document_title: Declaration of war by the United States

question_text: when was the last time congress declared war on another nation

text: Declaration of war by the United States

text: History[edit]

text: The United States has formally declared war against foreign nations five separate times, each upon prior request by the President of the United States. Four of those five declarations came after hostilities had begun.[2] James Madison reported that in the Federal Convention of 1787, the phrase "make war" was changed to "declare war" in order to leave to the Executive the power to repel sudden attacks but not to commence war without the explicit approval of Congress.[3] Debate continues as to the legal extent of the President's authority in this regard. Public opposition to American involvement in foreign wars, particularly during the 1930s, was expressed as support for a Constitutional Amendment that would require a national referendum on a declaration of war.[4] Several Constitutional Amendments, such as the Ludlow Amendment, have been proposed that would require a national referendum on a declaration of war.

text: After Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in January 1971 and President Richard Nixon continued to wage war in Vietnam, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution (Pub.L. 93–148) over the veto of Nixon in an attempt to rein in some of the president's claimed powers. The War Powers Resolution proscribes the only power of the president to wage war which is recognized by Congress.

text: Declarations of war[edit]

text: Formal[edit]

text: The table below lists the five wars in which the United States has formally declared war against eleven foreign nations.[5] The only country against which the United States has declared war more than once is Germany, against which the United States has declared war twice (though a case could be made for Hungary as a successor state to Austria-Hungary).

text: In World War II, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Germany and Italy, led respectively by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, declared war on the United States, and the U.S. Congress responded in kind.[6][7]

text:
War
Declaration
Opponent(s)
Date of declaration
Votes
President
Result

Senate
House

War of 1812
Declaration of War upon the U.K.
 United Kingdom
June 18, 1812
19–13
79–49
James Madison
Treaty of Ghent (December 24, 1814)

Mexican–American War
"An Act providing for the Prosecution of the existing War between the United States and the Republic of Mexico."[8]
 Mexico
 Mexico

May 13, 1846
40–2
173–14
James K. Polk
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848)

Spanish–American War
Declaration of War upon Spain
 Spain
April 25, 1898
42–35
310–6
William McKinley
Treaty of Paris (December 10, 1898)

World War I
Declaration of War upon Germany
 Germany
April 6, 1917
82–6
373–50
Woodrow Wilson
Treaty of Berlin (August 25, 1921)

Declaration of War upon Austria-Hungary[9][10]
 Austria-Hungary
December 7, 1917
74–0
365–1
1921 U.S.–Austrian Peace Treaty (August 24, 1921), 1921 U.S.-Hungarian Peace Treaty (August 29, 1921)

World War II
Declaration of War upon Japan
 Japan
December 8, 1941
82–0
388–1
Franklin D. Roosevelt
V-J Day, Japanese Instrument of Surrender (September 2, 1945), Treaty of San Francisco (September 8, 1951)

Declaration of War upon Germany
 Germany
December 11, 1941
88–0
393–0
V-E Day, German Instrument of Surrender (May 8, 1945), Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (September 12, 1990), Treaty of Vienna with Austria (May 15, 1955)

Declaration of War upon Italy
 Italy
90–0
399–0
Paris Peace Treaty (February 10, 1947)

Declaration of War upon Bulgaria
 Bulgaria
June 5, 1942
73–0
357–0

Declaration of War upon Hungary[9]
 Hungary
360–0

Declaration of War upon Romania[9]
 Romania
361–0

text: Undeclared wars[edit]

text: Military engagements authorized by Congress[edit]

text: In other instances, the United States has engaged in extended military combat that was authorized by Congress.

text:
War or conflict
Opponent(s)
Initial authorization
Votes
President
Result

Senate
House

Quasi-War
 France
An Act further to protect the commerce of the United States
July 9, 1798
18–4

John Adams
Treaty of Mortefontaine

First Barbary War
 Morocco
 Tripolitania

February 6, 1802[11]

Thomas Jefferson
War ended 1805

Second Barbary War
 Algiers
May 10, 1815[12]

James Madison
War ended 1816

Enforcing 1808 slave trade ban; naval squadron sent to African waters to apprehend illegal slave traders
 Slave traders and pirates
"Act in addition to the acts prohibiting the Slave Trade" 1819

James Monroe
1822 first African-American settlement founded in Liberia, 1823 U.S. Navy stops anti-trafficking patrols

Redress for attack on U.S. Navy's USS Water Witch
 Paraguay
1858.[13]

James Buchanan

Mexican Revolution

United States occupation of Veracruz

 Mexico
H.J.R. 251, 38 Stat. 770
April 22, 1914

337–37
Woodrow Wilson
Force withdrawn after six months. However, the Joint Resolution was likely used to authorize the Pancho Villa Expedition. In the Senate, "when word reached the Senate that the invasion had gone forward before the use-of-force resolution had been approved, Republicans reacted angrily" saying it was a violation of the Constitution, but eventually after the action had already started, a resolution was passed after the action to "justify" it since Senators did not think it was a declaration of war.[14][15]

Russian Civil War

Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War

 Commune of Estonia
 Far Eastern Republic
 Latvia
 Mongolian People's Party
 Russia
 Ukraine

1918[16]

Woodrow Wilson

Lebanon crisis of 1958
 Lebanese Opposition

 Al-Mourabitoun
 Lebanese Communist Party
 Progressive Socialist Party

H.J. Res. 117, Public Law 85-7, Joint Resolution "To promote peace and stability in the Middle East", March 9, 1957[17]
72–19
355–61
Dwight D. Eisenhower
U.S. forces withdrawn, October 25, 1958

Vietnam War

Laotian Civil War

Cambodian Civil War

 China
National United Front of Kampuchea

 Khmer Rouge
 Khmer Rumdo
 Khmer Việt Minh

 North Korea
 North Vietnam
 Pathet Lao
 South Vietnam

Việt Cộng

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, August 7, 1964
88–2
416–0
Lyndon B. Johnson
U.S. forces withdrawn under terms of the Paris Peace Accords signed January 27, 1973

Multinational Force in Lebanon
Shia and Druze militias; Syria
S.J.Res. 159
Pub.L. 98–119
September 29, 1983
54–46
253–156
Ronald W. Reagan
Forces withdrawn in 1984

Persian Gulf War
 Iraq
H.J.Res. 77
January 12, 1991.
52–47
250–183
George H.W. Bush
The United Nations Security Council drew up terms for the cease-fire, April 3, 1991

War in Afghanistan

Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan
Operation Freedom's Sentinel

al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen

Yemeni Civil War

Somali Civil War

Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa

War in North-West Pakistan

Moro conflict

Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines

Iraqi Civil War

Operation Inherent Resolve

Syrian Civil War

Operation Inherent Resolve

Second Libyan Civil War

 Afghanistan

Quetta Shura

Taliban

Haqqani network
Mullah Dadullah Front

 al-Qaeda

055 Brigade
Al-Nusra Front

Khorasan group

al-Qaeda Emirate in Yemen

Aden-Abyan Islamic Army
Islamic Jihad of Yemen

al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Ansar al-Sharia

al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent
Lashkar al-Zil

 Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya
 Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin
 Islamic Jihad Union
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar
Jundallah
Lashkar-e-Islam
 Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
 Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi
 Turkistan Islamic Party
 Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

 High Council of the Islamic Emirate
 Fidai Mahaz

 al-Itihaad al-Islamiya
 Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia
 Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahedeen
 Hizbul Islam
 Islamic Courts Union
 Jabhatul Islamiya
 Mu'askar Anole
 Ras Kamboni Brigades

 Abu Sayyaf
 Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
 Islamic State
 Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
 Maute group
 Khalifa Islamiyah Mindanao

S.J. Res. 23
September 14, 2001
98–0
420–1
George W. Bush

Iraq War[18]
 Iraq
H.J. Res. 114,
March 3, 2003
77–23
296–132
George W. Bush
Ba'athist Iraqi government deposed April 2003. U.S. combat operations ended August 31, 2010. War ended December 15, 2011. Destabilization of Iraq and emergence of ISIL in the region 2011–present.[19]

text: Military engagements authorized by United Nations Security Council Resolutions and funded by Congress[edit]

text: In many instances, the United States has engaged in extended military engagements that were authorized by United Nations Security Council Resolutions and funded by appropriations from Congress.

text:
Military engagement
Opponent(s)
Initial authorization
President
Result

Korean War
 China
 North Korea
 Soviet Union

UNSCR 84, 1950
Harry S. Truman
Korean Armistice Agreement,[20] 1953

Multinational Force in Lebanon
Shia militias, Druze militias, Syria
UNSCR 425, 1978
UNSCR 426, 1978

Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan
U.S. forces withdrew in 1984

Persian Gulf War
 Iraq
UNSCR 678, 1990
George H. W. Bush
UNSCR 689, 1991

Bosnian War
 Republika Srpska
UNSCR 770, 1992
UNSCR 776, 1992
UNSCR 836, 1993
Bill Clinton
Reflagged as IFOR in 1995, Reflagged as SFOR in 1996, Completed in 2004

Second Liberian Civil War
Peacekeeping
UNSCR 1497, 2003
George W. Bush
U.S. forces are withdrawn in 2003 after the UNMIL is established.

Haitian coup d'état
UNSCR 1529, 2004
UNSCR 1542, 2004

2004

First Libyan Civil War

2011 military intervention in Libya

Operation Odyssey Dawn
Operation Unified Protector

 Libya
UNSCR 1973, 2011
Barack Obama
Debellation of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, October 31, 2011

text: Other undeclared wars[edit]

text:
Military engagement
Opponent(s)
President
Result

American Revolutionary War
 Great Britain

Quebec
Loyalists

German auxiliaries

 Hesse-Kassel
 Hesse-Hanau
 Hanover
 Waldeck
 Brunswick
 Ansbach
 Anhalt-Zerbst

Native Americans[21]

 Iroquois Confederacy

None
Peace of Paris

text: On at least 125 occasions, the President has acted without prior express military authorization from Congress.[22] These include instances in which the United States fought in the Philippine–American War from 1898–1903, in Nicaragua in 1927, as well as the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in 1999, and the 2017 missile strikes on Syria.

text: The United States' longest war was fought between approximately 1840 and 1886 against the Apache Nation. During that entire 46-year period, there was never more than 90 days of peace.[citation needed]

text: The Indian Wars comprise at least 28 conflicts and engagements. These localized conflicts, with Native Americans, began with European colonists coming to North America, long before the establishment of the United States. For the purpose of this discussion, the Indian Wars are defined as conflicts with the United States of America. They begin as one front in the American Revolutionary War in 1775 and had concluded by 1918. The United States Army still maintains a campaign streamer for Pine Ridge 1890–1891 despite opposition from certain Native American groups.[23]

text: The American Civil War was not an international conflict under the laws of war, because the Confederate States of America was not a government that had been granted full diplomatic recognition as a sovereign nation by other sovereign states.[24][25] The CSA was recognized by the United States government as a belligerent power, a different status of recognition that authorized Confederate warships to visit non-U.S. ports. This recognition of the CSA's status as a belligerent power did not impose any duty upon the United States to recognize the sovereignty of the Confederacy, and the United States never did so.

text: The War Powers Resolution[edit]

text: In 1973, following the withdrawal of most American troops from the Vietnam War, a debate emerged about the extent of presidential power in deploying troops without a declaration of war. A compromise in the debate was reached with the War Powers Resolution. This act clearly defined how many soldiers could be deployed by the President of the United States and for how long. It also required formal reports by the President to Congress regarding the status of such deployments, and limited the total amount of time that American forces could be deployed without a formal declaration of war.

text: Although the constitutionality of the act has never been tested, it is usually followed, most notably during the Grenada Conflict, the Panamanian Conflict, the Somalia Conflict, the Persian Gulf War, and the Iraq War[clarification needed]. The only exception was President Clinton's use of U.S. troops in the 78-day NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War.[citation needed] In all other cases, the President asserted the constitutional authority to commit troops without the necessity of Congressional approval, but in each case the President received Congressional authorization that satisfied the provisions of the War Powers Act.

text: On March 21, 2011, a number of lawmakers expressed concern that the decision of President Barack Obama to order the U.S. military to join in attacks of Libyan air defenses and government forces exceeded his constitutional authority because the decision to authorize the attack was made without Congressional permission.[26] Obama explained his rationale in a two-page letter, stating that as commander in chief, he had constitutional authority to authorize the strikes, which would be limited in scope and duration, and necessary to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Libya.


document_title: United Nations General Assembly

question_text: how many countries are the members of u.n. general assembly

root

text: United Nations General Assembly

text: History[edit]

text: The first session of the UN General Assembly was convened on 10 January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall in London and included representatives of 51 nations. The next few annual sessions were held in different cities: the second session in New York City, and the third in Paris. It moved to the permanent Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City at the start of its seventh regular annual session, on 14 October 1952. In December 1988, in order to hear Yasser Arafat, the General Assembly organised its 29th session in the Palace of Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland.[7]

tag: p

text: Membership[edit]

text: All 193 members states of the United Nations are members of the General Assembly. Further, the United Nations General Assembly may grant observer status to an international organization, entity or non-member state, which entitles the entity to participate in the work of the United Nations General Assembly, though with limitations.

text: Agenda[edit]

text: The agenda for each session is planned up to seven months in advance and begins with the release of a preliminary list of items to be included in the provisional agenda.[8] This is refined into a provisional agenda 60 days before the opening of the session. After the session begins, the final agenda is adopted in a plenary meeting which allocates the work to the various Main Committees, who later submit reports back to the Assembly for adoption by consensus or by vote.

text: Items on the agenda are numbered. Regular plenary sessions of the General Assembly in recent years have initially been scheduled to be held over the course of just three months; however, additional work loads have extended these sessions until just short of the next session. The routinely scheduled portions of the sessions normally commence on "the Tuesday of the third week in September, counting from the first week that contains at least one working day," per the UN Rules of Procedure.[9] The last two of these Regular sessions were routinely scheduled to recess exactly three months afterwards[10] in early December, but were resumed in January and extended until just before the beginning of the following sessions.[11]

text: Resolutions[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: The General Assembly votes on many resolutions brought forth by sponsoring states. These are generally statements symbolizing the sense of the international community about an array of world issues. Most General Assembly resolutions are not enforceable as a legal or practical matter, because the General Assembly lacks enforcement powers with respect to most issues. The General Assembly has authority to make final decisions in some areas such as the United Nations budget.[12]

text: General Assembly Resolutions are generally non-binding on member states, but carry considerable political weight, and are legally binding towards the operations of the General Assembly. The General Assembly can also refer an issue to the Security Council to put in place a binding resolution.[13]

text: Resolution numbering scheme[edit]

text: From the First to the Thirtieth General Assembly sessions, all General Assembly resolutions were numbered consecutively, with the resolution number followed by the session number in Roman numbers (for example, Resolution 1514 (XV), which was the 1514th numbered resolution adopted by the Assembly, and was adopted at the Fifteenth Regular Session (1960)). Beginning in the Thirty-First Session, resolutions are numbered by individual session (for example Resolution 41/10 represents the 10th resolution adopted at the Forty-First Session).

text: UN budget[edit]

text: The General Assembly also approves the budget of the United Nations, and decides how much money each member state must pay to run the organization.[5]

text: The Charter of the United Nations gives responsibility for approving the budget to the General Assembly (Chapter IV, Article 17) and for preparing the budget to the Secretary-General, as "chief administrative officer" (Chapter XV, Article 97). The Charter also addresses the non-payment of assessed contributions (Chapter IV, Article 19). The planning, programming, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation cycle of the United Nations has evolved over the years; major resolutions on the process include General Assembly resolutions: 41/213 of 19 December 1986, 42/211 of 21 December 1987, and 45/248 of 21 December 1990.[14]

text: The budget covers the costs of United Nations programmes in areas such as political affairs, international justice and law, international cooperation for development, public information, human rights, and humanitarian affairs.

text: The main source of funds for the regular budget is the contributions of member states. The scale of assessments is based on the capacity of countries to pay. This is determined by considering their relative shares of total gross national product, adjusted to take into account a number of factors, including their per capita incomes.

text: In addition to the regular budget, member states are assessed for the costs of the international tribunals and, in accordance with a modified version of the basic scale, for the costs of peacekeeping operations.[15]

text: Elections[edit]

text: The General Assembly votes in elections for the ten non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council;[16] the most recent such election was on 2 June 2017. These elections take place every year, and member states serve two-year terms, with five replaced each year. The candidates are selected by their regional groups. The General Assembly also elects members of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It also elects members of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and some members of the United Nations Trusteeship Council. The General Assembly appoints the Secretary-General of the United Nations on recommendation of the Security Council, and adopts rules governing the administration of the Secretariat. Along with the Security Council, the General Assembly elects Judges for the International Court of Justice in The Hague.[17]

text: Special sessions[edit]

text: Special sessions may be convened at the request of the United Nations Security Council, or a majority of UN members,[18] or, if the majority concurs, of a single member. A special session was held on October 1995 at the head of government level to commemorate the UN's 50th anniversary. Another special session was held in September 2000 to celebrate the millennium; it put forward the Millennium Development Goals. A special session was again held to discuss and admit proposals for the HIV/AIDS crisis in 2001.[19] A further special session (2005 World Summit) was held in September 2005 to commemorate the UN's 60th anniversary; it assessed progress on the Millennium Development Goals, and discussed Kofi Annan's In Larger Freedom proposals. Another special session was held in 2014 to discuss Population and Development, following the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action.[20]

text: UNGASS 2016[edit]

text: A special session was held in 2016 to discuss the War on Drugs and proposals to reconsider international drug treaties like the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, as well as how to deal with drug treatment, rehabilitation, and related matters.[21] This was the first UN gathering on the subject in 20 years. In 2016, while "some European and South American countries as well as the U.S. favored softer approaches[,] ... countries such as China and Russia and most Muslim nations like Iran, Indonesia and Pakistan remained staunchly opposed" to any move beyond prohibition. One group favoring reform, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, and some attendees, expressed disappointment with the "status quo" outcome.[22]

text: Presenters included Russel Simmons, Michael Skolnik, Che Rhymefest Smith, who screened the film WARonUS, directed by Queen Muhammad Ali and Hakeem Khaaliq.[23][24]

text: Other special sessions[edit]

text: At the first Special Session of the UN General Assembly held in 1947, Osvaldo Aranha, then president of the Special Session, began a tradition that has remained until today whereby the first speaker at this major international forum is always a Brazilian.[26]

text: If the Security Council fails to act to maintain international peace and security due to a disagreement between its permanent members, the General Assembly has the power to convene an emergency special session and act to ensure peace and security under United Nations General Assembly Resolution 377.

text: General Debates[edit]

text: Annually, Heads of State, Government or heads of delegations speak at the opening of the new session of the General Assembly during the "General Debate".[27][28][29]

text: Emergency special sessions[edit]

text: The General Assembly may take action on maintaining international peace and security if the United Nations Security Council is unable, usually due to disagreement among the permanent members, to exercise its primary responsibility. If not in session at the time, the General Assembly may meet in emergency special session[30] within 24 hours of the request. Such emergency special sessions are to be called if requested by the UN Security Council on the vote of any seven members, or by a majority of the Members of the United Nations.

text: The "Uniting for Peace" resolution, adopted 3 November 1950, empowered the Assembly to convene in emergency special session in order to recommend collective measures, including the use of armed force, in the event of a breach of the peace or an act of aggression. As with all Assembly resolutions, two-thirds of UN Members "present and voting" must approve any such recommendation before it can be formally adopted by the Assembly. Emergency special sessions have been convened under this procedure on ten occasions. The two most recent, in 1982 and 1997–2017, were about the status of the territories occupied[31] by the State of Israel.

text: Subsidiary organs[edit]

text: The General Assembly subsidiary organs are divided into five categories: committees (30 total, six main), commissions (six), boards (seven), councils and panels 卌, working groups, and "other".

text: Committees[edit]

text: Main committees[edit]

text: The main committees are ordinally numbered, 1–6:

text:
The First Committee: Disarmament and International Security (DISEC) is concerned with disarmament and related international security questions
The Second Committee: Economic and Financial (ECOFIN) is concerned with economic questions
The Third Committee: Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian (SOCHUM) deals with social and humanitarian issues
The Fourth Committee: Special Political and Decolonisation (SPECPOL) deals with a variety of political subjects not dealt with by the First Committee, as well as with decolonization
The Fifth Committee: Administrative and Budgetary and general deals with the administration and budget of the United Nations
The Sixth Committee: Legal deals with legal matters

tag: ul

text: The roles of many of the main committees have changed over time. Until the late 1970s, the First Committee was the Political and Security Committee (POLISEC) and there was also a sufficient number of additional "political" matters that an additional, unnumbered main committee, called the Special Political Committee, also sat. The Fourth Committee formerly handled Trusteeship and Decolonization matters. With the decreasing number of such matters to be addressed as the trust territories attained independence and the decolonization movement progressed, the functions of the Special Political Committee were merged into the Fourth Committee during the 1990s.

text: Each main committee consists of all the members of the General Assembly. Each elects a chairman, three vice chairmen, and a rapporteur at the outset of each regular General Assembly session.

text: Other committees[edit]

text: These are not numbered. According to the General Assembly website, the most important[32] are:

text:
Credentials Committee – This committee is charged with ensuring that the diplomatic credentials of all UN representatives are in order. The Credentials Committee consists of nine Member States elected early in each regular General Assembly session.
General Committee – This is a supervisory committee entrusted with ensuring that the whole meeting of the Assembly goes smoothly. The General Committee consists of the president and vice presidents of the current General Assembly session and the chairman of each of the six Main Committees.

text: Other committees of the General Assembly are enumerated.[33]

text: Commissions[edit]

text: There are six commissions:

text:
Disarmament Commission, established by GA Resolution 502 (VI) and S-10/2
International Civil Service Commission, established by GA Resolution 3357 (XXIX)
International Law Commission, established by GA Resolution 174 (II)
United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), established by GA Resolution 2205 (XXI)
United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, established by GA Resolution 194 (III)
United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, established by GA Resolution 60/180 and UN Security Council Resolutions 1645 (2005) and 1646 (2005)

text: Despite its name, the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was actually a subsidiary body of ECOSOC.

text: Boards[edit]

text: There are seven boards which are categorized into two groups: a) Executive Boards and b) Boards

text: Executive Boards[edit]

text:
Executive Board of the United Nations Children's Fund, established by GA Resolution 57 (I) and 48/162
Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme and of the United Nations Population Fund, established by GA Resolution 2029 (XX) and 48/162
Executive Board of the World Food Programme, established by GA Resolution 50/8

tag: ol

text: Boards[edit]

text:
Board of Auditors, established by GA Resolution 74 (I)
Trade and Development Board, established by GA Resolution 1995 (XIX)
United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board, established by GA Resolution 248 (III)
Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, established by GA Resolution 37/99 K

text: Councils and panels[edit]

text: The newest council is the United Nations Human Rights Council, which replaced the aforementioned UNCHR in March 2006.

text: There are a total of four councils and one panel.[34]

text: Working Groups and other[edit]

text: There is a varied group of working groups and other subsidiary bodies.[34]

text: Seating[edit]

text: Countries are seated alphabetically in the General Assembly according to English translations of the countries' names. The country which occupies the front-most left position is determined annually by the Secretary-General via ballot draw. The remaining countries follow alphabetically after it.[35]

text: Reform and UNPA[edit]

text: On 21 March 2005, Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented a report, In Larger Freedom, that criticized the General Assembly for focusing so much on consensus that it was passing watered-down resolutions reflecting "the lowest common denominator of widely different opinions."[36] He also criticized the Assembly for trying to address too broad an agenda, instead of focusing on "the major substantive issues of the day, such as international migration and the long-debated comprehensive convention on terrorism". Annan recommended streamlining the General Assembly's agenda, committee structure, and procedures; strengthening the role and authority of its president; enhancing the role of civil society; and establishing a mechanism to review the decisions of its committees, in order to minimize unfunded mandates and micromanagement of the United Nations Secretariat. Annan reminded UN members of their responsibility to implement reforms, if they expect to realize improvements in UN effectiveness.[37]

text: The reform proposals were not taken up by the United Nations World Summit in September 2005. Instead, the Summit solely affirmed the central position of the General Assembly as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations, as well as the role of the Assembly in the process of standard-setting and the codification of international law. The Summit also called for strengthening the relationship between the General Assembly and the other principal organs to ensure better coordination on topical issues that required coordinated action by the United Nations, in accordance with their respective mandates.[citation needed]

text: A United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, or United Nations People's Assembly (UNPA), is a proposed addition to the United Nations System that eventually could allow for direct election of UN parliament members by citizens all over the world.

text: In the General Debate of the 65th General Assembly, Jorge Valero, representing Venezuela, said "The United Nations has exhausted its model and it is not simply a matter of proceeding with reform, the twenty-first century demands deep changes that are only possible with a rebuilding of this organisation." He pointed to the futility of resolutions concerning the Cuban embargo and the Middle East conflict as reasons for the UN model having failed. Venezuela also called for the suspension of veto rights in the Security Council because it was a "remnant of the Second World War [it] is incompatible with the principle of sovereign equality of States."[38]

text: Reform of the United Nations General Assembly includes proposals to change the powers and composition of the U.N. General Assembly. This could include, for example, tasking the Assembly with evaluating how well member states implement UNGA resolutions,[39] increasing the power of the assembly vis-à-vis the United Nations Security Council, or making debates more constructive and less repetitive.[40]

text: Sidelines of the General Assembly[edit]

text: The annual session of the United Nations General Assembly is accompanied by independent meetings between world leaders, better known as meetings taking place on the sidelines of the Assembly meeting. The diplomatic congregation has also since evolved into a week attracting wealthy and influential individuals from around the world to New York City to address various agendas, ranging from humanitarian and environmental to business and political.[41]


document_title: National Insurance number

question_text: when does your national insurance number come through

text: National Insurance number

text: Allocation of number[edit]

text: People born and resident in the UK are assigned a Child Reference Number shortly after birth when a claim is made for Child Benefit.[3] At age 15 years 9 months HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) notifies each child of their NI number.[4]

text: In 1993, a one-off mass allocation of NI numbers was made to all children under the age of 16 whose parents were in receipt of Child Benefit. As a result of this, siblings who met the criteria above were allocated NI numbers sequentially.[5]

text: Persons from abroad who wish to work in the UK, or those to whom a number was not initially allocated as children, must apply for a number through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).[6] The prefixes used are typically different from those used in the normal run.[6][not in citation given]

text: Format[edit]

text: The format of the number is two prefix letters, six digits, and one suffix letter.[7] The example used is typically QQ123456C. Often, the number is printed with spaces to pair off the digits, like this: QQ 12 34 56 C.

text: Neither of the first two letters can be D, F, I, Q, U or V. The second letter also cannot be O. The prefixes BG, GB, NK, KN, TN, NT and ZZ are not allocated.[8] Validation lists of issued two-letter prefixes are published from time to time.[9][10]

text: After the two prefix letters, the six digits are issued sequentially from 00 00 00 to 99 99 99. The last two digits determine the day of the week on which various social security benefits are payable and when unemployed claimants need to attend their Jobcentre to sign on (renew their claims): 00 to 19 for Monday, 20 to 39 for Tuesday, 40 to 59 for Wednesday, 60 to 79 for Thursday and 80 to 99 for Friday.[11][12]

text: The suffix letter is either A, B, C, or D.[7] (although F, M, and P have been used for temporary numbers in the past). The NI number is unique without the suffix letter, so, for example, if AB 12 34 56 C exists, then there will be no other numbers beginning with AB 12 34 56 (although temporary numbers were not necessarily unique, because two people with the same date of birth would have had the same number). In official electronic submissions, the final letter may be represented by a space if not known.[13]

text: Until 1975, the suffixes A, B, C and D at the end of the NI number signified the period of validity of the National Insurance cards originally used to collect National Insurance contributions (NICs). Cards were exchanged every twelve months and because of the very large numbers of cards issued the exchange was staggered. Suffix A cards ran from March of one year until March of the next when they were exchanged for a new one. Stagger B suffix cards ran from June until the following June, stagger C from September until the following September and stagger D from December until the following December. For example, a B stagger card issued in 1955 might have run from the first Monday in June that year until the first Sunday in June the following year. This staggered system operated from 5 July 1948 until 1975, at which time the A stagger cards were extended to run an extra five weeks, until 5 April 1975, in line with the end of the tax year. The B, C and D stagger NI Cards had a shorter period of validity in their final year, and ran from June, September and December respectively in 1974 until 6 April 1975. From 6 April 1975 onwards, a computerised National Insurance Recording System (NIRS) was used to allocate all NICs by tax years.

text: In Great Britain, expired NI cards were sorted into one hundred separate groups corresponding to the final two numbers of the NI number and were posted to the individual insured person's NI account (the RF1) by the corresponding one hundred ledger sections at the Records Branch of the Central Office of the Ministry of Labour and its successors—the Ministry of National Insurance (from 1945), Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance (1953), the Department of Health and Social Security (1968), Department of Social Security (1988), and Department for Work and Pensions (since 2001). These 100 sections dealt not only with the recording of NI contributions but with requests for information about qualifying contributions necessary to pay sickness, unemployment, widows, and other benefits and also with any correspondence arising from those NI accounts and NI cards. Within each of the 100 sections, NI numbers were allocated among 16 splits with one clerk administering each split. To trace unknown NI numbers, a general index contained millions of small RF2 index slips, filed in order of surname and listing the name(s), date of birth, and NI number for every person within the National Insurance scheme.

text: The Northern Ireland National Insurance scheme is funded and administered separately from the scheme in Great Britain but operates identically so that, in practice, the same rules apply throughout the United Kingdom.

text: Temporary numbers[edit]

text: Until April 2001, employers sometimes allocated their employees a temporary insurance number, which followed the format "TN dd mm yy x", where 'TN' stands for temporary number and is static and x is M for male, F for female, or P for pensioner and the numbers in the midsection were the employee's date of birth.[8] In the case of a woman born on 31 December 1958, for example, the temporary NI number would have been TN 31 12 58 F. Temporary NI numbers could not be used to trace back any NI credits or personal details. Since 2001 the National Insurance number must be obtained – the temporary code must not now be used.[14]

text: Another type of temporary NI number is the Revenue-issued "temporary reference" used when HMRC is unable to trace a taxpayer's original NI number. It follows the format 63T12345.

text: Administrative numbers[edit]

text: Reference numbers similar in format to NI numbers are sometimes allocated for tax or benefit purposes with special prefix letters. Special prefixes used in the past include the letters OO (for Tax Credit claims), CR (for investigations), FY (formerly for Attendance Allowance claims, named after the Fylde social security office where claims were processed), MW (used from 1980 to 1987 for migrant workers), NC (formerly for Stakeholder Pensions, PP (for use by pension schemes as PP999999P), and PY or PZ (both used for tax-only accounts created prior to 2003).[7]

text: Numbercards[edit]

text: From 1984 until 2011, when a person was allocated an NI number he or she also received a plastic 'numbercard' of similar proportions to a credit card with the number raised on the front. Prior to 1984, a manila notification card was issued instead. The card is only used as a reminder of the number and the card itself is not needed to start work, and is not considered a valid identity card. Numbercards were phased out from September 2010, and the issue of numbercards ceased completely in October 2011. NI numbers are now notified by letter.[15]

text: Crown dependencies[edit]

text: National Insurance numbers issued in the Isle of Man hold the prefix MA.[16] Similarly, those issued in Jersey start with JY, and those issued in Guernsey hold the prefix GY. Only Channel Island NINOs issued prior to 1975 are validated, and recognised for UK use by HMRC.[17]

text: Use for tax purposes[edit]

text: The National Insurance number is used as a reference number in the Pay As You Earn system, and also by the self-employed. It is also used in applications for Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), to check that an individual has opened only one ISA in a tax year.

text: However, the NI number is not used universally as a tax identification number. Taxpayers who need to file a tax return are given a different number, a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR), which is used as a reference number in the self-assessment tax system.[18]

text: Use for identification[edit]

text: NI numbers are sometimes used for identification purposes in other contexts which have nothing to do with their original National Insurance purpose – such as forming part of evidence of right to work in the UK.[19] The NI card, however, is not proof of identity.


document_title: Cecil Hotel (Los Angeles)

question_text: what two serial killers lived at the cecil hotel

text: Cecil Hotel (Los Angeles)

text: History[edit]

text: The Cecil was constructed in 1924 by hotelier William Banks Hanner, as a destination for business travelers and tourists. Designed by Loy Lester Smith in the Beaux Arts style, the hotel cost $1 million to complete and boasted an opulent marble lobby with stained-glass windows, potted palms and alabaster statuary. Hanner had invested confidently in the enterprise, in the knowledge that several similar hotels had been established elsewhere downtown, but within five years of its opening, the United States sank into the Great Depression. Though the hotel flourished as a fashionable destination through the 1940s, the decades beyond saw the hotel decline, as the nearby area known as Skid Row became increasingly populated with transients.[2] As many as 10,000 homeless people lived within a four-mile radius. By the 1950s the hotel had gained a reputation as a residence for transients.[3] A portion of the hotel was refurbished in 2007 after new owners took over.

text: In 2011 the Cecil Hotel was rebranded as "Stay on Main," complete with a new website — its old website, thececilhotel.com, expired at the end of 2013.[4]

text: The hotel was sold in 2014 to New York City hotelier Richard Born for $30 million [5], and another New York-based firm, Simon Baron Development, acquired a 99-year ground lease on the property. Matt Baron, president of Simon Baron, said he was committed to the preservation of architecturally or historically significant components such as the hotel's grand lobby, but that his company planned to completely redevelop the interior and fix the "hodgepodge" work that had been done in more recent years.[6] Beyond renovating rooms, the developer also plans a rooftop pool, gym and lounge. Construction is projected to be complete by 2019.[2]

text: In February 2017 the Los Angeles City Council voted to deem the Cecil an historic-cultural monument, because it is representative of an early 20th century American hotel, and because of the historic significance of its architect's body of work.[7]

text: Reputation for violence and suicide[edit]

text: As the area where the Cecil Hotel is located began to decline, suicides and other violent deaths on the premises became more frequent. The first documented suicide at the Cecil was reported in 1931 when a guest named W.K. Norton died in his room after taking poison capsules. [8] Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, more suicides at the Cecil occurred. By the 1960s, longtime residents had begun to call the Cecil "The Suicide."[8]

text: In addition to suicides, the Cecil's history includes other kinds of violence and salacious happenings. It also became a notorious rendezvous spot for adulterous couples, drug activity and prostitution.[8] In 1947 Elizabeth Short, dubbed by the media as the Black Dahlia, was rumored to have been spotted drinking at the Cecil's bar in the days before her notorious and, to date, unsolved murder.[8]

text: In 1964 a retired telephone operator named "Pigeon Goldie" Osgood, who had been a well known and well liked long-term resident at the hotel, was found dead in her room. She had been raped, stabbed and beaten, and her room ransacked. A man named Jacques B. Ehlinger was charged with Osgood's murder, but he was later cleared; her death remains unsolved.

text: Perhaps most infamously, in the 1980s the hotel was rumored to be the residence of serial killer Richard Ramirez, nicknamed the "Night Stalker." Ramirez had been a regular presence on the skid row area of Los Angeles, but, according to a hotel clerk who claims to have spoken to him, is rumored to have stayed at the Cecil for a few weeks.[8] Ramirez may have engaged in part of his killing spree while staying there.[9] Another serial killer, Austrian Jack Unterweger, stayed at the Cecil in 1991, possibly as an homage to Ramirez. While there, he strangled and killed at least three prostitutes, for which he was convicted in Austria. He hanged himself shortly after his conviction.[10]

text: In 2013 the Cecil (by then re-branded as the "Stay on Main") became the focus of renewed attention when surveillance footage of a young Canadian student, Elisa Lam, behaving erratically in the hotel's elevator went viral. The video depicts Lam repeatedly pressing the elevator's buttons, walking in and out of the elevator, and possibly attempting to hide from someone. It was recorded shortly before her disappearance; her naked body was subsequently discovered in a water supply cistern on the hotel roof, following complaints from residents of odd-tasting water and low pressure. Why and how she got into a cistern, which was atop the roof and could only be accessed by taking a stairway to the roof and then climbing a ladder to the tank's covered top, remain a mystery.[11] The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled her death accidental due to drowning, with bipolar disorder being a "significant" factor.[12]

text: Cultural references[edit]

text: On March 27, 1987, the band U2 performed an impromptu live concert on the rooftop of a one-storey building on the corner of 7th and Main in Downtown Los Angeles, next door to the Cecil Hotel. The performance, with the hotel featuring as a backdrop, was filmed and commercially released as a music video for the release of the band's song "Where the Streets Have No Name".[13]