The UN Security Council will vote to convene a rare "emergency special session" of the 193-member General Assembly on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, two days after Moscow used its veto to block a resolution on its aggression against Kyiv.
The 15-nation Security Council will meet on Sunday afternoon to hold a vote on the special session. This will be only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950.
The vote calling for the session will be procedural. So none of the five permanent members of the Council - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - can exercise their vetoes.
President of the 76th session of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid, who was to attend the 49th regular session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, cancelled his trip "due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine and potential developments in the Security Council," for the vote.
He also met on Saturday with Ukrainian Permanent Representative at the UN Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya after the veto on the draft resolution in the Security Council.
Kyslytsya briefed Shahid "on the security situation in Kyiv and the potential action he would be seeking in the General Assembly." UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also cancelled his scheduled trip to Geneva for the Human Rights Council meeting "due to the aggravating situation in Ukraine." The Security Council on Friday evening failed to adopt a resolution that would have deplored Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine after Moscow used its veto.
India, China and the UAE abstained on the resolution while 11 members of the Council - Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States - voted in favour.
The UNSC resolution was expected to be blocked since Russia, a permanent member of the Council and President of the UN organ for the month of February, was certain to use its veto.
Western nations said the UNSC resolution had sought to show Moscow's isolation on the global stage for its invasion and actions against Ukraine.
US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said after the failed UNSC vote that "we will be taking this matter to the General Assembly, where the Russian veto does not apply and the nations of the world will continue to hold Russia accountable." While a UNSC resolution would have been legally binding and General Assembly resolution are not, vote in the 193-member UN body is symbolic of world opinion on the crisis.
Under the resolution "Uniting for peace", adopted by the General Assembly in November 1950, an "emergency special session" can be convened within 24 hours of such a session being requested.
The UNGA "resolves that if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately with a view to making appropriate recommendations to Members for collective measures, including in the case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and security," it says.
"If not in session at the time, the General Assembly may meet in emergency special session within twenty-four hours of the request therefor. Such emergency special session shall be called if requested by the Security Council on the vote of any seven members, or by a majority of the Members of the United Nations," it says.
The UNGA resolution of 1950 also reaffirmed the "importance of the exercise by the Security Council of its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and the duty of the permanent members to seek unanimity and to exercise restraint in the use of the veto."
