Who cares about the UN General Assembly? National delegations size from 1993 to 2016
| Published date | 01 May 2023 |
| Author | Vaclav Vlcek |
| Date | 01 May 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13190 |
Global Policy. 2023;14 :349 –360 .
|
349
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/gpol
1 | DELEGATION SIZE MATTERS
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is the main repre-
sentative body providing a deliberative platform for all
UN member states. Its institutional setting strongly rests
on the principle of sovereign equality, granting all mem-
bers the same rights and voting weight, regardles s of
their differences. However, empirical evidence shows
that states' ability to participate actively in mult ilateral
negotiations varies significantly, and so does their abil-
ity to influence the final policy outco mes (Panke,2017a ,
2017b). Formal equality is thus challeng ed by institu-
tional inequalities (Zürn & Deitelhoff,2015).
In this article, I suggest that national delegation
size is a source of such inequalities. The UN Char ter
states that ‘each member state shall have not more than
five representatives in the General Assembly’ (United
Nations,20 21b), making an impression of more or less
equal representation. However, the rules of procedure
enable the states to delegate extra ‘five alternate rep-
resentatives and as many advisers, technical advisers,
experts and persons of similar status as may be required
by the delegation’ (United Nations,2 021a). As a result,
some countries delegate hundreds of national re presen-
tatives to the UNGA sessions, while others send just a
handful of delegates, which is far from equal treatment.
Why is the size of national delegations so import ant?
Multilateral negotiations are very complex, inc luding
multiple actors who deal with multiple i ssues and seek
multiple, often incompatible, interests (Zartman,199 4).
In the UNGA, the membership grew from the ori ginal
51 to today's 193 states, and the session agendas
lengthened from 120 (sub- )items in 1946 to 335 in 2016
(Peterso n,20 18: 123). The complexity is fur ther inten-
sified by practical obstacles suc h as multiple meetings
going on simultaneously, informally in the corridors and
cafés, or until the night in the last- minute attempts to
find an agreement. Such an environment places pres-
sure on the delegation size. Small delegations lack
staff that could be physically present in all meetin gs
(Panke,2017b) and last- minute negotiation marathons
(Depledg e,2005).
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Who cares about the UN General Assembly? National
delegations size from 1993 to 2016
VaclavVlcek
Received: 12 November 2 021
|
Revised: 20 Januar y 2023
|
Accepted: 24 Janua ry 2023
DO I: 10 .1111/17 58- 589 9.13 190
This is an open ac cess article under t he terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which perm its use and distributi on in
any medium, provi ded the original work is p roperly cited, the use i s non-commercial a nd no modifications o r adaptations are made.
© 2023 The Author. Global Policy publishe d by Durham University an d John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Faculty of Soci al Sciences, Institu te of
Political Studies, Charles University,
Prague, Czech Repu blic
Correspondence
Vaclav Vlcek, Facult y of Social Science s,
Institute of Political Studies, Charles
University, Pekars ka 16, 15800 Prague,
Czech Republic.
Email: vaclav.vlcek@fsv.cuni.cz
Funding information
Political ord er in the times of changes,
Grant/Award Numb er: SVV 260 595; Who
Sits at The Table? States Rep resentation
in International Organizations, Grant/
Award Number: GAUK 26119
Abstract
The UN General Assembly is the central forum of world p olitics. While it formally
allows the member states to delegate up to five representatives, the size of the
national delegations is generally larger an d significantly increases over time. In
this paper, I explore the size of the national delegations to the General Assembly
from 1993 to 2016. Generally, the major powers (USA, Russia) send the biggest
delegations. Surprisingly, China sends significantly smaller delegations than it
used to before 2008. Big delegations are also se nt by some small (Sweden,
Finland, Norway, Switzerland) or developing countries (Nigeria, Bangladesh). My
analysis shows that national capacities and issue- specific motivations drive up
the delegation size. Althoughthe issue- specific explanations are relatively rare
in UN- related researc h (due to the general- purpose nature of the organisation), I
argue that human rights, international securit y, economic development, a nd UN
governance are the agendas for which states care about the G eneral Assembly.
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting