ABSTRACT
The UN General Assembly was established as an intergovernmental forum with a broad mandate to discuss any issue of international concern and organizing its deliberations through a combination of parliamentary meeting rules and diplomatic practice. Advocates of greater global centralization of authority have long regarded it as short of the world legislature needed to adequately address global problems. While many UN member states have sought not increase its relative prominence within the UN system and current global governance processes, all of them remain content with the basic features of current design. In a context of widespread challenge to multilateralism in all forms, the General Assembly could be more effective by focusing on four roles: sounding board for new ideas; convener of focused negotiation forums; assessor of synergies or interferences created by simultaneous functioning of the various international regimes forces on particular matters; and 4) supervisor of the UN system.
