Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC), established by resolution 717 of October 16 and responsible for assisting the parties to the Cambodian conflict in maintaining the informal ceasefire and in preparing for the later deployment of a UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), expected to be the largest UN peacekeeping operation ever.

General Assembly

The General Assembly meets annually from mid-September to late December. The work of the Assembly takes place in seven main committees and in plenary. Political and security issues are dealt with in the First Committee; other political issues not discussed in the First Committee in the Special Political Committee; economic and financial issues in the Second Committee; social, humanitarian and cultural issues in the Third Committee; dependent territory and trusteeship issues in the Fourth Committee; administration and budgetary matters in the Fifth Committee; and legal issues in the Sixth Committee. Most issues are

referred to the main committees by the General Assembly, but some are handled directly in plenary.

The 46th General Assembly convened on September 17 and was suspended on December 20 after 79 plenary sessions. It adopted a total of 281 resolutions, of which 207 (74 percent) were by consensus. There were 88 recorded plenary votes: 74 on resolutions as a whole, 10 on separate paragraphs, 2 on decisions and 2 motions. Of these 88 votes, the United States voted no 55 times and yes 15 times; it abstained on 15 votes and did not participate on 3.

Continued international cooperation and lessened superpower tension were the hallmarks of the 1991 General Assembly. Political invective was diminished, and the body's work was increasingly achieved by consensus. Undoubtedly, the Assembly's crowning achievement—and the United States' greatest diplomatic success was revocation of the unacceptable determination in a previous General Assembly resolution (Resolution 3379 of 1975) that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination, by an overwhelming vote of 111 (U.S.) to 25, with 13 abstentions. Another major triumph for UN cooperation in the post cold war era was the failure by the Government of Cuba to obtain support for an inflammatory resolution condemning the United States for its trade embargo.

Finally, the 46th General Assembly confirmed the appointment of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt, to a 5-year term as UN Secretary General beginning January 1, 1992. Mr. Boutros-Ghali succeeded Javier Perez de Cuellar (Peru), who assumed office in 1981.

The aftermath of the Gulf War was felt throughout the 46th General Assembly: Iraq used every opportunity in general debate to attack the UN sanctions regime and to urge it be eliminated or softened. There were several clashes between Iraq and Kuwait over Iraqi accounting for and repatriation of missing Kuwaiti and third-country detainees, and responsibility for pollution in the Persian Gulf resulting from destruction of Kuwaiti oil installations. Iraq failed to break out of its isolation when it failed to amend the yearly UN General Assembly resolution approving the report of the IAEA to include language censuring Israeli nuclear practices. The General Assembly also adopted, by an overwhelming margin, resolutions critical of human rights conditions in Iraq and in Iraqi occupied Kuwait.

Relaxation of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union allowed Eastern European countries to adopt posi

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