Third session of the United Nations General Assembly

The third regular session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, was held from 21 September to 12 December 1948 in Paris, France and from 5 April to 18 May 1949 in New York City, United States. The permanent Headquarters of the United Nations did not yet exist, so sessions of the General Assembly were convened in various cities; this was the first one to be held in Continental Europe.

Third session of the United Nations General Assembly
←  21 September 1948 – 18 May 1949 (1948-09-21 – 1949-05-18) 4th →
President of the third General Assembly, H. V. Evatt, overseeing a session in Paris on 23 September 1948
Host country	United Nations
Venue(s)	Palais de Chaillot New York City Building
Participants	United Nations Member States
President	Herbert Vere Evatt

The president of the United Nations General Assembly for both parts of the third session was Herbert Vere Evatt of Australia.

Prelude

The session was taking place but three years after the conclusion of World War II, a conflict so vast and impactful that it had convinced the United States and other nations to give collective security another try after the failures of the interwar period, and people were hopeful this time it would work. By 1948, the tensions of the early Cold War period were already becoming apparent.

On Sunday, 19 September, two days prior to the opening of the session, church bells were rung and special services held in congregations of various faiths, praying for the success of the General Assembly meetings. Such events were held in cities and towns across the United States and in parts of Canada. Similar ceremonies were also held in both Western and Eastern Europe, including in Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, as well as other parts of the world.

In many of the services, one particular prayer, written anonymously, was said, part of which read:

Especially do we pray for the Assembly of the United Nations, opening in Paris. Give to men and women gathered there a sense of Thy providence and a knowledge that the good of all people must come before the good of any single person, race, or nation. Amen.

Paris part

Eleanor Roosevelt, with American delegates Ernest A. Gross and Philip Jessup, during the second day of the assembly session

Representatives met in Paris from 21 September to 12 December 1948 in Paris, France to convene the third session. It was hosted at the Palais de Chaillot in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

In all there were 618 different meetings of the assembly and various committees at the Paris session. Initially there were negotiations over whether the Eastern Bloc would have adequate representation on the United Nations General Committee and other such UN bodies. The most important achievements of the Paris session were the ratifications of two foundational and essential documents, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The general assembly vote on the first was 48–0 with 8 absentions, and the vote on the second was 50–0 with 0 abstentions. Otherwise the Paris session was marked by disagreements between the West and the Eastern Bloc, with Andrey Vyshinsky, the head of the delegation from the Soviet Union, criticizing John Foster Dulles, the acting chair of the United States delegation. In the end, the Soviet Union expressed frustration that none of its own proposals had passed. The Paris session also addressed the situation on the Korean peninsula by declaring, via a 48–6 margin, the Republic of Korea to be the only legitimate government there.

New York part

The second part of the third session took place in New York City, United States, from 5 April to 18 May 1949. It was held at the New York City Building within Flushing Meadows Park in the borough of Queens. Many of the committee sessions were held just outside the city in the village of Lake Success. As a result, the naming of this part of the session is often referred to be both at Flushing Meadows Park and Lake Success.

The most significant action of this part of the session was United Nations General Assembly Resolution 273, allowing the admission of the State of Israel into the United Nations. The general assembly voted 37–12 with 9 abstentions. Otherwise the overall session ended on an inconclusive note, with several questions regarding the disposition of Italian colonies left for the next session.

References

1. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, General; the United Nations, Volume I, Part 1. U.S. State Department. p. 86n1. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
2. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume V. U.S. Department of State. p. 585n6. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
3. Hamilton, Thomas J. (22 September 1948). "Evatt Heads U.N. Assembly; West-Soviet Clash Is Looming". The New York Times. pp. 1, 3. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
4. "Elected President of the third session of the General Assembly". United Nations. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
5. Benns, F. Lee (1954). Europe Since 1914: In Its World Setting (Eighth ed.). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. pp. 593–596, 607, 650.
6. "Church Bells Ring for Paris Session". The New York Times. 20 September 1948. p. 22. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
7. "Editorials: Prayers for Peace". The Evening Citizen. Ottawa. 18 September 1948. p. 48. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
8. Lodge, J. Shenton (22 September 1948). "Church Bells Ring". Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. p. 4. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "Palais de Chaillot. Chaillot museums". Paris Digest. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
10. Hamilton, Thomas J. (13 December 1948). "U.N. Assembly Ends Its Paris Meeting; Backs South Korea". The New York Times. pp. 1, 3. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
11. Rosenfield, Geraldine (1950). "United Nations and Human Rights". The American Jewish Year Book. 51: 433–442. JSTOR 23603803.
12. "Building History". Queens Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
13. Hamilton, Thomas J. (6 April 1949). "Evatt, Opening U.N. Assembly, Warns Pacts Are Subordinate to Charter". The New York Times. pp. 1, 6. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
14. Rogers, John G. (19 May 1949). "UN Delays Action On Colonies". Journal Herald. Dayton, Ohio. The New York Herald Tribune. p. 1. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
15. "Admission of Israel to membership in the United Nations : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly". United Nations. 11 May 1949. Retrieved 18 March 2022.

External links

• Report of third session: Annual report of the Secretary-General on the work of the organization, 1 July 1948 -30 June 1949^{[permanent dead link‍]}. 7 July 1949, General Assembly official records