UN General Assembly Documentation

The general debate is part of the General Assembly session and is held at the beginning of each regular session in September, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure and A/RES/57/301, and the agenda for the session. Usually, the general debate is agenda item 8 of the regular session agenda.

Each member state has the opportunity to speak during the general debate. Often heads of state or government represent their countries at the general debate. 

The theme for the general debate of the 80th session of the General Assembly is: 

Better Together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.

The information note on Arrangements for the high-level meetings and the general debate issued each session (A/INF/session/4) includes:

• Dates and information of the general debate and the high level meetings organized around the time
• Events convened by the Secretary-General
• Protocol registration and access arrangements for Member States, observers, intergovernmental organizations, specialized agencies and related organizations
• Treaty event
• Security Arrangements
• Media access arrangements and services
• Focal points for arrangements related to high-level meetings

The UN Journal is a good source of official information about these activities.

The Secretariat publishes a note with the latest information on the Opening dates of forthcoming regular sessions (A/INF/session/1):

According to paragraph 50 of  resolution 75/325: 

"The general debate in the General Assembly shall open on the Tuesday of the fourth week in September, counting from the first week that contains at least one working day, and shall be held without interruption over a period of nine working days"

By tradition, Brazil usually speaks first at the General Debate, followed by the United States. 

In current practice, after the opening of the meeting by the President of the General Assembly, the order of speakers is: 

• UN Secretary-General
• President of the General Assembly 
• Brazil (regardless of the level of representation) 
• United States (as the host country, regardless of the level of representation).

Since the 10^th session in 1955, Brazil has spoken first and the United States has spoken second, with a few exceptions.

• At the 38th (1983) and 39th (1984) sessions, the United States spoke first and Brazil spoke second.
• At the 71st session, on 20 September 2016, Chad spoke second due to the delay in arrival of the President of the United States (see meeting record A/71/PV.8).
• At the 73rd session, on 25 September 2018, Ecuador spoke second due to the delay in arrival of the President of the United States (see meeting record A/73/PV.6).

The list of the first and second speakers for the first 10 sessions are set out below.

According to the General Debate website, for all other Member States, the speaking order is based on the level of representation, preference and other criteria such as geographic balance. Only the Holy See, the State of Palestine and the European Union are invited to participate in the general debate and their speaking slots are determined by the level of representation.

Please note that meeting records for the General Debate come out quite some time after the event concludes; it may take months for the official records to be issued. Check the dedicated website for the General Debate, the UN Web TV webcast of the meetings, and the UN press releases for more timely access to the information. Statements submitted by Member States may also be found on iGov and in the UN Journal.

The links in the table below are for searches in the UN Digital Library for the speech records for the General Debate of the regular sessions of the General Assembly. 

Note from Metadata Unit, July 2025 , the following symbols listed in general debate table, do not include statements on the General Debate agenda item: