The Security Council voted on Sunday to call for a rare emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, which will be held on Monday. 

The measure convening the General Assembly session was adopted by a vote of 11 in favor, with Russia voting against, and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining.

Today’s request for the Assembly to urgently convene a meeting comes after Russia vetoed on Friday a US-led draft Security Council resolution that would have ‘deplored in the strongest terms the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine’.  

Since the text acted on today was procedural, none of the five permanent Council members – China France, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States – could use their vetoes. The measure needed just nine votes in favor to pass. 

Uniting for Peace 

Only 10 such emergency special sessions of the General Assembly have been convened since 1950, following the adoption of resolution 377A(V), widely known as ‘Uniting for Peace.’

That text gives the Assembly the power to take up matters of international peace and security when the Security Council is unable to act because of the lack of unanimity among its five veto-wielding permanent members.