An emergency special session is an unscheduled meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to make urgent recommendations on a particular issue. They are typically rare — a fact reflected in there being only 10 in the history of the United Nations. Most emergency special sessions run for a single "meeting", which itself can run over a number of days — the Tenth, however, is the only emergency special session to be resumed more than once (the Seventh emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly was resumed once), meaning that that Session has spanned across a number of "meetings".
The UN General Assembly's 'Uniting for Peace' resolution (A/RES/377 A) demands a majority—procedural—vote of the Security Council, or a request by a majority of UN Member states being received by the Secretary-General, for the convocation of an emergency special session, within 24 hours.
| Emergency special session | Topic | Convened by | Date | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | Suez Crisis | Security Council | 1–10 November 1956 | A/3354 |
| Second | Soviet invasion of Hungary (Hungarian Revolution) | Security Council | 4–10 November 1956 | A/3355 |
| Third | Lebanon crisis | Security Council | 8–21 August 1958 | A/3905 |
| Fourth | Congo Crisis | Security Council | 17–19 September 1960 | A/4510 |
| Fifth | Six-Day War | Soviet Union | 17 June-18 September 1967 | A/6798 |
| Sixth | Soviet invasion of Afghanistan | Security Council | 10–14 January 1980 | ES-6/1, 2 |
| Seventh | Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Senegal |
22–29 July 1980 |
ES-7/1, 2, 3 |
| Eighth | South African occupation of Namibia (South West Africa) | Zimbabwe | 3–14 September 1981 | ES-8/1, 2 |
| Ninth | Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights (Golan Heights Law) | Security Council | 29 January-5 February 1982 | ES-9/1 |
| Tenth | Israeli-Palestinian conflict (East Jerusalem and Israeli-occupied territories) | Qatar |
24–25 April 1997 |
ES-10/1, 2 |
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