United Nations General Assembly observers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
In addition to the current 192 member states, the United Nations welcomes many international agencies, entities, and one non-member state as observers. Observers have the right to speak at United Nations General Assembly meetings, but not to vote on resolutions.
Observer status is granted by a United Nations General Assembly resolution at some point in time. Refer also to Category:United Nations General Assembly observers
[edit] Non-member states
Non-member observer states are recognized as sovereign entities, and are free to submit a petition to join as a full member at their discretion. For example, Switzerland was also a permanent observer state from 1948 to 2002, until becoming a full member on 10 September 2002. Currently, the only such state, the Holy See, is described [1] as a "Non-member State having received a standing invitation to participate as observer in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly and maintaining permanent observer mission at Headquarters".
| Non-member state | Date observer status was granted |
|---|---|
 Holy See (sovereignty over the territory of  Vatican City) |
6 April 1964: became a permanent observer state 1 July 2004 (A/RES/58/314): gained all the rights of full membership except voting |
- Notes
- The Republic of China on Taiwan, in addition to applying for full membership, has also applied for non-member or observer status in the UN variously since 1991. Such requests have been consistently denied due to the UN's recognition of the People's Republic of China as the successor state of the Republic of China with sovereignty over all of China, including Taiwan, which resulted in the 1971 replacement of the Republic of China as the representative of China in favor of the People's Republic of China.
- Palestine and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta are currently not recognized by the United Nations as non-member states, but only as entities (see next section).
[edit] International organizations and entities
Many international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and entities whose statehood or sovereignty are not precisely defined, are invited to become observers at the General Assembly. Some of them maintain a permanent office in the United Nations headquarters in New York City, while others do not; however, this is the choice of the organization and do not imply differences in their status.
[edit] References
- ^ UN site on Permanent Missions
- ^ United Nations General Assembly Resolution 5 session 53 Observer status for the Association of Caribbean States in the General Assembly
- ^ United Nations General Assembly Resolution 32 session 57 Observer status for the Inter-Parliamentary Union in the General Assembly
- ^ United Nations General Assembly Resolution 265 session 48 Observer status for the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in the General Assembly
- Organizations granted observer status in the General Assemby (last updated 30 November 2005)
- List of non-Member States, entities and organizations having received a standing invitation to participate as observers in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly (last updated December 22, 2006)
- Permanent Missions to the United Nations (Blue Book) (last updated 3 August 2007)
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
