UN Budget Documentation, 2020-

The General Assembly discusses select aspects of peacekeeping:

• General issues relating to peacekeeping in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations and the Fourth Committee;
• Financing of peacekeeping and the authorization of budgets for individual missions in the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and the Fifth Committee.

General Peacekeeping Issues

Since 1965, the General Assembly has considered general topics relating to peacekeeping:

• Agenda item "Comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects"
• Allocated to the Fourth Committee since 1993
  • before 1993, it was discussed by the Special Political Committee
• Major document 
  • Report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations
• Fourth Committee considers this and any other documents, and reports to plenary
• Plenary considers the report of the Fourth Committee and adopts resolutions based on the report

Peacekeeping financing and budgets

Peacekeeping financing, in general

The General Assembly considers basic financial issues relating to peacekeeping:

• Agenda item "Administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations"
• Allocated to the Fifth Committee
• Major documents:
  • Reports of the Secretary-General
    • can cover many topics related to cross-cutting issues of peacekeeping financing
    • the note by the Secretary-General on "approved resources for peacekeeping operations" for each year provides a good starting point for research into the total financial requirements of the peacekeeping operations 
      • example: A/C.5/77/30
    • Search results for "approved resources for peacekeeping operations" (2001-present)
    • Search results for "proposed budgetary requirements of each peacekeeping operation" (1996-2000)
  • Reports of the ACABQ (Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions)
    • the ACABQ reviews all reports of the Secretary-General on financial questions relating to peacekeeping
    • submits its findings to the General Assembly
• Fifth Committee considers these reports, and any other documents, and reports to plenary
• Plenary considers the report of the Fifth Committee and adopts resolutions based on the report

Financing of specific missions

The General Assembly considers the budgets of individual missions:

• Separate agenda item for each operation
• Allocated to the Fifth Committee
• Major documents, for each mission:
  • Reports of the Secretary-General
    • provide information about the political mandate and operational plan of the mission, the cost estimates and staffing requirements for a given time period as well as recommendations for actions to be taken by the General Assembly
    • symbol pattern A/session/-
    • example: A/77/758
  • Reports of the ACABQ (Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions)
    • the ACABQ reviews all reports of the Secretary-General on financial questions relating to peacekeeping
    • submits its findings to the General Assembly
    • symbol pattern A/session/-
    • example: A/77/767/Add.13
• Fifth Committee considers these reports, and any other documents, and reports to plenary
• Plenary considers the report of the Fifth Committee and adopts resolutions based on the report

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