Early Days of UN General Assembly: Behind the Scenes

The General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is the opportunity for Heads of State and Government to come together at the UN Headquarters to discuss world issues. The Debate takes place in September each year, at the start of the new Session of the General Assembly. At this time UN Headquarters becomes filled with world leaders and their delegations, government officials, reporters and staff members, causing a traffic gridlock in midtown Manhattan, and placing the UN on the front page of the news.

Established in 1945 under the Charter of the United Nations, the General Assembly occupies a central position as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations. Comprised currently of all 193 Members of the United Nations, it provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter. It also plays a central role in the process of standard-setting and the codification of international law.

Since the first UNGA session convened on 10 January 1946 in London with 51 countries represented, the Assembly has grown to include 193 member states. In 2023, 88 Heads of State, 42 Heads of Government, and over 650 ministers attended the debate. Officials took advantage of this massive turnout to engage in more than 2,000 bilateral meetings. Over 2,600 members of the media were present, capturing photographs, recording footage, and writing stories.

However, it is often not the official photographs that attract the most attention, but rather the moments behind the scenes when the world’s top leaders converge at UN Headquarters in Manhattan. This photo story offers a glimpse into what went on behind the scenes during the early sessions of the General Assembly.

The first session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on 10 January 1946 at Central Hall in London, United Kingdom.

At left: During the session, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt convenes a meeting of women delegates to address an Open Letter to the Women of the World. E. Wilkinson (UK) addresses the meeting. Seated on the podium are (from left to right): M. Verwey (Netherlands); E. Wilkinson (speaking); Eleanor Roosevelt (United States); Minerva Bernardino; M. Midwinter (United Kingdom); and Miss Rolfe (United Kingdom). [5 February 1946]
Photo # UN7771363
UN Photo/Marcel Bolomey

At right: The Hospitality Committee in the Church House provides assistance to delegates. [10 January 1946]
Photo # UN7771364

Members of the United States Delegation arrive at the Palais de Chaillot to attend the Second Plenary Meeting of the Third Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly held in Paris, France. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt (right) walks with Ernest Gross (left) and Phillip C. Jessup. [22 September 1948]
Photo # UN7479255 
UN Photo/Marvin Bolotsky

From September to December 1948, the Palais de Chaillot, the emblematic building of the 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris, hosted the third General Assembly of the United Nations.

At left: Workmen set up the documents slots in the press working area of the Palais Chaillot in preparation for the Third Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly.  In the background, the monumental plaster cast of the fountain of the Great Clock in Rouen. [16 September 1948]
UN Photo # UN7479306

At right: In the mural painting gallery of the Musée des Monuments Français, a man works on signs in preparation for the meetings. [13 September 1948]
UN Photo # UN7479300

United Nations General Assembly Continues in New York 

Photographers crowd the entrance to the General Assembly building to get pictures of the delegates arriving for the opening meeting of the Second Part of the Third Session held in Queens, New York. [5 April 1949]
UN Photo # UN7742199

Preparations and Housekeeping at United Nations Headquarters

At left: With the opening date of the second half of the General Assembly Session rapidly approaching, a staff member of the Secretariat's Department of Conference and General Services, checks the name plates which will identify the Member Countries in the Assembly Hall at Flushing Meadows, New York. [March 1949]
Photo # UN7742197 
UN Photo/Albert Fox

At right: Keeping the glass façade shining is a continuous operation, employing nine men all year long in 1953. Every 40 days, each of the 5,400 double-hung windows and 5,400 spandrels in the 39-story Secretariat building gets washed.  There are, in addition, 560 panes of projected windows on the four floors devoted exclusively to mechanical equipment devoted in operation of the buildings.  To provide an unmarred panorama of the East River, the 25-foot high plate-glass window-walls in the three Council chambers and conference rooms in the next building are cleaned every three days. It takes scaffoldings and high ladders to do this job.  And a special apparatus—the electrically-driven telescope ladder, working like an elevator, shown here—is needed for washing the 45-foot high picture window at the south end of the Assembly building. [October 1953]
UN Photo # UN7501348 
UN Photo/Albert Fox

At left: The United Nations General Assembly Hall in 1952.
UN Photo # UN7771258 
UN Photo/MB

At right: A view of the opening meeting of the seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly. This session, which started on 14 October 1952, was the first one to be held in the new United Nations Headquarters buildings. 
Photo # UN7758084 
UN Photo/MB

 

UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld (left) and Mr. Ralph Bunche, Under-Secretary, have an informal talk while on their way to a meeting of the General Assembly's 1st (Political) Committee during the 10th Session of the General Assembly. [13 October 1955]
Photo # UN7768774 
UN Photo/MB

International Press Corps Covers United Nations General Assembly 
At left: The proceedings of the UN General Assembly, holding its 12th session at the United Nations in New York, took place in full view of the public and the mass communications media of the world. Here a group of United Nations news correspondents are seen at an informal gathering in the press club at the UN. [27 November 1957]
UN Photo # UN7769632 

At right: A view of delegates' lounge at United Nations Headquarters, showing stacked briefcases of delegates attending the 15th session of the UN General Assembly. [October 1960]
UN Photo # UN7768965 
UN Photo/MB

At left: For the first time in the history of the United Nations, the opening ceremony of the 18th General Assembly was broadcast live for use by radio and television in three continents - North America, Europe and Africa via the two communications satellites, Relay and Syncom. Mr. J. Nichols, Operations Manager, UN Radio and Visual Services Division, is seen here testing the transmission set-up. [17 September 1963]
Photo # UN7693088 
UN Photo/JO

Upper right: One of the UN interpreters in his booth overlooking the Assembly Hall as a delegate addresses the meeting from the speaker's rostrum. [October 1960]
Photo # UN7456865 

Lower right: A system of simultaneous interpretation is used in the auditorium of the UN General Assembly, Council chambers and most of the Committee rooms. For example, if a delegate speaks in Spanish, four interpreters translate the words into English, French, Russian and Chinese [Arabic was added later as an official Un language].
A dial, as pictured here, enables delegates or listeners to select a continuous interpretation in any of the official languages. Each listener is provided with an earphone. The desk with the volume control next to the language selector, is that of a delegate in one of the Committee rooms. [October 1960]
Photo # UN7680513 
UN Photo/SL

At left: During the general debate of the General Assembly's 15th regular session an unprecedented number of high officials were attending the session which had before it an 88-item agenda, the longest in its history. Before the meetings began, Mr. N. S. Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, is seen looking through the camera of one of the photographers. [11 October 1960]
Photo # UN7768489 
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata

At right: The President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, paid an official visit to United Nations Headquarters on 20th September 1963 and addressed the delegates to the eighteenth session of the General Assembly. Here, President Kennedy (right) bids farewell to Secretary-General U Thant as he leaves UN Headquarters. At centre is Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN.
Photo # UN7660084 
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata

At left: On 24th September 1965 the General Assembly uses for the first time the new mechanical voting system. Electronic voting is used in the General Assembly to this day. 
Photo # UN7768047 
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata

At right: The General Assembly voted late on 21 September 1962 to authorize the United Nations to carry out the tasks entrusted to it in the Agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands concerning West New Guinea (West Irian). Acting Secretary-General U Thant (left) conferring with Mr. Muharmmad Zafrulla Khan (Pakistan), President of the General Assembly. 
Photo # UN7666200 
UN Photo/MH

At left: The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard further statements during the afternoon of 6th December 1966, on the annual report of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan of Iran, covering the period 1 April 1965 to 31 March 1966. The High Commissioner had presented his report to the Committee the day before in morning.
Seen here, before the meeting began, are Mrs. Abdellahi Ould Daddah (left) of Mauritania, and Mrs. Lucile Ramaholimihasc (Madagascar). 
Photo # UN7675240 
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata

Upper right: Stephane G. Stathatos, Acting Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations, meets with Stanislaw Trepczynski (Poland), President of the General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters. [5 December 1972]
Photo # UN7725954 
UN Photo/Saw Lwin

Lower right: Setup for the annual dinner in honour of the chairmen of all delegations and the permanent representatives of all member countries given by the Secretary-General U Thant and Amintore Fanfani, President of the General Assembly, at United Nations headquarters in the evening of 7 October 1965.
UN Photo # UN7768048 

At left: Listening to the debate on 22 September 1960 is Dr. Fidel Castro (left), Prime Minister of Cuba and head of his country's delegation to the Assembly. At right is Dr. Raúl Roa, Minister for External Relations of Cuba. 
Photo # UN7696894 
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata

At right: The Leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, arrived at United Nations Headquarters early in the morning on 13 November 1974 by helicopter. A view of the helicopter as it approaches the north garden of UN Headquarters for a landing. 
Photo # UN7593922 
UN Photo/Michos Tzovaras

The General Assembly, opening its twenty-sixth regular session in the afternoon of 21 September 1971, elected Adam Malik, Foreign Minister of Indonesia, as its President, and admitted three new Member States: Bhutan, Bahrain and Qatar. 
A general view of the Assembly as it stood for a minute of silence dedicated to prayer or meditation. This photograph was taken with a ""Fish-eye"" lens. 
Photo # UN7421545 
UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata