General Assembly Accomplishments

First General Assembly Meeting 1946 Met in London 51 original members Central Hall, Westminster

New home for the UN & GA Land in Manhatten was purchased by John D. Rockefeller, Jr and donated to the UN An international team of architects to design the buildings began work in 1947 Construction began in 1948, part was occupied in 1950, and the entire complex was finished in 1952.

First resolution 1946 Peaceful uses of atomic energy Introduced by the USA The General Assembly agreed on the “elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.”

Resolutions on Atomic Energy Res. 1 Jan. 1946… Established the Atomic Energy Commission (disbanded in 1952) Res. 41 Dec. 1946… on the regulation & reduction of armaments… at that time, the USA was the only nuclear power Res. 191 Nov. 1948… accepting the first three reports of the UNAEC—the permanent members of the commission were not able to come to an agreement and the GA urged them to find a solution to the issue of the uses of atomic energy

The Int’l Atomic Energy Agency was established in 1957 The IAEA reports to both the GA and the SC IAEA headquarters is in Vienna

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted December Work on the document was led by members of the Human Rights Commission Human Rights Commission established 1946 as an agency of the Economic & Social Council Prominent people in writing the Declaration were Eleanor Roosevelt, Rene Cassin (France), Charles Malik (Lebanon) and Dr. P.C. Chang (China)

The Declaration has been translated into 375 different languages Eleanor Roosevelt

Growth of the General Assembly 16 new nations joined in 1955… 10 were European countries 17 new nations join in 1960… 16 were newly independent countries in Africa; Cyprus was the non-African country

Nobel Peace Prizes Between 1945 and 2005, UN organizations or UN officials have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize nine different times 1950… Ralph Bunche… mediator in Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war 1954… UN High Commissioner for Refugees 1961… Dag Hammarskjold, Sec-Gen of the UN

1965… UNICEF 1969… ILO… Int’l Labor Organization 1981… the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees 1988… UN Peacekeeping Forces 2001… Kofi Annan, Sec-Gen of the UN 2005… IAEA & Director Mohamed ElBaradei

International Years & Decades Used to focus attention on important issues and to get the international community thinking about possible solutions 1967—World Tourism Year 1979—International Year of the Child 1987—Int’l Year of Shelter for the Homeless 1994—Int’l Year of Sport & Olympic Ideal 2002—Int’l Year of Mountains 2004—Int’l Year of Rice 2008—Int’l Year of Languages

Millennium Development Goals Millennium Development Goals Adopted by the UN in 2000 To be achieved by goals which target the reduction of poverty by setting attainable goals End poverty & hunger Universal education Gender equality Child health Maternal health Combat HIV/AIDS Global partnership Environmental sustainability

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